Getting Started with Project Request Scorecards

This introduction article will help administrators to create and configure a project request scorecard in the Project application admin interface. The user must have administrator access for the specific Project application.

Overview

It is common for organizations to score project requests to assess their relative value. Project requests can vary widely, making comparisons difficult. Scoring aims to provide a common set of criteria relevant to all requests, enabling them to be assessed more accurately.

Project request scorecards allow you to define a set of criteria that are used to generate a calculated score for the project request. The criteria are presented as a series of questions, in which users rate the relative value of each criterion for the project request being assessed. The total score for the scorecard is the sum of the criteria scores. You can define multiple scorecards and use them on different types of project requests. A default scorecard will be automatically created with all your scorecard criteria.

Where to Find This

Scorecards appear in both the Project application admin and the Work Management interfaces. They can also appear in the Client Portal if they are included in the project request form.

To create and configure project request scorecards and scorecard criteria:

  • Project Application Admins: Work Management > View Applications > Project application, > gear icon > Admin > Project and Request Sections > Scorecards or Scorecard Criteria
  • Global Admins: TDAdmin > Applications > the Project application > Project and Request Sections > Scorecards or Scorecard Criteria

To evaluate and score project requests:

  • Work Management > View Applications > Portfolio Planning

Where to Start

For technical details on how the scorecard works, review the How Project Requests are Scored article.

Creating a New Scorecard

To create a new scorecard:

  1. In the Project application admin interface, navigate to Project and Request Sections > Scorecards in the left navigation.
  2. Click the +New button to create a new scorecard.
  3. Enter a Name for the scorecard and, optionally, a description.
  4. Check the Active and/or Is Default options to enable them (typically, this will not occur until the scorecard criteria have been added).
  5. Click the Save button.

Adding Scorecard Criteria to a Scorecard

Note: Criteria will need to be defined before they can be added to a scorecard (see Defining Scorecard Criteria below). Repeat the process below to add all required criteria to a scorecard.

To add scorecard criteria to a scorecard:

  1. In the Project application admin interface, navigate to Project and Request Sections > Scorecards 
  2. Find the scorecard where the criteria will be added and click the Edit link in the corresponding row.
  3. In the Criteria section of the window, click the +Add button.
  4. Select a Criterion from the dropdown list and specify an Order value (this will determine the order in which the criteria are listed on the scorecard; criteria with the same numeric value will be listed alphabetically).
  5. Click the Save button.

Defining Scorecard Criteria

To define the scorecard criteria: 

  1. In the Project application admin interface​​​​​​, navigate to Portfolio Planning > Scorecard Criteria.
  2. Click the +New button to define a new scorecard criterion.
  3. In the New Criterion display window:
    1. Provide a Name for the criterion (usually in the form of a question)
    2. Optionally assign a Percent of Value. This is a weighting for the criterion relative to other criteria; the higher the chosen values, the higher the overall score.
    3. Provide Comments as required.
  4. Click the Save button.
  5. Click the +Add button in the Choices section. Choices are the options for answering the question posed in the criterion name. For example, if the criterion is “To what extent does this request support the organization’s strategic goals?”, the choices might be “Fully”, “Partially”, and “Not at All”. Each choice requires a Name and a Value, which is a means of weighting the choices such that selecting “Fully” in the example would result in a higher score for that criterion, which in turn could result in a higher overall score. 
  6. If a scorecard has already been defined, you can click the +Add button in the Scorecards section to add this criterion to a scorecard.

Total Weighted Score Calculations

Each scorecard criterion is assigned a weight relative to the others using the Percent of Value field. Each choice within a scorecard criterion is given a weight relative to the other choices within that criterion using the Value field.

The score for one criterion is given by this formula: 

CriterionScore = (SelectedChoiceValue / MaximumChoiceValue) * PercentOfValue

The final score for the score card is generated using this formula: 

ScoreCardScore = SUM(CriterionScore)

Deleting Scorecard Criteria

To delete unused project scorecard criteria:

  1. In the Project application admin interface​​​​​, navigate to Portfolio Planning > Scorecard Criteria.
  2. Click the Delete link next to the criterion you want to delete.
  3. Click the OK button in the confirmation popup.

Assigning Scorecards to Project Requests

To ensure that project requests receive the correct scorecards, they can be automatically assigned. If no automatic assignment is set up, all project requests will use the default scorecard. Scorecards can be assigned in a workflow step. The assignment step should occur before the step where an evaluator fills out the scorecard.

To add a scorecard to a workflow step: 

  1. In the Project application admin interface, navigate to Workflows > Project Request Workflows.
  2. Click the name of the relevant workflow. 
  3. Click the Steps tab, then click Edit on the step you want to assign the scorecard to.
  4. Choose the Scorecard you want to assign from the dropdown and click Save. 

Changing Scorecards on a Project Request

Once multiple scorecards are defined, users may want to change a scorecard on an individual project request. This requires the Change Scorecards permission in the user’s app-level security role.

To change the scorecard on a project request:

  1. In Work Management, navigate to View Applications, and select the Portfolio Planning application.
  2. Click Project Requests in the left navigation.
  3. Locate the appropriate project request, and click the request name.
  4. In the request window, click Scorecard Criteria in the left nav.
  5. Click Change in the toolbar to select another scorecard from the dropdown.
  6. Click Save. You will be prompted to confirm the change. Criteria that are shared between the two scorecards will be preserved, but all other criteria from the old scorecard will be discarded. 

Examples

Review an example scorecard configuration and questions in the Example Project Request Scorecard article.

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