Strategic driver allocation

About this report

The strategic driver allocation report can be used by a VP-level technology or portfolio executive who is responsible for ensuring that the planned strategic allocation of the work is aligned with the work the teams are actually doing or planning on doing.

For example, you planned to spend 25% of your efforts on expanding to new markets. However, it looks like only 10% of your efforts this quarter are actually spent on expanding to new markets, meaning you are likely to miss your revenue targets.

To navigate to this report:

1. Select Portfolios or Programs in the top navigation bar and select the entity you want to view information about.
2. On the sidebar, select Reports in the list of options.
3. Select Strategic driver allocation; the report displays.

Prerequisites

1. Portfolio must be created in the system.
2. Program must be created and tied to a portfolio.
3. Program Increment (PI) must exist in the system and be tied to a program.
4. Sprints must exist in the system and be tied to a team.
5. Epics must be created and tied to the PI.
6. Capabilities are optional (setting must be turned on for the portfolio; will be an additional layer between epics and features), and can be tied epics.
7. Features must be created and tied to epics.
8. Stories must be created and tied to features.
9. Teams must be created and assigned stories in the PI.
10. Strategic drivers must be added under dropdown platform settings.
11. Strategic driver allocations must be set for the PI on the PI slide-out panel > Manage Strategic Driver Allocations.
12. Strategic driver must be identified for epics on the Epic slide-out panel.
13. Estimates must be set for epics, features, and stories.

How are report values calculated?

The report shows three pie charts:

• Program Increment/Strategic Driver Allocation = strategic driver allocation breakdown that pulls the percentages from the PI slide-out panel > Manage Strategic Driver Allocations.
• Epic/Strategic Driver Estimate = planned allocation based on epic estimation. It shows how many team weeks each strategic driver has, based on all team weeks combined for all associated epics.
• Epic/Strategic Driver Actuals = actual allocation based on accepted story points. It shows how many accepted story points each strategic driver has, based on all accepted story points for all associated epics. It is a bottom-up calculation.

The pie charts are PI-specific. Beneath the pie charts, you can view the list of epics broken down by driver with the estimate in team weeks for the Epic/Strategic Driver Estimate chart and the accepted story points for the Epic/Strategic Driver Actuals chart. The epics list is not PI-specific. Epics are sorted from most allocation to least. The bar to the right of each epic shows epic’s allocation in relation to the total epic allocation for the whole Team Weeks or Story Points column accordingly (for example, 7 TW/11 TW).

Allocation Trend is not PI-specific and shows all selected PIs. It shows a trend view from PI to PI of what your allocation percentage is.

How to interpret this report

The strategic driver allocation report compares the planned and actual strategic allocation of the work for the selected PI. It is beneficial to review this report regularly to identify any negative trends early and allow for adjustments to be made.