Adopt and Optimize

Investment and Capacity Planning Adoption Pathway

3. Adopt and optimize

The five principal steps of investment and capacity planning

Audience	Finance Manager, Portfolio Manager, Portfolio Board, IT PMO
Section Objective	Understand and use investment and capacity planning to analyze and approve projects.

These steps represent the full usage of investment and capacity planning. However, not every step is required for it to be meaningful and beneficial. Some customers start with simply determining capacity and demand, then ranking and prioritizing investments without using the more advanced scenario analysis and reporting options. Detailed information for each step can be found in the expandable sections below.

Principle stakeholders

Inputs from all participants are required to enable data-driven investment decisions.

Determine capacity

In this guide:

**Process Steps for Creating a Planning Portfolio**
Step	Role	Description	Resources
Create a planning portfolio	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Create a new planning portfolio or review the planning portfolio that was shared with you. Key actions: Capacity Structure: Cost Center Capacity Level: Lowest level of the Cost Center Structure Select Capacity: Select at least one cost center. The budgets for these cost centers will be the capacity. Capacity Financial Model and Version: Select the newly created Cost Center financial model and version. Demand Structure: Work Demand Level: Work Select Demand: Leave the default option to pull in all work and projects based upon impact to selected capacity. Selecting Existing Portfolio will further limit the work based on impact to selected capacity and included in the selected portfolio. Demand Financial Model and Version: select either the forecast version, or a copy of the forecast version created by the administrator for the purpose of planning. The version selected here will be the source version, also known as the shared scenario. We recommend to use the Actual/Forecast version.	About Creating Planning Portfolios as a User Creating Planning Portfolios Planning Menu Basics Setting Up Investment and Capacity Planning as a User
Invite portfolio members	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Invite relevant collaborators to the planning portfolio.	Share and Manage Access to a Planning Portfolio
Review capacity (cost center) financial plans	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	The cost center financial plans were loaded directly from the resource information already in Planview Portfolios. To review the data, select the Analyze view, then on the Portfolio Target row select , then Open Financials, then select the cost center to open the financial plan.	Updating Capacity and Demand Data by Accessing the Financial Plan Loading, Scheduling, or Deleting Cost Center-Based Financial Plans Capacity Portfolio Manager Screen Basics

Identify demand

In this guide:

**Process Steps**
Step	Role	Description	Resources
Capture work financial demand	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	The demand data will pull from the work financial plans from both in-flight projects as well as new projects that are being considered for approval. The options to add data to these financial plans are to: Manually add the financial planning lines, then add data to the time periods. Add requirements or expenditures to the potential project, then perform a financial load.	Demand Portfolio Manager Screen Basics How to Load Data into a Work Financial Plan Editing a Financial Plan

Prioritize and rank

In this guide:

**Process Steps**
Step	Role	Description	Resources
Create a scenario	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Create a user-defined scenario so you can make edits and evaluate different investment decisions and approaches to balancing demand against capacity in a what-if environment without changing the shared scenario or updating real-time financial data.	Managing Investment and Capacity Planning Scenarios
Rank work/projects from 1 to n	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Rank investments automatically based on criteria and/or manually by the users of each scenario. Investments are displayed in ranked order within a scenario. If no ranking has been applied, investments are displayed alphabetically. If a scenario includes both ranked and unranked investments, unranked investments will display at the top in alphabetical order, and the ranked investments will display below in ascending rank order.	Rank View Ranking Investments Automatically Rank Investments Based on Criteria Dragging Investments to Rank Them Defining Threshold Lines for the Rank View
Analyze to move projects above/below the line and set investment approval status	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Analyze potential work or projects by moving them above or below the line to see the impact to capacity targets and budgets. The Analyze view is divided into two trays. The upper tray incudes projects with the Accept or Conditional status, while the lower tray includes projects in the Refuse or Analyze status. To change the status of the investment decision, you can either use the action menu to select a new status, or drag and drop the project row to be above or below the line.	Analyze View Updating Investment Approval Status and Priority Reviewing a Gantt Chart in Investment and Capacity Planning
Shift work/projects (optional)	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Shift project start dates, finish dates, and duration so they will fit within capacity constraints. The Shift view provides visibility into where demand exceeds capacity by period, as well as the ability to shift investments to fit within available capacity. After portfolio investments have been ranked and analyzed, date ranges of approved and conditionally-approved investments are further evaluated. Constraint limitations on specific resource types may be resolved by shifting investment dates, and investments below the line may be approved.	Shift View Data Display and Layout of the Shift View Shifting Investments to Resolve Capacity Issues
Balance the details (optional)	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Balance and model detailed changes to specific time periods. Information on the grid at the lowest level is editable when you are viewing a user-created scenario or the Shared Scenario if it is editable. Use the category menu to decide which information to view and the focus control option to organize the way the data is displayed in the hierarchy. The Balance view allows you to look at investments that have been accepted in the scenario, and the time-profiled impact of those investments against the capacity and budget targets.	Balance View Updating Capacity and Demand Data in Investment and Capacity Planning Updating Demand Data by Editing Cells Adding an Account Line with Attributes in Investment and Capacity Planning Changing Account Line Attributes in Investment and Capacity Planning

Model alternatives as scenarios

Scenarios represent a more advanced use of investment and capacity planning and allows you to model the impact of changes or different decisions to the portfolio (for example, changes to budgets or staffing).

There are two types of scenarios: the shared scenario and the what-if (or user-defined) scenario.

Recommendation: Use what-if scenarios to model changes to the portfolio

The key difference is that the shared scenario interacts with real-time financial data. Any financial plan updates made in the shared scenario will automatically update the relevant financial plan versions for the entities. However, rank and investment status changes will not be updated for the entities until the scenario is published.

What-if or user-defined scenarios are created as a copy of another scenario and therefore do not interact with real-time financial data. In these scenarios, financial plan updates and changes to rank and investment status will NOT be reflected in the entities until published.

It is recommended that what-if or user-defined scenarios are used to model changes and different decisions for the portfolio.

In this guide:

**Process Steps**
Step	Role	Description	Resources
Add a user-defined scenario to model different situations	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Add a user-defined scenario to model different delivery approaches. For example, flexing the budget or emphasizing work aligned to different business objectives. Adding a new scenario copies the investment approval status values, priority values, and financial-planning data from the selected scenario to the new scenario. You can then make changes and do what-if planning using the rank, analyze, shift, and pivot views.	Adding Investment and Capacity Planning Scenarios Refreshing an Investment and Capacity Planning Scenario Clearing Investment Decisions Compare Financial Data Across Scenarios for One Investment

Choose and publish a plan

In this guide:

**Process Steps**
Step	Role	Description	Resources
Evaluate and compare multiple scenarios	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Use analytics and visual impact analysis tiles to evaluate and compare multiple scenarios before deciding on the optimal plan.	Understanding Impact Analysis Report Tiles Create an Impact Analysis Report Tile Using Configurable Visualizations
Publish scenario	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Once the plan is agreed and published to demand, financial data as well as decision status and ranking order are published back to the demand entities. If the investment approvals have been made in the shared scenario then the Publish from the Shared Scenario transaction will make the decisions live. If the investment approvals have been made in another (not shared) scenario then the Publish from Scenario can be used to move the investment decisions to just the shared scenario or to the demand as well. In addition to investment approval decisions, any amendments to demand data of investments or the capacity/budget targets within the (non-shared) scenario will also be published live and will update the financial planning detail screens accordingly for the investments or capacity in question.	Publish in Investment and Capacity Planning Publishing a Scenario in Investment and Capacity Planning Publishing the Current Version of an Investment Plan as the Official Plan
Capture baseline	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager	Once published, capture a baseline of the approved plan. This may be completed as part of a lifecycle, or can be manually captured by making a copy of the demand financial plan and then locking it.
Communicate the published plan	Finance Manager/ Portfolio Manager/ PMO	Communicate the published plan to all relevant stakeholders.	Allowing Users to View Published Investment Ranking Details About Lifecycles and the Publication of the Shared Scenario