Understanding Reporting Groups

Reporting groups are how a Simple Model program organizes its projects — for example, by region, business unit, or workstream. Each reporting group has a list of options, and every project is given one option from each group. Reporting groups are set up on each program, under its Configuration > Reporting Groups.

This article covers the Simple Model, and needs program administrator access to set up reporting groups.

How reporting groups work

• Every project has a value for each group. When a project is created, an option must be chosen for each of the program's reporting groups.
• Project items carry the same values. A project's benefits, costs, RAID items, and other items are tagged with its reporting group values, so they can be filtered and grouped the same way.
• The program can be browsed by reporting group. Choosing reporting group values filters the program to only show matching projects.
• Reporting groups decide who can work on projects. Teams can be given access to the projects with particular reporting group values — see Access through reporting groups.
• Status reports can be requested by reporting group. See Requesting Status Reports.

Reporting groups aren't hierarchical — each group is independent of the others. The program's hierarchy still shows projects nested under their reporting group values, in the order of the groups.

For example, a program with a Region group, with the options North and South, and a Workstream group, with the options HR, Finance, and IT, gives every project a region and a workstream.

Creating a reporting group

To create a reporting group:

1. Navigate to the program, then to Configuration > Reporting Groups.
2. Click Add New. The Reporting Group side sheet opens.
3. Enter a Name for the group, and choose its Colour.
4. Optionally, turn on Enable Request Status Reports to let this group request status reports from its projects, and choose an Approval Workflow for them.
5. Click Update. The group is added to the page.
6. Under Options, add each of the group's options, and enter its label. Every group needs at least one option.
7. Click Save.

To add another reporting group, click Add New again. Once saved, the groups appear on the form for creating a project, where an option is chosen from each.

Where the program already has projects, adding a reporting group gives every existing project, and its items, the group's first option. Put the options in the order you want before you save.

Editing a reporting group

To edit a reporting group, click the edit button next to the group's name. Its Reporting Group side sheet opens. Change its name, color, or status report settings, click Update, then click Save.

Changing the group's Approval Workflow resets the progress of its status reports already in progress. Amplify warns you how many will be reset before you save.

Adding options in bulk

Where you have a long list of options, such as in a spreadsheet, you can paste them in at once. To add options in bulk:

1. Copy the options from your spreadsheet, as a single column.
2. Click Bulk Add on the group. A text box opens.
3. Paste the options into the text box. Each line becomes a separate option.
4. Click Save.

Hover over Bulk Add to see these instructions as a tooltip.

Ordering groups and options

The order set here is the order the groups and their options appear in on the form for creating a project, and in the reports and filters that group by reporting group.

Reordering groups

Drag a group to a new position, and click Save.

Sorting options

To sort the options of a reporting group:

1. Click the sort icon at the right-hand end of the group's Options row. Click it again to switch between ascending and descending order.
2. Click Save.

To reorder options by hand, drag an option by the handle at the left of its card to a new position, and click Save.

The sort icon shows the order the group's options are in:

• Two stacked triangles — the options are in neither order. This is also shown where the group has fewer than two different labels.
• A single triangle pointing up — the options are in ascending order.
• A single triangle pointing down — the options are in descending order.

How sorting and reordering behave

• Each group shows its own icon, and sorting one group doesn't change another.
• Clicking the icon switches between ascending and descending only. It doesn't return to the two-triangle state.
• The icon is worked out from the options themselves, so a group typed in alphabetical order shows as ascending even though the icon was never used. Dragging an option, adding or bulk-adding options, and editing a label update the icon to match the resulting order. Deleting an option leaves the remaining order unchanged.
• Where a group has no options, the sort icon is shown but disabled. It becomes available once the group has two options with different labels.
• Options are sorted by the labels shown in the language you're working in. Numbers inside labels are compared by value, so Phase 2 comes before Phase 10. Upper and lower case and accents are ignored. Punctuation is counted. Leading and trailing spaces are ignored, and symbols come before digits, which come before letters in ascending order. Options sort in the same order as the options of a custom field with the same labels.
• Options added one at a time or with Bulk Add are placed at the end of the group, in the order entered.
• The most recent action, sorting or dragging, decides the saved order. Nothing is stored until you click Save. Click Reset Changes to restore the original order.
• Projects already assigned an option keep it when the options are sorted.
• Where you have changes that aren't saved, a warning is displayed at the top of the page. It clears when you save or reset.
• The hierarchy shows each project's reporting group value in the order the projects load, not in the order set here.

No option is selected by default on the form for creating a project, whatever order the options are in. Where you're browsing the program filtered by reporting group, the form starts with the values you're filtered to.

Deleting groups and options

To delete a reporting group:

1. Click the edit button next to the group's name. Its Reporting Group side sheet opens.
2. Click Delete, and confirm.
3. Click Save.

The group, its options, and every project's and item's value for it are deleted, and the group's column is removed from the program's default register views.

To delete an option, click into the option, click its delete button, and confirm. Then click Save. When the option is deleted:

• Projects and items with that option are left without a value for the group.
• The option is removed from any assignment rules and status report request criteria that used it.

Access through reporting groups

Reporting groups decide which projects people can work on, through the teams they belong to:

• The Program team — members can work with projects of every reporting group value, with the permissions of their role.
• The program's owner — has access to projects of every reporting group value.
• Teams with assignment rules — a team assigned through the program's reporting groups is added to every project with the matching values. Its members get the permissions of their role in that team on those projects, and only those projects. See Defining Assignment Rules.
• Everyone else who can view a project — sees the project's reporting group values, but can't change them.

What this means when creating or editing a project:

• The form only offers the reporting group values you have access to. Values you can see, but your role doesn't let you update, are shown but can't be chosen.
• To create a project, your role — on the Program team, or on a team with assignment rules — needs full permissions over projects, including creating, updating, archiving, restoring, and deleting them.
• Changing a project's reporting group values can change which teams are assigned to it. Where you change a project to values outside your team's assignment rules, your team is no longer assigned, and you lose your access through it.

For setting up teams and roles, see Team Roles. For setting up the rest of a program, see Configuring a Program.