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Managing Measures

A measure is a value tracked over time — hours spent on a process, customers served, a conversion rate — that a benefit is calculated from. Each measure has a plan for its value over time, and where enabled, actuals and a forecast that track how it's going. Measures are created on initiatives and listed on each initiative's Measures Register.

Measures are used by benefits with a Benefit Formula, which combines one or more measures to calculate the benefit's value. Measures are available in the Advanced Model only. Where a benefit doesn't use a Benefit Formula, its measure is created for it automatically and you record values on the benefit itself — see Managing Benefits.

Before measures of a given type can be created, an administrator needs to configure and enable the relevant classification — see Configuring Measure Classifications (Advanced Model).

Initiative and enterprise measures

A measure belongs either to one initiative, or to your whole organization. Which one you need depends on who else uses the value, so decide before you create it.

  • Initiative measure — belongs to one initiative, and can only be used by benefits under it. Use it for a value that's specific to that piece of work, such as the hours a team spends on the process the initiative is changing. Anyone who can edit the initiative's benefits can edit it.
  • Enterprise measure — belongs to the whole organization, and can be used by any benefit. Use it for a value everyone should use the same way, such as an hourly labor rate or a currency conversion rate. It's kept up to date in one place, and every benefit using it recalculates when it changes. Only the measure's owner can edit it, so one person stays responsible for keeping it accurate. Enterprise measures are labeled Shared in Amplify.
The types of measure in Amplify.
The types of measure in Amplify.

Creating a measure

Create an initiative measure from the initiative it belongs to. Create an enterprise measure from the top level of your hierarchy. To create a measure:

  1. Navigate to the initiative, or the top level.
  2. Click the Create menu.
  3. Select Measure.
    Selecting Measure from the Create menu.
    Selecting Measure from the Create menu.
  4. Enter a Name.
  5. Enter a Description.
  6. Assign an Owner. The owner is responsible for the measure and receives its reminders.
  7. Select a Classification.
  8. Select a Measure Start Date.
  9. Select a Measure End Date. The dates need to cover the dates of every benefit that will use the measure.
  10. To create several measures in succession, check Create Another.
  11. Click Create.
    The Create button, with the Create Another checkbox.
    The Create button, with the Create Another checkbox.

Finding your measures

To open the Measures Register, navigate to an initiative and select Measures in the side menu.

The Measures item in the side menu.
The Measures item in the side menu.
The Measures Register.
The Measures Register.

What each register lists:

  • An initiative's register lists the measures created at that initiative and every initiative below it.
  • Enterprise measures are listed on the register at the top level of your hierarchy.
  • Measures created automatically with a benefit aren't listed.

The Measures Register has a card view and a ledger view; it has no table view. See Register Views.

Click a measure to open its page.

The measure page

A measure's page opens on its Adjust tab, with a set of controls at the top right:

The measure's Timeline

Click the Timeline (clock) icon to see the measure's history — approvals, changes to its details and values, ownership changes, archiving, documents, and comments.

To add a comment:

  1. Type your comment in the comment box. To notify someone, type @ followed by their name.
  2. Click Post Comment.

Commenting needs permission to update the measure. For filtering and searching the Timeline, see Activity Timelines.

Attaching a document

To attach a document:

  1. Click the Documents (paperclip) icon.
  2. Click Upload Documents.
  3. Select the file. One file can be uploaded at a time.

The document is named after the file. See Documents.

Recording measure values

A measure needs its values kept up to date for as long as benefits use it. Values can only be recorded in two places:

  • The measure's Adjust tab — one measure at a time. Described below.
  • An initiative's Measures Register ledger — every measure on the register, in one grid. Switch the Measures Register to its ledger view. It's quickest when you're updating several measures for the same period. See Ledger View for how ledgers work.

The Adjust tab has two sections:

  • Measure Realisation — a chart of the measure's values over its duration.
  • Ledger — every period's value, grouped by financial year, with a column for each series, such as FMO or Actuals. A total is shown at the top.

To record values on the Adjust tab:

  1. Open the measure. The Adjust tab opens.
  2. In the Ledger, click a period's value.
  3. Enter the new value.
  4. Click Save, or Undo to discard your changes.

Approvals

Where the measure's classification has an approval workflow for actuals, a change to an actual value is sent for approval, wherever it's entered. The new value is saved straight away, and the approval signs it off. Each period's actual value is approved on its own.

Changing a value again while it's waiting on approval updates the same request. Where a change is rejected, the value stays as it was entered, but isn't approved. To send it for approval again, change it — a new actual value starts a new approval from the workflow's first step.

Editing a measure

A measure's Edit page changes its details and how its plan is generated. It doesn't record values for individual periods — see Recording measure values for that. The page groups its fields into three sections:

  • Details — Unit, Name, Description, Reporting Cadence, Start Date, End Date, and Owner. The Classification is shown but can't be changed.
  • Values — the plan settings, such as Plan Profile and Initial Plan, and Record Actuals. Which fields can be changed depends on the classification.
  • Forecast Calculation — read-only. Shows whether milestone delays and recorded actuals affect the measure's forecast.

To edit a measure:

  1. Open the measure.
  2. Click Edit. The Edit page opens.
  3. Change the fields as needed.
  4. Click Save.

A measure used by a benefit must keep covering that benefit. It must start on or before the benefit's start date, and end on or after its end date. It must also record at least as often as the benefit — a Quarterly benefit can use Monthly or Quarterly measures, but not Financial Year ones.

Archiving and deleting a measure

To archive a measure:

  1. Open the measure.
  2. Click the Menu (three lines).
  3. Click Archive….

A measure that's still used in a Benefit Formula can't be archived.

Removing an initiative measure from a benefit also archives the measure, so it doesn't sit unused. Amplify asks you to confirm first. Enterprise measures aren't archived when removed from a benefit, because other benefits may still use them.

Once a measure is archived, it can be restored or permanently deleted from the Measures Register's card view. A measure has to be archived before it can be deleted.

For configuring measure types, see Configuring Measure Classifications (Advanced Model).