Scenario Planning

A scenario is a possible selection of the initiatives beneath an initiative, such as which projects a portfolio should fund, tested against criteria like budget, return, risk, and alignment. Scenarios are created and opened from the Scenarios section of an initiative's Properties page — in the Simple Model, the program's. Build several, compare them side by side, recommend the best, and activate it to put its selection and start dates into effect.

This article covers both the Advanced and Simple Models. Scenarios need to be enabled first: in the Advanced Model, on the initiative classification's Scenarios tab, which also sets which classifications can be selected, under Prioritisation Items — see Configuring Initiative Classifications (Advanced Model). In the Simple Model, turn on Enable Scenarios under the program's Configuration > Features — see Program Features.

What you can do depends on the Scenarios permission in your team role: Read to view scenarios, or Full to create, change, and archive them. See Team Role Permissions.

How scenarios work

• What's in a scenario — the initiatives beneath this one, of the classifications set up for prioritization, that start and end within the scenario's range. You choose which of them the scenario selects.
• Criteria — widgets that chart the selection, score initiatives against each other, or limit what can be selected, such as a budget it mustn't exceed.
• Comparing — scenarios are compared side by side, and one can be recommended.
• Activating — puts one scenario into effect: its selected initiatives move to the start dates set in the scenario, and, if you choose, the initiatives it leaves out are archived.

Scenarios don't change any initiative until one is activated.

The Scenarios section

The Scenarios section of the Properties page lists the initiative's scenarios, with each one's ID and Name, and whether it's Recommended or Active. From it, you can:

• Open a scenario, by clicking its name, or in a new tab, from its Actions menu.
• Create a scenario, with New Scenario — see Creating a scenario.
• Compare the initiative's scenarios, with Compare — see Comparing scenarios.
• Archive a scenario you no longer need, from its Actions menu.

Check Include Archived to see archived scenarios. An archived scenario can be restored, or deleted for good, from its Actions menu — only administrators can do this. Delete Archived deletes all of them at once, and needs permission to update the initiative.

Scenarios can't be created or changed while reporting group filters are applied.

Creating a scenario

To create a scenario:

1. In the Scenarios section, click New Scenario. A small window opens.
2. Enter a Name.
3. Set the Range — the financial years the scenario covers. See Range.
4. To include only initiatives at particular stages, turn on Filter by Process Stage, and choose the stages.
5. Optionally, enter a Description.
6. Click Create. The scenario opens, with Total Budget and the available profile charts as its starting criteria.

The scenario page

A scenario has a toolbar, a row of criteria widgets, and a table of the initiatives it can select from.

• Add Criteria... — adds criteria widgets. See Choosing criteria.
• Automatic Selection — selects initiatives for you. See Selecting initiatives.
• Range — the financial years the scenario covers. See Range.
• Tree View — shows the table as a hierarchy.
• Edit — changes the scenario's name, description, range, and stage filter, in the Edit Scenario window.
• The scenario selector — switches to another of the initiative's scenarios.
• The save button — saves your changes. It's only available once something has changed, and you'll be warned if you leave with unsaved changes.
• Compare this Scenario — opens the comparison. See Comparing scenarios.

Range

The range is a slider across the financial years the initiative spans. Drag its ends to choose the years, or use a preset:

• All — every financial year.
• This FY — the current financial year only.
• Look Ahead — from the current financial year to the last. It isn't offered where the current financial year is the first.

Only initiatives that start and end within the range are included. A message shows how many have been left out.

Choosing criteria

Criteria are what the selection is judged on. Click Add Criteria... to add them; each appears as a widget above the table, and as a column in it. Each criterion does one or more of three things:

• Charts the selection — shows how the selected initiatives add up, such as their budget each year. A chart doesn't change which initiatives are recommended.
• Scores initiatives — ranks the initiatives against each other on that criterion, such as their return on investment. Scores only count where the criterion has a Weight — see How initiatives are scored.
• Limits the selection — sets a constraint the selection must stay within, such as a maximum budget — see Setting limits.

What each criterion does

Criteria are grouped in Add Criteria... as they are here. The names in brackets are filled in with your own goals, units, resource types, fields, or cost categories.

• Standard Criteria
  • Total Budget — scores initiatives by their budget, where lower is better, and can limit the selection to a maximum total budget.
  • Total Budget Profile and Total Return Profile — chart the selection's budget, and its planned return, each year.
  • ROI — scores initiatives by their return on investment.
  • [Unit]: Total Return — scores initiatives by their total planned return in that unit, such as a currency.
  • Risk Heatmap and Risk vs. Alignment — chart the selection's risks, and each initiative's risk against its alignment.
• Goals
  • [Goal]: Profile — charts the selection's planned contribution to the goal each year, against its target.
  • [Goal]: Target vs. Plan — scores initiatives by how much they contribute to the goal by its target year. Offered where the goal has a target.
• Resources
  • [Resource]: Planned Capacity vs. Demand Profile and [Resource]: Total Planned Capacity vs. Total Demand — chart the selection's demand for a resource type against the planned capacity, and limit the selection so demand doesn't exceed capacity. Set how many months ahead they look with Resource Range Lookahead.
• Custom Fields — offered for custom fields used as reporting groups.
  • A select box field — scores initiatives by the field's value.
  • [Field] vs. Alignment, for a calculated field — charts the field against each initiative's alignment, and scores initiatives by the field.
• Cost Category — offered where there's more than one cost category, such as Professional Fees.
  • [Category]: Budget — scores initiatives by their budget in the category, where lower is better.
  • [Category]: Budget Profile — charts the selection's budget in the category each year.

Click a widget's delete button to remove it. Criteria in the same group, such as Total Budget and Total Budget Profile, share the same weight, polarity, and limit.

How initiatives are scored

Criteria that score initiatives have settings, opened from the widget:

• Polarity — whether Higher is better or Lower is better. Budgets are lower is better; return is higher is better.
• Weight — how much the criterion counts, compared with the others. A criterion with no weight doesn't count towards the score; every criterion starts with none.

For each weighted criterion, the best initiative scores 100, and the others are scored relative to it. The scores are multiplied by their weights and added up, giving each initiative's Alignment: the best initiative overall has an alignment of 100. The Rank column orders initiatives by alignment.

For example, with ROI at weight 2 and Total Budget at weight 1, an initiative with a high return counts for more than one with a low budget.

Setting limits

A limit keeps the selection within what's available:

• Total Budget — enter the most the selection can spend, under Constraint on the widget. Leave it empty for no limit.
• Resource criteria — limit the selection automatically, so its demand for the resource type stays within the planned capacity, period by period.

Selecting initiatives

The table lists the initiatives the scenario can select from. Check an initiative to select it. Use Columns to show or hide columns, such as:

• Affordable — whether there's still room for the initiative within the scenario's limits, given what's already selected. Where there are no limits, every initiative is affordable.
• Recommended — whether Automatic Selection would select the initiative.
• Rank and Alignment — how the initiative scores against the weighted criteria.
• Scenario Start Date — when the initiative would start in this scenario. Change it to test moving the initiative earlier or later; you'll be warned if the move conflicts with a dependency.

Automatic Selection

Turn on Automatic Selection to have Amplify choose the selection from the initiatives directly beneath this one:

1. Initiatives are put in order of their alignment — or, where no criterion is weighted, of their financial return.
2. Working down that order, each initiative is selected if it fits within every limit, and its budget or demand is counted against the limits.
3. Initiatives that would take the selection over a limit are left out.

Where no limit is set, every initiative is selected. While Automatic Selection is on, initiatives can't be selected by hand, and the selection updates as you change criteria. Turn it off to choose initiatives yourself. Save the scenario once you're done.

Comparing scenarios

Open Compare Scenarios with Compare, in the Scenarios section of the Properties page, or with Compare this Scenario on a scenario. It shows up to three of the initiative's scenarios side by side, with each one's criteria, so you can see which best fits your goals. Choose a different scenario in any slot from its selector.

For each scenario, you can:

• Edit — open the scenario to change it.
• Clone... — copy it, under a new name and description, to try a variation. The copy isn't recommended or active.
• Recommend... — mark it as the recommended scenario. Only one scenario of an initiative can be recommended; recommending another replaces it.
• Activate... — put it into effect, as described below.

Activating a scenario

Activating a scenario applies it to the initiatives themselves. Only one scenario of an initiative can be active; activating another deactivates it.

To activate a scenario:

1. On Compare Scenarios, click Activate... on the scenario.
2. To archive the initiatives the scenario doesn't select, check Archive all unselected Initiatives?. The number that will be archived is shown.
3. Click Yes, activate.

Selected initiatives that were archived by an earlier activation are restored. Where an initiative can't be moved to its scenario start date — because it has actuals recorded, uses shared measures, or its benefits' reporting cadence doesn't allow the move — the scenario isn't activated, and the initiatives are listed. Choose to clear the invalid dates, then activate again.

For the initiatives a scenario selects from, see Managing Initiatives.