Step 2: Create a what-if scenario

A what-if scenario is a simulated situation where you experiment what would happen if you invest defined budget and resources on different portfolios of contents.

This section details on how to create a what-if scenario.

  1. Prerequisite: you should have either of the following:

    • The Program Management license and View Programs access grant
    • The Portfolio Management license and View All Portfolios access grant
  2. From the PPM menu, select Open > What-if Analysis.

  3. In the Scenario List page, click Create.

  4. In the Create Scenario page, provide the scenario properties.

    Field (*Required) Description
    General
    *Scenario Name Give a unique name to the scenario.
    *Time Period

    Select the time period when the scenario simulates. You can only select current and future time periods.
    Scenario Created For

    *Select a Portfolio

    *Select a Program

    Select a portfolio or program where you want to do what-if analysis.

    • Portfolios or programs available for selection are those you have the view access to.
    • The demanded budget is calculated from the financial summary of each content in the selected portfolio or program.
    • The demanded resources are calculated from the staffing profile of each content in the selected portfolio or program.
    Budget Supply
    Total Budget

    Enter the total amount of money to be invested in the scenario during the scenario time period.

    The total amount is evenly distributed to each month during the time period.
    Resources Supply
    Calculated From Resource Pool(s) Add the resource pools that provide the resource capacities (in FTE) for the scenario during the scenario time period.

  5. Click Create.

    What-if analysis fetches data from the portfolio or program only when the scenario is created. It does not sync data from the portfolio or program to the scenario after scenario creation. Be aware that data differences exist if the portfolio or program is updated afterwards.

Example: For example, your organization currently has 5 in-flight projects, 3 must-do projects, and several proposed projects. The approved budget and resources are not enough to cover all of the contents.

What you would like to do with What-if Analysis for the next-year planning is:

  1. Create a portfolio in PPM to include all the contents.

  2. Create a scenario for the portfolio.

    • Scenario time period is the next fiscal year;
    • The demanded budget is calculated from each content's financial summary, and the demanded resources are calculated from each content's staffing profile;
    • Total budget is the approved budget amount;
    • Resources to work on the initiatives in the next fiscal year are included in separate resource pools.

Next steps: