You can use the item dashboard to report portfolio item data in a tabular manner. The data that is to be displayed in columns depends on the dashboard configuration, or can be defined in a user-specific manner using Settings.
Particularly for the simultaneous reporting of a very large number of portfolio items, the use of traffic lights or general icons can be useful if you want to draw attention to exceptional cases. For this purpose, you can display the icons of fields that allow the field service icons, alternatively or in addition to the actual field value in a dashboard.
You can use the status icons of the columns Budget Status, Schedule Status, and Staffing Status to obtain a fast overview of the cost situation, the progress, and the resource planning of portfolio items. You can obtain additional information by choosing one of these icons for a portfolio item.
The status icon Staffing Status is determined from the resource planning of a portfolio item. The difference between the total requirement of all roles and the total staffing of roles is used to calculate the staffing status.
The statuses are as follows:
- A red circle means that none of the defined roles has been already staffed.
- A yellow triangle indicates that the total staffing is still less than the total requirement.
- A green circle indicates that the total staffing equals the total requirement.
The total staffing is even greater than the total requirement, the system displays a green circle with a yellow triangle. By choosing a staffing status icon, you obtain an overview of the planned role requirements and the relevant staffing
The Schedule Status status icon is based on the relationship between all previously completed tasks and the previous tasks to be completed for a PPM/Project Management project linked to the portfolio item. Each task is weighted according to the number of planned hours that are required for its completion and its percentage of completion. The system compares the value that is calculated for the schedule status in this way with the schedule status groups, which you can define in Customizing for PPM. The system then determines the icons that are to be used to represent the schedule status.
A schedule status group is defined by upper and lower limits for the schedule status and the assignment of a relevant icon. If you choose the schedule status icon of a portfolio item in the item dashboard, you obtain further information about the planned work and actual work, as well as the percentage completed of the tasks.
The status icon Budget Status is determined from the accumulated planned costs of the current fiscal year (planned costs year to date) and the actual costs incurred in the current fiscal year (actual costs year to date) of the portfolio item.
These values are derived from the cost collectors assigned to the item in FI/CO systems using the FI/CO interface, and are written in the relevant fields in the section Financial Overview of a portfolio item.
Using the planned costs and actual costs year to date (YTD), the budget status of an item is calculated as follows:
- If the planned costs YTD are greater than the actual costs YTD, the system calculates a budget figure using the following formula:
Budget figure = (actual costs YTD - planned costs YTD)/actual costs YTD x 100
Therefore, this budget figure is always less than zero.
- If the planned costs YTD are less than or equal to the actual costs YTD, the budget figure is calculated using the following formula:
Budget figure = (actual costs YTD - planned costs YTD)/planned costs YTD x 100
In this case, the budget figure is always greater or equal to zero.
The system now automatically compares the budget figure calculated in this manner with the budget groups you defined in Customizing for PPM, and determines the icons that are to be used to represent the budget status in the item dashboard. A budget group is defined by upper and lower limits for the value of the budget figure and the assignment of a relevant icon.
By choosing the budget status icon of an item in the dashboard, you obtain a comparison of the planned costs and actual costs YTD of the portfolio item.
Hint
The budget status of a portfolio item provides information about the planned costs and actual costs of the item, but not about its budget values.
