The Initiative Workbook is a single page for working on an initiative stage by stage. For each stage of the initiative's stage gate process, it brings together the fields and items the team needs to complete, such as benefits, costs, RAID items, and tasks, in a layout set up for that type of initiative. Everyone working on initiatives of that type sees the same structure, and can do what each stage asks without moving around Amplify.
This article covers both the Advanced and Simple Models. The Initiative Workbook needs to be enabled for your organization, and then for the initiative's classification, or for the program — see Configuring the Initiative Workbook.
Opening the Initiative Workbook
Select Initiative Workbook at the top of the initiative's side menu.
What you can do depends on the Initiative Workbook permission in your team role — see Team Roles:
- Update — view the Initiative Workbook and enter data in it.
- Read — view the Initiative Workbook, without changing anything.
- None — no access. The Initiative Workbook isn't shown on the side menu.
The page
The Initiative Workbook has four parts, from top to bottom.
The stage gate
The initiative's stage gate is shown at the top of every stage. It stays at the top of the page, with the initiative's name, as you scroll. Click a stage on its progress graph to see that stage's part of the Initiative Workbook. For how the stage gate works, see Stage Gate Process.
Workflow
Below the stage gate, the Workflow section shows what the stage you're viewing needs before it's approved: its assessment criteria, its supporting documents, and its approval workflow. Click the Workflow heading to show or hide it. This is where you request approval for the stage — see Completing a stage.
The initiative's properties
The next section is shown on every stage, and holds fields from the initiative's Properties page. These fields aren't included in the snapshots of past stages — see Viewing past stages.
The stage
Below the properties is the section for the stage you're viewing. This is where the stage's work is done. Each stage has its own layout, and can only be edited while the initiative is in that stage.
Working in a stage
A stage is made up of widgets. Each widget is a field or item from the initiative, and changes made in a widget are made to the initiative itself — so a benefit updated here is updated everywhere it appears. Click Collapse All Headings to fold the stage's sections, so you can find your way around a long stage.
Which widgets appear depends on how the Initiative Workbook is set up. The most common are below.
Custom fields
Custom fields work as they do elsewhere in Amplify. Changing a field here changes it wherever else it appears on the initiative.
Where a Select Box has reference data, such as a region for each site, the reference data shows in its own read-only fields. They fill in as soon as an option is chosen in the Select Box, and can't be edited.
Benefits and costs
Each benefits or costs widget shows the initiative's items of one classification, with the series it's set up to show: plan or budget, actuals, and forecast. From the widget, you can:
- see the totals for each series;
- open a benefit or cost on its own page;
- move between the classification's items;
- create a new item of that classification.
Where the initiative has no items of the classification yet, only the option to create one is shown. Benefits may be called impacts, depending on your instance.
Totals widgets show the initiative's benefit or cost totals on their own: the total plan or budget, forecast, and actual, and a Variance between two of them. Which values are shown, and which two the variance compares, is set in the layout. Hover over Variance to see the two values it compares. The variance is the second value minus the first, shown as an amount and as a percentage of the first. A variance of zero or more is shown with a plus sign in green, and a negative variance with a minus sign in red. Where the first value is zero, only the amount is shown.
Ledgers
The benefit ledger, cost ledger, and measure ledger widgets show the initiative's benefits, costs, or measures in a ledger, and work like the ledgers on their registers. See Ledger View.
RAID items
The RAID items widget lists the initiative's RAID items, or those of one classification. Where it has none yet, only the option to create one is shown. See Managing RAID and Action Items.
Task list
The task list widget lists the initiative's tasks. Where it has none yet, only the option to create one is shown. See Managing Tasks.
Schedule
The schedule widget is a compact version of the initiative's schedule. See Schedules.
Completing a stage
Once the stage's work is done, request approval for the stage from the Workflow section. Check the stage's assessment criteria and any supporting documents it needs, then click Request Stage Approval.
Approval can also be requested from the stage gate on the initiative's Performance Dashboard, which works the same way — useful where the Initiative Workbook isn't the page you're working from.
Where required fields on the Initiative Workbook aren't filled in, the request isn't sent, and the fields are highlighted. For how approval works, see Stage Gate Process.
Viewing past stages
Click an approved stage on the stage gate to see its part of the Initiative Workbook. Past stages are read-only — a message says the values have been approved and can't be changed. What they show depends on whether a baseline was recorded for the stage:
- Where Record Baseline is turned on for the stage — a snapshot is taken when the stage is approved, so the stage shows the values as they were then, even if they've changed since. This makes it possible to see what was approved at each gate.
- Where it isn't — no snapshot is taken, so the stage shows the initiative's current values instead.
To change a stage that's been approved, the initiative has to be moved back to that stage, which restarts its approval — see Changing an Initiative's Stage. For Record Baseline, see Configuring the Stage Gate Process.
For setting up what appears on the Initiative Workbook, see Configuring the Initiative Workbook.