In this article, we will review how to create and manage Strategic Priorities.
PPM Express allows adding Strategic Priorities, managing them, and deciding how they influence each project in the system.
Please note: Only users with Manage Prioritization permissions can create, edit, and delete Strategic Priorities.
Creating Strategic Priorities
To create a new priority, perform the following:
1. Open the Strategic Priorities page.
2. Click New in the upper left part of the page.
3. Provide the name for your priority, set its importance, and populate the description, if needed. The priorities are active by default, but you can deactivate the priorities using the Active toggle if required.
Click Create Strategic Priority button.
4. As the priority is created, it will appear on the Strategic Priorities page.
Managing Strategic Priorities
All PPM Express users can review the priorities and users with Manage Prioritization permissions can edit and delete them. The Importance field can be edited from the Strategic Priorities page directly.
As the company's strategic priorities are added to the Strategic Priorities page, project managers can make decisions on how these priorities impact their projects, portfolios, and ideas.
On the Portfolio Dashboard, Project Dashboard, and Idea Dashboard there is a Strategic Alignment section that shows all priorities from the Strategic Priorities page. We will review how this section can be managed on the example of the Project Dashboard, but the concept is the same for portfolios and ideas.
On the Project Dashboard, there is a section Strategic Alignment. This section shows all strategic priorities on the organization level that are added to the Strategic Priorities page. By default, the impact of the strategic priorities in this section is set to N/A.
Each project manager decides how organizational priorities impact the specific project by setting the Impact of each priority in the Strategic Alignment section.
As the impact is set for each priority in the Strategic Alignment section on the Project Dashboard, the Alignment Score field in the Details section is populated with the value. This value takes into account the Importance of the strategic priorities set on the Strategic Priorities page and the Impact set by the project manager in the Strategic Alignment section. The percentage in the Alignment Score field shows the project compliance with company strategic priorities.
The higher the number in the Alignment Score field, the more the project is consistent with the priorities of the company.
If there are any changes in the priorities on the Strategic Priorities page (changes in the Importance of the strategic priorities, new priority added, the priorities are edited or deleted, the priority activated/deactivated), project managers will see a message in the Strategic Alignment section as for the changes on the Strategic Priorities page.
If the project manager clicks the Apply Changes button, the changes will be applied automatically, and the Alignments Score field will be recalculated according to the changes applied.
Please note: Users who do not have permission to edit the project will not see the message as for the changes on the Strategic Priorities page.
Alignment Score Calculation Logic
1. A priority has its importance globally in PPM Express ranging from Low (1) to Extreme (5).
2. Priorities with importance set to N/A (0) are ignored in the calculation.
3. Project impact on a priority ranges from Low (1) to Extreme (5).
4. If a project's impact equals or exceeds the priority’s importance, it’s said to be fully aligned.
5. When multiple priorities exist, the alignment with the more important one gives a higher score.
6. For example, when two priorities exist, with the importance of Moderate (3) and Extreme (5), the complete alignment with the first one and zero alignments with the second will give 37.5%, while a reverse situation will result in a 62.5% score.