Capture strategic alignment

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

Define 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.

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:

  1. Open the portfolio Strategy tab.

  2. Click Strategic Themes & Business Goals, and then use the following options to add strategic themes to your portfolio.

    If the portfolio has inherited strategic themes from its portfolio type, these strategic themes are also 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:

    1. Click + > Add From > Global Strategic Themes.

    2. 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.

    3. Select the target strategic themes and click Copy.

    For details about global strategic themes, see Create global strategic themes.

    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:

    1. Click + > Add From > Parent Portfolio's Strategic Themes.

    2. 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.

    3. Select the target strategic themes and click Copy.

    Add a new strategic theme in your portfolio

    To create a new strategic theme:

    1. Click + > Add New > Strategic Theme.

    2. Provide the name, status, owner, and description for the strategic theme.

    3. To help distinguish the strategic theme from others, select a color.

    4. Click Add to add the strategic theme, or Add & Another to add another strategic theme.

    5. 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:

  1. Open a portfolio and go to the Strategy tab.
  2. Click Strategic Themes & Business Goals and then click the target strategic theme link.
  3. In the portfolio strategic theme details page, make changes in the relevant fields.

  4. (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 will happen:

    • The current strategic theme is synchronized from the source.
    • For the portfolio contents that are aligned with this strategic theme, the strategic theme are synchronized in the content details page.

  5. (Optional) If you receive 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".

  6. Click Save.

Remove strategic themes

To remove a strategic theme from a portfolio:

  1. In the strategic themes list, select the desired item.
  2. Click the Remove button, and then click Yes in the confirmation dialog box.

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View strategic themes

You can view strategic themes either from the strategic themes list or from the Strategy Map tab.

From strategic themes list

The Strategy > Strategic Themes & Business Goals tab lists all the strategic themes of the current portfolio.

  • To view the details of a specific strategic theme, click the target strategic theme name link to open its details page.

    The strategic theme details page includes the following sections:

    Section Description
    General Displays the general information of strategic theme.
    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. Click the initiative name link to view its details. For details, see Align portfolio contents with strategic themes.
  • If a strategic theme has business goals related to it, an icon appears before the strategic theme name. Click the icon to view the related business goals, as well as the general information and performance of each business goal.

From strategy map

The Strategy > Strategy Map tab displays each strategic theme as a card and shows the current portfolio's strategic alignment with the global strategic themes, its parent portfolio, and its sub portfolios.

  • To view the details of a specific strategic theme, click the strategic theme card.

    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 sub portfolios, refer to the right part in the Horizontal structure or the bottom part in the Vertical structure.

    If a strategic theme is inherited by sub portfolios of the second or lower levels, an expand button () appears on the strategic theme card. You can click the expand button to see the strategic themes that are inherited by sub portfolios of all levels.

  • If a strategic theme has business goals related to it, the business goals are indicated by the bullets. The bullet colors indicate the status of the business goal. When there are more than two business goals related to a strategic theme, an ellipsis appears.

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Align portfolio contents 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 content. You can align a portfolio content with one strategic theme by filling the field with the strategic theme.

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See also: