Scenario Comparison

You can compare multiple scenarios to find the optimum scenario to deliver the portfolio. 

Benefits

• Compare multiple scenarios with various metrics such as number of projects, number of strategies, resource demand, etc.;
• Users can create their own metrics and graphics for easy reporting;
• Use filters to put rules in place to exclude scenarios which don’t meet the requirements;
• Select different scenarios as the “Preferred Option” to compare each scenario against that option.

Compare Scenario

There are two ways you can get to the COMPARE SCENARIO screen:

• Use the options on the right-hand side of the screen:

• Use the drop-down list on the menu bar:
  

Both bring you to the same screen.

• Click SCENARIO COMPARISON:

This opens the following screen where you can compare your scenario to others.  In a real-life use case, you might need to ask for budget to fund a specific project that you don’t want to remove from your scenario.  Therefore, you need to justify that it is more important than other scenarios.  You can look and compare others’ scenarios using this comparison screen.

Firstly, select which portfolio you are comparing a scenario against.  The drop-down list displays all the options from the portfolio Mapper screen which have at least one scenario in them.

Note:  If you do not have any scenarios against a portfolio, you will not see it on the list. 

In the below example, I have chosen the “Servers Portfolio” which has three scenarios and they are displayed on the right-hand side of the screen.  

From the “Preferred Scenario drop-down” I then choose which is my preferred scenario, in this example it is “Expansion Scenario”.

This is then annotated with "Preferred" and moves it to the top of the display.

You can see the metrics next to each scenario in the display, e.g., how many projects are inside each scenario, how many portfolios from an application perspective, how many strategies they are aligned to, resource capacity, etc.

Note:  The administrator can create new metrics and new graphics to go with the displayed metrics.

Each of these metrics has a graphic behind, such as resource capacity, so that this can be looked at from a resource capacity perspective.

Click on Resource Capacity to open the graphic:

For these 5 projects, it shows the three skills needed to deliver on those projects.  The graphic shows two polygons:

• Grey = the capacity that we have in the business, e.g. How many engineers do we have, how many managers do we have, etc.
• Blue = how many this scenario demands.

If we take a look at this graphic, the Blue Polygon is within the Grey Polygon, therefore we have enough IT Managers, Project Control Engineers and Process Engineers in the business for this scenario.  Therefore, this Polygon has shown me where perhaps we could have had a shortfall in certain resource types.

You can compare the information of the preferred scenario to any other scenario:

If you look at the Baseload Scenario that Louise has created, it shows there are 8 projects already, which is 3 more that the “Preferred” scenario, it aligns to 4 strategies well, which is better than the “Preferred” scenario and it requires 4 skill types.

In this graphic the polygons displayed are:

• Blue = the preferred scenario;
• Grey = the capacity of the business;
• Purple = The current scenario.

I can now compare the two scenarios to each other and use it as a case at the portfolio level for reviewing these scenarios.

As a Portfolio Manager, you may start to see certain patterns and trends.  For example, your projects and scenarios could be demanding the same skill type.  Therefore, hiring in these areas more than others would be advantageous to the business.

Graphics

Each metric has their own graphic behind it.  

Click into the number which will open the relevant graphic.

Note:  If you are comparing scenarios the “Preferred” scenario data will display in blue and the “Comparison” scenario will display in purple.

Projects

Application Portfolios

Strategies

Resource Capacity

You can change the view which will give you different options for the information displayed.

• Select an option from the “View” dropdown list or click on the edit icon to open the “Edit View” pane.

• Select the Tabs you want to display, using the right/left arrows to move your selection to the right-hand box.  Note: you can display a maximum of 5 items.
• Select the order by using the up/down arrows;

• Click SAVE.

The display has changed to the new view and the graphics behind the metrics correspond to the new information.

You can also use the “Sorted By” function.  For example, you might want to focus on “Strategies” or “Estimated Cost”, therefore you would select the option from the drop-down list:

In our example we only have three scenarios but from a real-world perspective an Executive Team could be looking at 30, 40 or fifty different scenarios which may vary very slightly from each other and some may vary very dramatically from each other.  So, you can put business rules in place.

For example, let's say one of the rules is we will not fund any scenario that exceeds the 250 million that we set out initially.  

Use the sliders and left-hand side.  These sliders link to whatever metrics we have on the right.

The first one is the cost for the budget and there is the red line for your budget.  Bring the slider down below the red line and you will see that it takes away any scenario that exceeds that red line and each notch is its own scenario.   In our example below, it has taken away one scenario.

Another example:   You may have a minimum requirement, for example, you need to fund a certain number of projects, therefore use the Project slider.

Each scenario has links back into its own Dashboard and its own Resource Demand.  On the right-hand side there is the option to Submit for Approval which links into workflow.

• Click submit for approval.
  

If approved, this creates a portfolio based on those projects.