Drive strategic alignment

When strategic themes are defined at the portfolio level and aligned with portfolio contents, portfolio managers can track and drive the strategic alignment in the portfolio hierarchy.

View strategic alignment

Portfolio managers can track portfolio's strategic alignment from the Backlog tab and the strategic theme details page.

From Backlog tab

The Aligned Strategic Theme column in the Backlog tab displays the strategic themes with which each of the portfolio contents is aligned. It indicates whether your portfolio items are aligned with a higher-level or global strategy.

To display the Aligned Strategic Theme column, in the portfolio's Backlog tab, click the Choose columns button and select the Aligned Strategic Theme check box.

From strategic theme details page

The Aligned Portfolio Contents section in a strategic theme details page lists the initiatives that are directly aligned with the selected strategic theme, as well as the initiatives that align with the selected strategic theme's associated strategic theme. Clicking the initiative name link opens its details page.

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Drive strategic alignment

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

The Projected Forecast costs chart provides insights into the cost distribution associated with the selected strategic theme. 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 Projected Forecast costs chart:

  1. Open the portfolio Strategy tab and then click Strategic Themes & Business Goals.

  2. From the strategic themes list, click the target strategic theme to open the details page and navigate to the Cost and Resource Distribution section.

You can either focus solely on the distribution within the current portfolio, or across both the current portfolio and its sub portfolios at all levels. To make the selection, use the drop-down list located above the charts.

The chart helps you access the alignment of your budget with strategic themes. Ideally, the proportion of costs associated with each strategic theme should align with your strategy priorities. For instance, if more than half of the total forecast costs are allocated to a low-priority strategic theme, it may indicate the need to reconsider your content planning and make adjustments. In such cases, you may need to remove some contents serving the low-priority strategic theme and add some contents that serve high-priority strategic themes.

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