Create a what-if scenario

A what-if analysis scenario is a simulated situation that you use for experiment. In a what-if scenario, you can see what would happen if you invest a defined budget and resources on different portfolios of contents. This section describes how to create a what-if scenario for a portfolio.

Identify investment initiatives

Before using what-if analysis for your strategic planning, you should identify your investment initiatives and include them in a portfolio, including:

  1. Identify and collect all your investment initiatives, including in-flight projects, proposed projects, and completed projects for maintenance.
  2. Create projects for in-flight projects, proposals for proposed projects, and assets for maintenance projects in PPM.
  3. Create staffing profiles for these entities to track the resource demand, and create financial summaries to track the forecast cost.
  4. Create a portfolio to group the investment initiatives.

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Create a what-if scenario

Create a what-if scenario or copy from an existing one.

Prerequisites:

To create a what-if scenario for a portfolio:

  1. From the main menu, click Portfolio Management > What-if Analysis.
  2. In the What-if Analysis page, click Add.

  3. In the Add Scenario dialog box, complete the following fields:

    Field Details
    Name Provide a unique name for the scenario.
    Scenario Create for

    From the drop-down list, select the target portfolio for which you want to perform what-if analysis.

  4. Click Done.

    The system fetches data from the portfolio, and automatically syncs to the what-if scenario whenever the portfolio is updated. The following table describes how portfolio data is synced to the scenario.

    Data in scenario Details
    Contents

    Portfolio entities meeting 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. For details about scenario time range, see Select scenario time range.

    You can also manually add other entities from the portfolio into the scenario. For details, see Add contents to a scenario.

    Demanded budget

    Calculated from the financial summary of each content in the associated portfolio.

    Note: When calculating the costs of programs within a scenario, only the costs associated with the items under the program are included, the cost of the program itself is not included.

    Demanded resources Calculated from the staffing profile of each of the contents in the selected portfolio.

To copy a what-if scenario:

  1. On the What-if Analysis page, select the scenario to copy and click the Copy button .

  2. In the Copy Scenario dialog box, provide a name for the copied scenario and click Done.

    The copied scenario is created for the same portfolio, with all configurations duplicated. You can then make any necessary changes.

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Select scenario time range

When you create a new scenario, it reflects the data and projections for the current year. You can select a different time range for the scenario.

To select a time range for a scenario:

  1. Open the scenario details page.

  2. At the top right of the page, locate the Calendar button .

  3. Click the Calendar button, and select a start period and end period for the scenario.

    The scenario details page is automatically updated to display the data and projections for the selected time period.

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Switch scenario layout templates

You can use various layout templates for a scenario to perform what-if analysis from different perspectives.

To use a different layout template for scenario:

  1. Open the scenario details page. In the top-right corner of the page, you can find the layout template currently used by the scenario.

  2. Click the down arrow and select a different layout template.

    The changes made to a what-if scenario are retained when switching to another layout template.

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Manage scenarios

After setting up your scenario and before implementation, you can perform various actions during the planning stage, including taking a snapshot, exporting and sharing the scenario, assigning statues to represent different planning phases, and locking scenarios to prevent unintended changes.

To manage scenarios:

  1. Open a scenario details page.

  2. Perform the following actions:

    Action Details
    Take a snapshot

    Capture snapshots of a scenario at any time and use snapshots for comparison.

    1. On the scenario details page, click Take Snapshot.
    2. In the Create Snapshot page, provide a name for the snapshot.

    3. Click Done.

      The snapshot preserves a copy of the scenario. You can compare a snapshot with other snapshots or scenarios to see the impact of different invest plans so as to determine an optimal scenario. For details, see Compare scenarios.

    Share a scenario

    Share a what-if scenario with others for comparison and collaboration.

    1. On the scenario details page, click Share.

      When sharing a scenario, the following are shared:

      • Current content, scheduling, and capacity planning of the scenario.
      • Your personalized settings, including layout template, time range, displayed columns, filters, and whether dependencies are displayed.

    2. In the Share dialog box, click Copy link. A link to the scenario is copied to your clipboard.

    3. Share the link with others.

      To view the scenario you shared, users should have view access to the target portfolio of the scenario.

      If you edit the scenario after sharing it, the updates are not reflected in the shared version. Share the scenario again to inform others of your updates.

    Export a scenario

    Export a scenario as a Portable Network Graphics (.png) file.

    On the scenario details page , click Export.

    The entire content and graphs present within the scenario are exported to the image file.

    Note:

    • The export to image function is not supported on Safari because the component used to export the scenario to image is unsupported on Safari.
    • Excessive content and graphs in a scenario may cause export failure on the Firefox browser.
    Set a status for scenario

    Set a status for your scenario to track its progress or indicate its current stage in the decision-making process.

    1. In the Status field, choose the appropriate status from the available options.

      The options are configured by your admin using the WIA - Scenario Status validation. For details, see Configure statuses for scenarios.

    2. Click Save to apply the status.
    Lock a scenario

    After a scenario is finalized or approved, you can lock it to prevent unintended changes.

    Prerequisites:

    • To lock a scenario, you must have the Lock All Scenarios access grant.
    • To unlock a scenario, you must have the Unlock All Locked Scenarios access grant.

    To lock a scenario:

    1. From the What-if Analysis page, select the scenario you want to lock.

    2. Click the Lock button and then click Yes to confirm.

      When a scenario is locked:

      • It can be viewed, exported, or compared, but cannot be edited.

      • Updates in the associated portfolio are not synced to the scenario.

        If you have the Reload All Locked Scenarios access grant, you can sync the latest portfolio changes by clicking Reload in the scenario details.

    To unlock a scenario:

    • From the scenario details page, click the Unlock button .

See also: