An Initiative represents all the activities, resources and capabilities
that have been carried out or created that allow the achievement of the
Outcome. So an Initiative will link into
one or more Outcomes. These are the
important nodes on the map that signify change. On each Initiative, there are a number of qualities. For example, you can perform an Initiative to
varying levels of quality. The default to types of quality are none and
optimal. Additional qualities can also be added.
For example, None signifies that no Initiative is taking place; Optimal
might mean that it is done to the best level of quality possible and you
might want to have different levels of quality between those two
to signify either a growing level of quality over time or
different options of quality that can be
chosen.
Changing the Quality
level for an Initiative impacts the performances of Outcomes connected to it. By
default an initiative two Quality
levels attached to it - 0% and 100% Quality
level. The 0% and 100% Quality
levels cannot be edited or deleted. You can add many levels of Quality to
enable cost/capability
trade off. There are two ways to add a new Quality
level to an Initiative. The first way is to
right click on one of the current Qualities.This allows you to insert a Quality
above or below your selected Quality. The
placement of this Quality will
determine its initial Quality
level. Qualities can also be added to an Initiative in the Model Data screen. When the Initiative node you wish to add a Quality is
selected, using the fields in the lower half of the screen you can add and
remove Qualities to the Initiative. This is done through clicking the green
plus and red minus buttons.
As discussed in the Weights and Weighting blog post, Qualities have weights that
can be revealed using the 'Show Weights' button. The weight of a Quality can be
edited when the weights are visible on the Map or in the Model Data screen.
When in the Map, simply double click on the value of the weight you wish to
change and enter a new value. Note that the 0% and 100% Quality levels
cannot be edited. Within the Model data screen, the weight of a Quality is
edited by selecting the Initiative that the Quality is
attached to and selecting 'Qualities' in the lower half of the Model Data
screen. Simply double click in the cell you wish to edit and enter the new
data.
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Capabilities define what an organisation or thing is able to do:
to have the capacity and/or ability to do something, to be able to achieve
specific effects or declared goals and objectives.
Every
change results in some new or changed level of capability. It is these
capabilities that enable outcomes to be achieved. Some see Capabilities as
milestones because the delivery of a new Capability happens when
certain things have been completed. When capabilities are changed,
outcomes can be achieved. A capability is a link between
a quality level on an
initiative and a series of activities. During optimisation when an initiative
is being activated during a phase at a certain quality level, the capability/capabilities
attached to that quality level tell their
activities that they are needed. Capabilities link in to the qualities so you
can understand for every level of quality, what capabilities
are being created or changed. Capabilities
are required to contribute to achieve each quality and contribute to
the outcomes. At each level of quality, an Initiative
will change or create one or more capabilities
Think of this scenario:
An
Initiative is performed at levels of Quality. To specify when a
Quality is needed, you
define phases in the Programme Overview tab and set the Quality per phase – the
level of Quality required and when
it is required is specified using the grid in the Option Summary screen.
The
Initiatives are all listed in the top window and for each Initiative the Phases
are shown. For each phase, the available qualities may be seen using the
pull down arrow and selected. For example these represent if an Initiative
has the new Capabilities delivered in the fourth phase (2012 Q4) to the
Advanced level, then you can choose the Advanced level in phase four.
The result of this is that all the Resources that are associated with
that optimal
quality, are scheduled
from a time perspective against that phase.
There are a number of capabilities that are either new or changed as a
result of the programme and these are shown on the Gantt style chart in the
Option Schedule screen.
You can
hide all the detail that goes in to each Capability by using the arrow
on the button next to the name of each of them. You can see along the
timeline with the yellow shape the scope of when that Capability
exists. By looking at the data below this, you can see each activity
and use of resource over time. For example, by hovering over each block
you can see the action being taken on a date range. This allows you to
gain a greater understanding of the option and the delivery being proposed
In Realisor rather than saying we are going to be doing a project for
three quarters and this will give us a certain level of Quality, we instead say we
want that Quality at a certain point
in time, and Realisor works out the schedule required to deliver that Quality at that
time. This allows us to change the delivery time dynamically to get
the best mix of cost and benefit without having to manually re-plan all of the
activities.
To the left
of the Qualities we have Capabilities, and these Capabilities each have a plan
entering them for what needs to be done to create the
Capability, sustain it and
eventually dispose it if we choose to get rid of it.
Taking node Prj-1 (Project 1), the ‘Days to Deliver’ has been set to 60
– approximately 3 months in working days. This needs to have been delivered
before Prj-4 (Project 4) can begin. The ‘Days to Deliver’ for Prj-3 has been
set to 120 – approximately 6 months in working days.
Once these projects have been delivered, the
capability CAP-3 is active
For projects, processes etc entering
Capabilities the map represents time, so the order of the processes going into
CAP-3 shows the order in which they must be started. For Prj-4 to be
initiated Prj-1 must already exist, have finished delivery and entered
sustainment. Setting I-2 to Basic for phase 4 (which has been done in the
Option Summary screen) would mean that prior to phase 4 the two processes must
have finished being started and entered sustainment.
This is shown clearly on the Option Schedule
within the Optimise screen, with Project-1 being delivered before Project-4 is
commenced and once Project-4 has been completed, the capability becomes active. If you hover the mouse over the ‘bars’ on the
Option schedule, it will give you more detailed information regarding the dates
and resources used
