Managing Goals, KPIs, and Initiatives in BSC Designer

Create items for scorecards, adjust their settings, input performance data, and configure extended properties.

• Set up a scorecard with goals, KPIs, and initiatives.
• Basic properties of an item: General, Data, Performance, and Context tabs.
• Extended properties of an item: Evidence, Discussion, Status, Type, Timeline, and Budget.

Creating a New Item

1. Select an item that will be a container for the new item.
2. Use the Add button.

The menu of the Add button helps create items preconfigured for the role of an initiative or risk.

Manual Data Entry

Before filling in an item with data, make sure you have defined the desired update interval.

To enter data manually, follow these steps:

1. Select an indicator.
2. Select the appropriate date in the calendar.
3. Enter a new numeric value in the Value field.

Alternatively, you can select any indicator and click onto the Values Editor button on the toolbar.

The Properties of an Indicator

Select any indicator in the list of KPIs. The software will display properties of the indicator below.

General Tab

• Name. The name of the KPI. Try to keep it short and meaningful, don't overload it with details, and put the details into the description field.
• Icon. Next to the Name field there is KPI's icon. You can change it by clicking on the icon image.
• Description. The description field is for additional information about the KPI, such as information about the measurement method.
• Unit of measure. Use this list to choose one of measurement units that is applicable to the KPI. If there is no measure that fits your needs click the button on the right from the Measure drop list to add a new measure.
• Owner. The users responsible for this business goal or indicator.

Extended Description

To access the extended description:

1. Select an item.
2. Switch to the General tab.
3. Click the Edit button next to the Description field.

Use additional properties to provide more specific details about the item:

• Description - a detailed description of the item.
• Depends on and Contributes to define dependencies between items. These dependencies are used in Gantt charts, shown on the Context tab, and in the cascading map.
• Documents - upload strategy-related documents and link to external resources.
• Discussion - discuss the item with other users.
• Evidence requirements - define evidence requirements for the item.
• Custom fields - if custom fields are defined for this item type, they are displayed in this dialog.

The dialog sidebar provides additional properties:

• Type - defines the visual appearance of the item, such as its icon, and may also affect its properties through custom fields.
• Status - explains the current state of the item and may affect its visualization depending on the selected dates. You can configure statuses on the Workflow tab in the account settings.
• Timeline - defines the timeline for the initiative and is used on dashboard charts.
• Duration - defines the duration of the initiative.

The sidebar also includes budget properties:

• Budget - the budget assigned to the item.
• Currency - the currency of the budget. Currencies can be configured on the Organization > Currencies tab in the account settings.
• Actual - the actual expense.
• Variance - the difference between the budget and the actual expense.

If an item has budget and progress information, the software shows:

• Earned Value = Total Budget × Progress, %
• Cost Variance = Earned Value - Budget Actual

Budgets assigned to items across the scorecard are visualized on the KPIs tab and in the Cost of Strategy report.

Data Tab

• Value. The value field displays the current value of the KPI for the date selected in the calendar. The button next to the "Value" field allows to create indicators with custom formulas.
• The Comment and Attachment icons next to the Value field allow you to add comments or upload evidence for the reporting date.
• Max and Min values determine the minimum and maximum possible range for a value. Whereas baseline and target values show your working interval. Normally a baseline is a starting value and the target is a value that you wish to achieve.
• Simple input mode. For some indicators the Baseline is always equal to Min value and the Target is always equal to Max value. Check this checkbox and the software will show only the baseline and target fields.

Performance Tab

• Weight, %. The relative weight indicates the importance of the indicator within its container, while the absolute weight reflects its importance across the entire scorecard. Weight is considered when calculating the performance of the container.
• Optimization. Defines how an indicator’s progress is calculated based on its current value, baseline, and target. For example, if Minimize is selected, progress increases as the value decreases. For complex dependencies, you can enter a custom formula by clicking the Edit button next to the Optimization drop-down list.
• Raw data indicator. Some indicators on the scorecard are just data storages that are not supposed to have a performance or progress. Check this checkbox and BSC Designer won't take this indicator into account when calculating the performance of the scorecard.

View Tab

• Glyph 1 and Glyph 2. Glyph settings for the indicator on the strategy map.
• Strategic theme. Select a strategic theme for the item (you can configure available themes via > Settings > "Strategy" tab > Strategic themes).
• Display on strategy map. Defines whether this item should be displayed on a strategy map.

Context Tab

• Parent progress impact. Defines how the indicator contributes to the progress of its parent item. Lagging indicators contribute to the calculation of higher-level items. Leading indicators are used for local calculations only. Learn more about the difference.
• History of changes. Detailed change log for the item.
• Dependencies. The items that affect or are affected by the selected item.

More Properties for KPIs

Expand the data model used for KPIs beyond the standard properties:

• Use initiatives to add project management properties like budget and timeline to KPIs.
• Use custom fields to define additional properties for KPIs.

Stop-Lights

Stop-lights are cycles of different colors that are displayed next to the performance and progress values. The stop-lights help to quickly identify the state of the indicators. Stop-light colors can be customized for an indicator:

1. Open a scorecard in BSC Designer
2. Go to the KPIs tab and select an indicator
3. Select Stop-lights settings in Tools menu
4. Enter new values for the stop-lights, check the Enabled checkbox and click OK: