Getting Started with Portfolio Management › Create a Portfolio of Investments › Define Detailed Planning Targets

Define Detailed Planning Targets

You can view, edit, and distribute the high-level portfolio targets for cost, resource, and benefit in a time-scaled view. These period-based targets show up on the Waterlines view where you can analyze your portfolio performance.

Set these detailed targets either as part of the initial portfolio creation process or later when you have added content.

Typically, you set targets at a high level while creating the portfolio. Later, as you add content, you can provide more details for these targets using the following methods:

• Spread the total cost and benefit targets uniformly across the periods by populating the Distributed Target field.
• Populate each period and update the Distributed Target field with the total amount. If the breakout costs total is greater than the total portfolio cost, a variance amount appears in red. You can enter amounts for time periods that are outside the portfolio planning horizon. For example, if the end date for the portfolio horizon is 12/31/2014, you can still add values for Jan 2015.
• Edit the targets by period and see the impact on the distributed target and how that compares to the original target.

Note: As you edit the targets, affected cells are flagged with a red, pending edits flag. The flag appears on the top left corner of the cell. To make the edits permanent, save them. The Save button is only active when there are changes to the page.

The planning periods that you see on the time-scaled view are based on the time period setting you configure on the Waterlines view.

Example: Providing Details for the Cost and Benefit Targets

Vicki, the IT Investments portfolio manager at Forward Inc., initially populates the cost and benefit targets in the portfolio properties. On the Targets page, the total and distributed values for cost and benefit are automatically created based on the values on the Properties page. Vicki fine-tunes the distribution by manually tweaking the values in each cell.

Follow these steps:

1. Open Home, and from Portfolio Management, click Portfolios.
2. Open the portfolio for which you want to define detailed targets.
3. Click Targets.
4. Complete the requested information for Cost: Portfolio Cost Totals. The following fields require explanation:

   Target

   Specifies the aggregated planned cost for the portfolio investments including capital and operating costs. You initially define this value in the portfolio properties as an aggregate of the capital and operating costs. You can edit this value when providing details for the targets.

   Distributed Target

   Displays the planned cost for the portfolio investments as it scales over time (weekly, monthly, quarterly) within the portfolio horizon.

   Variance

   Displays the difference between the distributed and approved target amounts.

   Distributed Target (Total)

   Specifies the planned cost for the portfolio investments as an aggregate of the distributed amounts. To distribute the total amount uniformly across the portfolio planning periods, enter an amount in this field.

5. Complete the requested information for Benefit: Portfolio Benefit Totals. The following fields require explanation:

   Target

   Specifies the aggregated planned benefit for the portfolio investments including capital and operating benefits. You initially set this value in the portfolio properties but you can edit it here too.

   Distributed Target

   Displays the planned benefit for the portfolio investments as it accrues over time within the portfolio horizon.

   Variance

   Displays the difference between the distributed and approved benefit amounts.

   Distributed Target (Total)

   Specifies the planned benefit for the portfolio investments as an aggregate of the distributed amounts. To distribute the total amount uniformly across the portfolio planning periods, enter an amount in this field.

6. Complete the requested information for Role: Portfolio Role Totals. The following fields require explanation:

   Target

   Specifies the planned resource capacity in hours or FTE units for the portfolio investments over time (weekly, monthly, quarterly) within the portfolio horizon.

   Distributed Target

   Displays the planned roles for the portfolio investments as it accrues over time within the portfolio horizon.

   Variance

   Displays the difference between the distributed and approved target amounts for the resource target.

   Distributed Target (Total)

   Specifies the planned effort for the portfolio investments as an aggregate of the distributed amounts. To distribute the total amount uniformly across the portfolio planning periods, enter an amount in this field.

7. Save your changes.