Capture strategic alignment information

Portfolio managers define strategic themes at the portfolio level, and managers or submitters of portfolio initiatives align them with strategic themes.

In this topic:

Overview of strategic themes
Define strategic themes
View strategic themes
Align initiatives with strategic themes
Drive strategic alignment

Overview of strategic themes

Strategic themes are the pillars that support the portfolio strategy. They are the main, high-level strategic focus areas of your organization. Strategic themes connect the evolving enterprise business strategy to the portfolio vision which is then inherited by the portfolio contents.

To use strategic themes, you must enable this feature by setting the ENABLE_STRATEGIC_THEMES parameter to true.

Note: The term "Strategic Themes" may have a different name in your organization, for example "Business Outcomes". This occurs if the PPM admin renames “Strategic Themes” by updating the validation "PFM - Strategic Themes Labels". Changes take effect on every PPM menu and label.

Define strategic themes

This section describes how to define strategic themes for your portfolio.

Add strategic themes

You can add strategic themes to your portfolio by adding a global or parent portfolio's strategic theme, or by creating a new strategic theme in your portfolio.

To add strategic themes to a portfolio:

Open the portfolio Strategy tab.

For 10.0.4 and later versions, click Strategic Themes & Business Goals, and then use the following options to add strategic themes to your portfolio.

For 10.0.3 and earlier versions, go to the Strategic Themes section, and use following options to add strategic themes to your portfolio.

(Available in 10.0.2 and later versions) If the portfolio has inherited strategic themes from its portfolio type, these strategic themes are listed in this page. For details, see Set strategic themes and business goals for portfolio types.

Option	Description
Add a global strategic theme	To add a global strategic theme to your portfolio: For 10.0.4 and later versions, click + > Add From > Global Strategic Themes. For 10.0.3, click Add From > Global Strategic Themes. For 10.0.2 and earlier versions, click Copy From > Global Strategic Themes. All the active global strategic themes are listed for selection. Use the Search box at the upper-right corner if you know the name of the strategic theme or you want to search for one or more strategic themes that have a particular phrase or fragment of text in its name. Select the target strategic themes and click Copy. Manage global strategic themes Prerequisite: You must have the Edit All Portfolios access grant. From the PPM menu, select Open > Administration > Portfolio Management > Manage Global Strategic Themes. Click Add. Provide name, status, owner, and description for the global strategic theme. Select a color for the strategic theme. You can use the color to quickly distinguish between strategic themes. Click Add. To adjust the ranking of a strategic theme, make sure the strategic themes are sorted by the ranking order, and then drag and drop it to the target place.
Add a parent portfolio's strategic theme	Available only when your portfolio has a parent portfolio. To add a parent portfolio's strategic theme to your portfolio: For 10.0.4 and later versions, click + > Add From > Parent Portfolio's Strategic Themes. For 10.0.3, click Add From > Parent Portfolio's Strategic Themes. For 10.0.2 and earlier versions, click Copy From > Parent Portfolio's Strategic Themes. All the active strategic themes that are currently used by the parent portfolio are listed for selection. Use the Search box at the upper-right corner if you know the name of the strategic theme or you want to search for one or more strategic themes that have a particular phrase or fragment of text in its name. Select the target strategic themes and click Copy.
Add a new strategic theme in your portfolio	To create a new strategic theme: For 10.0.4 and later versions, click + > Add New > Strategic Theme. For 10.0.3, click Add. For 10.0.2 and earlier versions, click Create. Provide the name, status, owner, and description for the strategic theme. To help distinguish the strategic themes from others, select a color. For 10.0.3 and later versions, click Add to add the strategic theme, or Add & Another to continue adding another strategic theme. For 10.0.2 and earlier versions, click Create to create the strategic theme. To adjust the ranking of a strategic theme, make sure the strategic themes are sorted by the ranking order, and then drag and drop the strategic theme to the target place.

Option

Description

Add a global strategic theme

To add a global strategic theme to your portfolio:

For 10.0.4 and later versions, click + > Add From > Global Strategic Themes.

For 10.0.3, click Add From > Global Strategic Themes.

For 10.0.2 and earlier versions, click Copy From > Global Strategic Themes.
All the active global strategic themes are listed for selection.

Use the Search box at the upper-right corner if you know the name of the strategic theme or you want to search for one or more strategic themes that have a particular phrase or fragment of text in its name.
Select the target strategic themes and click Copy.

Add a parent portfolio's strategic theme

Available only when your portfolio has a parent portfolio.

To add a parent portfolio's strategic theme to your portfolio:

For 10.0.4 and later versions, click + > Add From > Parent Portfolio's Strategic Themes.

For 10.0.3, click Add From > Parent Portfolio's Strategic Themes.

For 10.0.2 and earlier versions, click Copy From > Parent Portfolio's Strategic Themes.
All the active strategic themes that are currently used by the parent portfolio are listed for selection.

Use the Search box at the upper-right corner if you know the name of the strategic theme or you want to search for one or more strategic themes that have a particular phrase or fragment of text in its name.
Select the target strategic themes and click Copy.

Add a new strategic theme in your portfolio

To create a new strategic theme:

For 10.0.4 and later versions, click + > Add New > Strategic Theme.

For 10.0.3, click Add.

For 10.0.2 and earlier versions, click Create.
Provide the name, status, owner, and description for the strategic theme.
To help distinguish the strategic themes from others, select a color.
For 10.0.3 and later versions, click Add to add the strategic theme, or Add & Another to continue adding another strategic theme.

For 10.0.2 and earlier versions, click Create to create the strategic theme.
To adjust the ranking of a strategic theme, make sure the strategic themes are sorted by the ranking order, and then drag and drop the strategic theme to the target place.

Edit strategic themes

To edit a strategic theme:

Open a portfolio and go to the Strategy tab.
For 10.0.4 and later versions, click Strategic Themes & Business Goals and then click the target strategic theme link.

For 10.0.3 and earlier version, in the Strategic Themes section, click the target strategic theme link.
In the strategic theme details page, make the changes in the relevant fields.
(Optional) Sync strategic theme from its source. When the strategic theme is out of sync with the source, the Sync from Source option becomes enabled.

When you click Sync from Source, the following happens:
- The current strategic theme is synchronized from the source.
- For the portfolio contents aligned with this strategic theme, the strategic theme are synchronized in the content details page.
(Optional) If you find the following message, it means the strategic theme is deleted from the source or the current portfolio is no longer the subportfolio of the source. You can click the link in the message to update the source of the strategic theme to "This portfolio".
Click Save.

Remove a strategic theme

To remove a strategic theme:

In the strategic themes list, select the target strategic theme.
Click and then click Yes to confirm.

View strategic themes

You can view strategic themes to track their progress and performance.

For 10.0.4 and later versions

From	Details
Strategic themes list	The strategic themes list provides the following information: The name, status, rank and owner of each strategic theme. If a strategic theme has business goals related to it, an icon appears. Click to view the related business goals, as well as the general information and performance of each business goal. To open the strategic themes list, at the top of the Strategy tab, click Strategic Themes & Business Goals.
Strategic theme details page	The strategic theme details page lets you drill down into the details of a specific strategic theme. To open a strategic theme's details page: At the top of the Strategy tab, click Strategic Themes & Business Goals. Click the target strategic theme name link to open its details page. The strategic theme details page includes the following sections: General. Displays the general information of strategic theme. Strategy in Portfolio. Displays the strategic theme ratio in terms of costs and resources. For details, see Drive strategic alignment. Business Goals. Lists the business goals that are related to the strategic theme, as well as the general information and performance of each business goal. Linked to Items. Lists the initiatives that are aligned with the strategic theme. Clicking the initiative name link opens its details page. For details, see Align initiatives with strategic themes.
Strategy Map	The Strategy Map shows a portfolio's strategic alignment with global strategic themes, its parent portfolio, and subportfolios. To view the strategy map, at the top of the Strategy tab, click Strategy Map. You can display the strategy map in the Horizontal structure or the Vertical structure . To view the details of a specific strategic theme, click the strategic theme card. Note: Only the current portfolio's strategic themes are clickable. To view the source strategic themes from which the current portfolio's strategic themes are copied, refer to the left part in the Horizontal structure or the top part in the Vertical structure. To view the strategic themes that are inherited by the immediate subportfolios, refer to the right part in the Horizontal structure or the bottom part in the Vertical structure. If a strategic theme is inherited by the next levels of the subportfolios of the current portfolio, an expand button () appears on the strategic theme card. You can click the expand button to see the strategic themes that are inherited by all the levels of the subportfolios. To view the business goals that are related a strategic theme, refer to the strategic theme card. When there are more than two business goals related to a strategic theme, an ellipsis appears.

For PPM 10.0-10.0.3

Column	Description
Name	The name of the strategic theme. You can click the name link to go to the strategic theme details page.
Status	The status of the strategic theme.
Source	The source of the strategic theme. Global Strategic Theme: the strategic theme is copied from a global strategic theme. Parent Portfolio: the strategic theme is copied from the parent portfolio's strategic theme. This Portfolio: the strategic theme is created in this portfolio.
In Sync with Source	Whether the strategic theme in this portfolio is in sync with the source. : The strategic theme is in sync with the source. : The strategic theme is out of sync with the source. Hover over the icon to learn which attributes are out of sync. You can either keep the differences or update the values to be in sync with the source. To sync from the source, see Edit strategic themes. : The strategic theme is deleted from the source or the current portfolio is no longer the subportfolio of the source. You can either keep as it is or update the source to "This portfolio". For details, see Edit strategic themes.
Owner	Users that are responsible for the strategic theme.
Rank	When you add a strategic theme, it is by default given the lowest rank (with the biggest rank value). To adjust the rank of a theme, drag and drop it to the desired row.
Description	More detailed information about the strategic theme.

Align initiatives with strategic themes

Once strategic themes are defined in the portfolio level, the Strategic Theme field is available in the Strategy section of the portfolio initiatives. You can align a portfolio initiative with one strategic theme by filling the field with the strategic theme.

Drive strategic alignment

When portfolio initiatives are aligned with strategic themes, their forecast costs and resource demands are accordingly grouped by strategic themes.

The Forecast costs and Resources demand charts in the strategic theme details page demonstrate the strategic theme ratio in terms of costs and resources. You can refer to them regularly to see whether your portfolio is working for the right things in the portfolio planning and monitoring phases.

To view the Forecast costs and Resources demand charts:

Open the portfolio Strategy tab and then click Strategic Themes & Business Goals.
From the strategic themes list, click the target strategic theme to open the details page.

You can find the Forecast costs and Resources demand charts in the Strategy in Portfolio section.

Note: In 10.0.3 and earlier versions, these two charts are named Forecast costs per Strategic Theme and Resources demand per Strategic Theme respectively, and are located in the Strategic Themes section of the portfolio Strategy tab.

For details, see Strategic alignment.