APW, Lens and Goals - How to associate the goals correctly

[TPigeon]

I want to use the lens OOB templates to view demands and projects. But I want to be able to do it via department and also via strategic priorities. The thing I don't understand is the goals. It seems when you build a goal it can only be associated to one of the following: company, business unit, portfolio or department. How do I associate the same goal to both Portfolio and department?

Why would I want to look at the demands both via department and strategic priorities? 

I want to look at how many demands are done for department X in the fiscal year. At the same time I then might want to know how many projects are being done for Strategic Priority A. 

If I build two different Portfolios in APW to accommodate this I get "No goal is defined for this portfolio, even though there are goals associated to the demand via department. 

Am I not understanding how goals and the Portfolio Plans and goals are supposed to relate?

[TPigeon]

Also if I try to create a new goal for this Portfolio Plan I get this error 

To be clear this Portfolio Plan was built on a custom lens for "Planning Organization" or portfolios in the PPM space. We tag most of our demands to portfolios and need to view them that way. Many times our portfolios span many, many departments. 

[Jayakrishna Aku · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Thank you for the question.

As per the OOTB template, the lens structure for Organisation is : Company > BU > Department. The planning items such as Demands, Projects can be tied to Departments which is the bottom entity. However, this lens structure can be modified to include Portfolio, for example, the structure can be modified as: Company > BU > Portfolio, in case you are currently tying demands, projects to portfolios.

So while creating a portfolio plan on Organization lens, it allows us to select specific values of either Company or BU or Department based on the structure. For example, if I select 2 departments in the portfolio plan, then I will be able to view, create and manage the Goals that are tied directly to those 2 departments in the Goals module for that selected time period. Additionally, I will also be able to view and manage all the sub-goals as well as Strategic Priorities of these goals in the Goals Hierarchy tab.

As the Goal Framework is based on OKR (Objectives and Key Results) model, it is recommended to maintain a unique association of a goal to an entity such as a BU, portfolio, department etc. and cascade the goals downstream for better alignment of teams and their work. For example, in the above Org lens hierarchy, if I have a goal at Company level, I could break it down into multiple sub-goals (child goals) and associate them to BUs, and further I could break down the BU goals into multiple sub-goals and associate them to Departments. 

Hope this helps. Please let me know if I can help with any more details.

Best,

Jay