Define and track business value

Business value is embodied by business goals and KPIs. Business goals are actionable and measurable items to actualize the portfolio strategic themes. They are measured and evaluated against KPIs.

Add business goals

You can add up to 50 business goals to a portfolio.

To add a business goal:

  1. Open the portfolio Strategy tab.

  2. Click Strategic Themes & Business Goals, and click Add + > Add New > Business Goal.

    If your portfolio has inherited business goals from its portfolio type, these business goals are listed in this page, grouped by the strategic themes with which the business goals are aligned.

  3. In the Add Business Goal page, complete the business goal general information.

    Field (*Required) Description
    *Name

    What the business goal is intended to achieve.
    Strategic Theme

    Select the strategic theme the business goal serves. Each business goal can be aligned with only one strategic theme.

    When aligned with a strategic themes, business goals are grouped by strategic themes.

    *Status

    Newly created business goal are in Not Started status by default. Change the status according to the business goal's performance against its KPI.

    • Not Started. Business goals that are not ready to be tracked.
    • On Track. Business goals that are continuously approaching the targets.
    • At Risk. Business goals may miss the targets
    • Achieved. The target value was achieved by the target date.
    • Missed. The target value was not achieved by the target date.
    • Abandoned. Business goals are not in use.
    Parent

    Available only when the current portfolio has a parent portfolio.

    To align a business goal with a parent portfolio's associated business goal, from the drop-down list, select a parent for the business goal. The KPI related to the parent business goal is inherited by the business goal and cannot be edited. KPI values added to the current business goal are rolled up to the parent business goal.
    Start Date When to start tracking the business goal.
    Owner

    Users that are responsible for the business goal. Owners could be managers of any portfolio.
    Target

    The target the business goal is intended to achieve. It can be either of the following:

    • Composed of a target value (aim at xxx) and a target date (by xxx), meaning a goal to be reached before the end of the date.

    • An optimized target, which does not require a fixed value or a fixed date.

      If the business goal is aimed for a higher value (for example, revenue), its target is the higher the better. If the business goal is aimed for a lower value (for example, cost), its target is the lower the better.
    Description More detailed information about the business goal.
  4. In the KPI section, relate the business goal to a KPI to evaluate the business goal. For details, see Relate a business goal to a KPI.
  5. Click Add to add the business goal or Add & Another to continue adding another.

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Relate a business goal to a KPI

To evaluate a business goal, you first relate it to a KPI. You can relate the business goal to a shared KPI or a private KPI. One business goal can be related to one KPI only.

    Note:
  • We recommend you relate the business goal to an active KPI, as draft KPIs may not be updated regularly.
  • If your business goal is related to a parent business goal, the KPI related to the parent business goal is inherited by the business goal and cannot be edited.

Relate a business goal to a KPI

Relate a business goal to a shared or private KPI. You can also relate the business goal to a different KPI.

Action Details
Relate a business goal to a shared KPI

To relate a business goal to a shared KPI:

  1. In the KPI section, select the Shared KPI option.

  2. From the drop-down list, select the target shared KPI. For details about shared KPIs, see Manage shared KPIs.

    If you know the KPI name, you can use the Search box to search for the target KPI by name.

Relate a business goal to a private KPI

To relate a business goal to a KPI that can be used by only the current business goal:

  1. In the KPI section, select the Private KPI option.

  2. Complete the Type and Optimization Direction fields for the private KPI. For descriptions about these two fields, see KPI information.
Relate a business goal to a different KPI

To relate a business goal to a different KPI:

  1. In the KPI section, click the Edit button.
  2. Select a different shared KPI or create a private KPI to relate to the business goal.

Manage shared KPIs

A shared KPI can be used by all portfolio business goals.

To create a shared KPI:

  1. From the main menu, select Portfolio & Strategy > Portfolio Management.

  2. In the Shared KPIs Management page, click +Add.

  3. In the Add Shared KPI window, complete the shared KPI information as described in the table below:

    Field (*Required) Description
    *Name What the KPI measures. For example, number of reported S1 defects, average time to solve customer inquiries.
    *Type
    • Money. The KPI measures monetary metrics, such as revenue, cost, and budget.
    • Number. The KPI measures a numerical amount.
    • Percentage. The KPI measures rate, such as increase rate, complete rate, and failure rate.

    You cannot change the type after the KPI is created.
    *Status
    • Draft. KPI is in draft status when it is created. It is considered as "not ready to use" and the value is not updated on a regular basis.

    • Active. KPI is in use and is updated on a regular basis.

    • Retired. KPI is not in use.
    *Optimization Direction
    • Maximize. A higher KPI value means better performance.
    • Minimize. A lower KPI value means better performance.
    Description More information about the KPI.

  4. Click Add to add the shared KPI or Add & Another to continue adding another.

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Enter KPI actual values

You enter KPI actual values for a business goal regularly to track the performance of the business goal.

For example, if your portfolio has a business goal "Reach 20M revenue by the end of Q1 2020", you may want to record the actual revenue at the end of each month for the past periods.

If the business goal is measured by a private KPI

To enter actual values for a private KPI:

  1. Open the business goal details page.

  2. In the KPI section, click the Add button beside Value History.

    Tip: If the Value History section is not available, click the Show value history check box to display the section.

  3. In the Add Value window, enter the actual value and date.
  4. Click Add to add the value or Add & Another to continue adding another value.

If the business goal is measured by a shared KPI

To enter actual values for a shared KPI:

  1. From main menu, select Portfolio & Strategy > Portfolio Management.

  2. At the upper-right of the Portfolio Management page, click Shared KPIs Management.
  3. Click the target KPI link.
  4. In the KPI details page, Value section, click the Add + button beside Value History.
  5. In the Add Value window, enter the actual value and date.
  6. Click Add to add the value or Add & Another to continue adding another value.

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Track business goal performance

You track the performance of business goals to see whether they are going in the right direction, and to forecast whether you can achieve the goals by the target dates.

You can view the business goal performance from either the business goals list, or the business goal details page.

From the business goals list

To view business performance from the business goals list, on the portfolio Strategy tab, click Strategic Themes & Business Goals.

All of the portfolio's business goals are grouped by the strategic themes with which the business goals are aligned. Business goals that are not aligned with any strategic theme are listed under the <No strategic theme> group.

The business goals list provides you with the following information:

Field Description
Name

The name link of the business goal. You can click the name link to open the business goal details page.

Status

The status of the business goal, which includes the following information:

  • The current status of the business goal.
  • The latest KPI value for the business goal.
  • / The increased or decreased value as compared with the previous KPI value.
  • The target of the business goal. If the target is a value, the value and the target date are displayed.
Progress

The performance of the business goal during the past periods, based on the KPI values.

The chart displays all the actual KPI values entered for the past periods. If there are more than seven KPI values, only the last seven values are displayed.

Owner The owner of the business goal.
Contributors

The number of initiatives that have added impacts on the business goal's related KPI.

If the business goal has child business goals, it also includes the initiatives that have added impacts on the KPIs related to those child business goals.

You can view which initiatives have added KPI impacts from the business goal details page. For details, see View KPI contributors.

From the business goal's details page

To view the business goal performance from the business goal's details page:

  1. In the portfolio Strategy tab, click Strategic Themes & Business Goals.

  2. Click a business goal to open its details page and then go to the KPI section.

The KPI section provides the following KPI charts for you to track the performance of the business goal:

Chart Description

KPI actual value

The KPI actual value chart illustrates how the business goal performs in the past periods, based on the actual KPI values. In this chart you can:

  • Select what values to display
  • Filter KPI values
  • Show KPI value history

To view the KPI actual value chart, from the drop-down list in the upper-right corner of the KPI section, select Actual.

KPI forecasting

The KPI forecasting chart helps you make reasonable forecasting about business value. It provides the following information:

  • How the portfolio business goal performs in the past periods, based on the actual KPI values.

  • How it is forecasted to develop, based on the initiatives' KPI impacts.

    • If you click on a legend color at the bottom of a chart, you remove the initiative KPI impact value from the chart. Clicking the legend color again adds the data back.

To view the KPI forecasting chart, from the drop-down list in the upper-right corner of the KPI section, select Forecast.

Note: The KPI forecasting chart is generated only when there are actual KPI values entered for the current date or a date earlier than the current date.

View KPI contributors

To view which initiatives have added impacts on a KPI related to a business goal, from the business goal details page, click the Linked to Items section.

If a business goal has child business goals, this section also includes the initiatives that have added impacts on the KPIs related to those child business goals.

  • To view the impact value an initiative has added on the KPI, hover over the Impact Values column of the initiative.
  • To view the initiative details, click the initiative name link to open its details page.

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See also: