Prioritize contents within a scenario

Prioritizing the contents within a scenario helps your organization make optimal allocation of the budget and resources.

In this topic:

Overview

A prioritized list, with a higher ranking for the most important items, helps your organization to make optimal allocation of budget and resources. Organizing scenario content into a prioritized list may involve adding or removing items, and changing the rank order.

Back to top

Considerations before prioritizing

Consider the following factors before prioritizing the contents:

Factor	Description
The content's strategic theme or business objective	See Strategic planning.
The content's financial metrics, such as forecast cost and forecast benefit	Such financial data provides insight on demand versus capacity, and whether a content is worth investing. The Strategic Prioritization View provides quick access to the financial metrics in the content list table. To display the financial metrics you are concerned about: At the top-right corner of the content ranking table, click Choose columns. Select the desired columns to display.
Dependencies between contents	If a content is to be invested, its predecessor content is supposed to be invested too. For details, see View dependencies.

Back to top

Add contents to a scenario

When you create a what-if scenario for a portfolio, the entities that meet the following requirements are automatically included in the scenario:

• Have both start and end dates specified
• The time periods fall in the scenario's time range.

You can manually add other entities you want into the scenario.

To manually add contents to a scenario:

1. From the What-if Analysis page, click the scenario to open the details page.

2. Select a layout template with Board View, Gantt View, or Rank View.

   Tip: To add content to a scenario, you need a layout template with Gantt View, Board View, or Rank View component type. Predefined templates, Planning Board Quarterly View, Strategic Planning Gantt View, and Strategic Prioritization View have the required component type. Alternatively, you can include the required component type in your customized layout template.

3. Expand the Candidates pane on the right to display the portfolio entities that are not included in the corresponding scenario.

4. To add an entity to the scenario, from the Candidates pane, select the target one and drag it onto the Board, Gantt, or rank chart.

   The entity is displayed during the first time period within the scenario's time range.

5. To adjust the entity's duration:

   1. Select a layout template with Gantt View.
   2. Hover over the left or right end of the Gantt chart until the icon appears.

   3. Click and drag the icon to the desired time period on the timeline to adjust the entity's duration.

6. To reschedule the entity's period while maintaining its original duration:

   1. Select a layout template with Gantt View or Board View.
   2. Move the entity's Gantt chart or card to left or right to change the start and end periods.

7. To restore an entity back to the Candidates list:

   1. Click the entity, the Restore to Candidates button appears.
   2. Click Restore to Candidates.

8. Repeat these steps as necessary to add all the desired contents to the scenario.

9. (Optional and available in 24.2 and later versions) When adding content to a scenario and adjusting the content duration or period, a color change in the dependency icon indicates dependency violation. Hover over the icon to view the details and make necessary adjustments.

10. Click Save and Apply to apply the changes made to the scenario.

Back to top

Move contents out of a scenario

If you do not plan to start or continue a portfolio content, move the content out of the scenario. The budget and resources will not be allocated to it.

To move a content out of a scenario:

1. From the What-if Analysis page, click the scenario to open the details page.

2. At the top-right of the scenario details page, select a layout template with the Ranking View content view type.

   Tip: You can use the predefined Strategic Prioritization View layout template, which includes the Ranking View content view type. Alternatively, you can incorporate the Ranking View content view type into your customized layout template. For details, see Configure content view types in a template.

3. To move a content out of a scenario, from the content table, click the content and drag it below the content list table.

   A new table appears below the content table. It lists the moved-out contents.

4. To return content back to a scenario, from the moved-out content table, click the content and drag it back to the content table.

5. (Optional and available in 24.2 and later versions) When adjusting content within the scenario, a color change in the dependency icon indicates dependency violations. Hover over the icon to view details and make necessary adjustments.

6. To save the changes made to the scenario, click Save.

7. To discard the changes made to the scenario, click Restore.

Back to top

View dependencies

You should understand the dependencies between scenario content before prioritizing. If an item requires investment, its dependent item should be invested as well.

Overview of dependencies

An item in a scenario can have relationships with items in the same scenario. The relationships between the scenario content include the following:

• Informational. The two items are related to each other.
• Predecessor. Action is not allowed on one item until the referenced item is closed.
• Successor. Action is not allowed on a referenced item until the current item is closed.
• Finish/Finish predecessor. The two items must complete at the same time.

An item's relationships with other items are defined in the References section of the item. For details, see Add references to requests.

In 24.1 and earlier versions, all these relationships are considered dependencies in scenario. In 24.2 and later versions, only the Predecessor and Successor relationships are considered.

To view dependencies between scenario content:

1. Open the scenario details page and select a layout template with the Board View, Gantt View, or Ranking View content view type.

2. The actions to view dependencies vary based on the content view type of the scenario:

   Content view type	Details
   Board View Gantt View	Turn on the Dependencies switch. Dependency icon . If an item has dependent items, a Dependency icon appears on the item's Gantt or card. Clicking this icon opens the Dependency map, from which you can view dependency details. For details, see Dependency map. Blue lines with arrows (Available in 24.2 and later versions). Represent a dependency relationship, with the arrow pointing from the predecessor to the successor. Blue lines (Available in 24.1 and earlier versions). Represent a relationship between the connected scenario contents.
   Ranking View	See the following columns to learn about the dependencies of a scenario content: The Has Dependency column. Scenario content having dependent contents has a dependency icon in the Has Dependency column. Clicking this icon opens the Dependency map, from which you can view dependency details. For details, see Dependency map. The Predecessors column (available in 24.2 and later versions). Lists the dependent items of a scenario content. The Dependencies column (available in 24.1 and earlier versions). Lists the dependency items of a scenario content.

Back to top

Add dependencies

If you discover missing dependencies in scenario content, you can add them. You can add a dependency:

• From a project or proposal to a program, project, or proposal
• From a program to a project or proposal

The dependencies added represent a predecessor-successor relationship in 24.2 and later versions, and an informational relationship in 24.1 and earlier versions. For details, see References and relationships.

Add dependencies

The steps to add a new dependency vary depending on the scenario's content view type:

Content view type	Details
Board View	Turn on the Dependencies switch. The Add Dependency switch becomes available. Turn on the Add Dependency switch. Click the item for which to add a dependency. Its corresponding card is highlighted. Select a target item from within the same scenario to create a dependency. Their cards are linked by a dotted line. Available in 24.2 and later versions: an arrow indicates the relationship between a predecessor and a successor, pointing from the former to the latter. To remove a newly added dependency, click the dotted line and then click Restore. Click Save to save the changes to the scenario.
Gantt View	Turn on the Dependencies switch. The Add Dependency switch becomes available. Turn on the Add Dependency switch. Hover over a scenario content, a circle appears before or after its Gantt. Click and drag the circle to a target content in the same scenario to create a dependency. Their Gantts are linked by a dotted line. Available in 24.2 and later versions: an arrow indicates the relationship between a predecessor and a successor, pointing from the former to the latter. Note: If a content spans multiple time periods, the line connects the first card on the board. To remove a newly added dependency, click the dotted line, and then click Restore. Click Save to save the changes made to the scenario.
Ranking View	Locate the scenario content. Do the following: For 24.2 and later versions, double-click the Predecessors column and select one or more items as the predecessors for the current scenario content. For 24.1 and earlier versions, double-click the Dependency column and select one or more items as the dependency items for the current scenario content. To remove a newly added predecessor or dependency item: For 24.2 and later versions, double-click the Predecessors column and clear the check boxes of the predecessors to remove them. For 24.1 and earlier versions, double-click the Dependency column and clear the check boxes of the dependency items to remove them. Click Save to save the changes made to the scenario.

Apply new dependencies

You can apply the newly added dependencies to the scenario content.

To apply new dependencies:

1. Click Apply.

2. The Dependencies area on the Apply preview for scenario page displays the newly added dependencies.

3. Review the new dependencies and select the portfolio contents where you want to add the dependencies.

4. Click Apply.

Back to top

Assign priorities to contents

Contents in a scenario are by default listed in the alphabetical order of names.

To adjust the ranking of a scenario content:

1. Open the details page of a scenario and select a layout template with the Ranking View content view type.

2. In the content table, click the Rank column to make sure the contents are sorted by rank.

3. Drag and drop a scenario content to the target location in the table. The ranking of the content is updated.

4. (Optional and available in 24.2 and later versions) When adjusting the ranking, a color change in the dependency icon indicates dependency violations. Hover over the icon to view details and make necessary adjustments.

5. Click Save to save the changes.

Back to top

Next steps:

• Capacity planning
• View portfolio dependencies