Strategy

The Strategy module maps the organization’s strategy as a tree of strategic goals (with subgoals) and their metrics. Each goal has owners and the projects that support it, and the progress of goals and metrics is calculated automatically. This shows how the strategy is being carried out and which projects bring the organization closer to its goals.

An administrator switches the module on in System settings (see Switching modules on and off). The Strategy item in the menu is visible to users with a Full license who have permission to the Strategy module or own a goal or a metric (see Access, owners and collaboration).

Strategy views

The module has two tabs:

• Summary — a dashboard with charts (see Strategy summary). The tab is visible to users with permission to read the module.
• Goals and metrics — the tree of goals and metrics. A goal is a row that expands into subgoals and metrics.

The tree shows the columns Name, Weight, Progress, Chart (a thumbnail of a metric’s plan and realization), Projects (avatars of supporting projects), Owner and Last edited. The columns button above the tree lets you switch them on and off. The filter narrows the tree by name, Type (Goals or Metrics), Projects and Owner.

Clicking a row opens the goal or metric panel, where all details are set. The name, weight and owners can also be changed straight in the row. Navigation in the panel: the breadcrumb above the name leads to parent goals.

Adding a goal

Top-level goals are added by a user with the Administrator permission in the Strategy module.

1. Open the Strategy module and the Goals and metrics tab.
2. Click Add goal. A row for entering the name appears at the end of the tree.
3. Enter the goal name and confirm. The goal appears in the tree with weight 1.
4. Clicking the goal row opens its panel. In the panel you fill in: Owners, the description, Goal metrics, Subgoals and Supporting projects, as well as attachments, comments and history.

Changes in the panel are saved immediately; there is no save button. A module administrator deletes a goal with the Delete goal command in the panel menu. Deleting a goal with subgoals also deletes all nested goals and metrics and is irreversible — the application asks for confirmation.

Subgoals, order and weight

A goal can have subgoals nested to any depth.

• Adding a subgoal — in the goal panel, in the Subgoals part, with the add button (you enter a name). Subgoals are added by a user with the Administrator permission.
• Order and moving — you drag rows in the tree by the handle to change the order or to move a goal or a metric to another goal. A metric must always sit under some goal, and a goal cannot be moved into its own subgoal. Dragging is available to a user with the Administrator permission.
• Weight — a whole number not lower than 0, 1 by default. Change it in the Weight column of the tree or in the metric and subgoal lists in the goal panel. The weight decides how strongly a subgoal or a metric influences the progress of the parent goal (see Progress of goals and metrics).

Metrics

A metric measures the realization of a goal. Metrics are added in the goal panel, in the Goal metrics part (the Add metric button, you enter a name); they are added by the goal’s owner (or the owner of its parent goal) and by the module administrator. Clicking a metric opens its panel with the name, progress, chart, values, description, attachments, comments and history.

Metric type

The Number / Text switch in the Metric values part sets the kind of entries. The type can be changed only when the metric has no entries (otherwise the table shows the hint Remove the table entries to change the type.).

• Number — entries have a date and a numeric Plan and Realization. The chart shows the plan path and the realization, and progress is calculated from the values.
• Text — entries have a date and a descriptive plan and realization, and the Progress (%) from 0 to 100 is entered by hand.

Metric entries

The Add entry button adds a row with a Date, a Plan and a Realization. Values in a numeric metric must be numbers, and the entry date must be unique within the metric. The icon by a row deletes an entry. The Delete metric command deletes a metric (with its entries); it is also available on the goal’s metric list.

Projects supporting a goal

Projects that bring the organization closer to a goal are linked to it in the Supporting projects part of the goal panel.

1. Open the goal panel.
2. Click Add project. A list of projects the user has access to opens.
3. Tick projects and confirm.
4. Set the support level for each project: Little support, Medium support or Major support.

The list shows the project, its progress and the support level. The icon by a row detaches the project from the goal. The same project can be linked to a goal only once.

Note: projects can be linked only to goals that have no subgoals, and it is the goal’s owner (or its parent goal’s owner) or an administrator who links them. The support level describes the project’s contribution to the goal and does not enter the calculation of the goal’s progress. The avatars of supporting projects are shown in the Projects column of the tree.

Progress of goals and metrics

Progress is calculated automatically and recalculated after every change:

• Numeric metric — as the position of the last Realization on the way from the first to the last Plan, in percent. The first plan is the starting point, the last is the target. The metric goes from 0% to 100% with a rising as well as a falling plan. With no plan and realization entries, or with equal plan values, progress is 0%.
• Text metric — the percentage entered by hand.
• Goal — the weighted average of the progress of its metrics and subgoals, with the weights from the Weight column. A goal without metrics and subgoals has 0%, also when projects support it.

A goal’s progress is shown in the Progress column of the tree and on the bar in the goal panel (Goal progress).

Strategy summary

The Summary tab is a dashboard with charts of selected goals and metrics. It is visible to users with permission to read the module; charts are added, edited, moved and resized by a user with the Administrator permission.

1. Click Add chart. The Add chart window opens.
2. Enter a name and choose the Data scope — a goal or a metric from the tree.
3. Choose the Chart type: Progress (a progress bar of the chosen goal or metric) or Realization chart (a metric’s plan and realization over time). The preview beside it shows the effect.
4. Click Add.

Charts lie on a grid: drag them by the handle and resize with the corner. The chart menu (three dots) has the commands to edit, clone and delete. Portfolios, reviews and reports have similar graphical summaries (see Graphical overview of a report).

Access, owners and collaboration

The module is available to users with a Full license. Permission to the Strategy module is granted in the System modules section of a user or a group (see System module permissions): No access, View (access to the whole tree and the summary, commenting) or Administrator (managing the structure and the summary).

• Owners — in the goal or metric panel, in the Owners field, you pick people with a Full license. An owner sees their goal together with the whole subtree, even without permission to the module, and edits it and its subordinate elements: changes the name, description, weights, metrics, entries and projects, and adds attachments and comments. Owners do not change the structure (subgoals, dragging) or the summary. An owner gets a notification about the assignment (see Assigned to element).
• Comments — the Comments tab in the panel; mentioning a person with @ sends them a notification (see Mentioning users in comments). Anyone who can view the whole module or owns the element can comment.
• History — the History tab lists the changes of a goal or metric, for example a change of name, weights and progress, or adding an owner, a project, a metric, an entry or a comment.
• Attachments — the attachments button in the panel adds files, and the list in the panel lets you delete them; available to a user who can edit the element.