If you are looking for the best way to get started with Businessmap Reports, first check out the dedicated article.
Introduction
The Initiatives and Outcomes report delivers a way to follow the progress of your Initiatives, Outcomes, and Checkpoints. You can access this report from the Reporting Facility.
Note: For the time being, the report is only available in a Table view.
Important: The report only uses data from your initiatives, outcomes (both regular outcomes and Outcome rules), and checkpoints. Regular cards (from the Cards workflow) will not be listed in this report.
Running the Initiatives and Outcomes report
To run an Initiatives and Outcomes Status report you have to configure your data from the left side menu as you would do when using the Advanced Search.
Note: while the Board and Section pills are already selected by default, you can remove both of them from the X in the top right corner.
Once you configure your criteria for the report, you can run it by clicking on the blue magnifying glass button.
When you run it, it will return a table with predefined columns.
You can also further customize those from the Configure Results menu in the top right corner.
The predefined columns of the report can be divided into 3 groups (General Information; Progress and Projection; Target Dates/Values and Children).
A deeper look into the Initiatives and Outcomes Fields
In this section, all of the pre-defined fields of the report are listed along with information on how they apply to the different item types.
1. General Information
Item ID:
For Initiatives: Each initiative within Businessmap is assigned a unique ID. This is what is displayed here.
For Outcomes: The Outcome ID is a combination of the Initiative ID and its own unique identifier. It takes the format of the Initiative ID followed by the Outcome ID, separated by a dot. For instance, if the Initiative ID is '2323' and the Outcome ID is '42,' the combined Outcome ID would be represented as '2323.42.'
For Checkpoints: The Checkpoint ID further extends the Outcome ID by adding an additional identifier for each checkpoint associated with the outcome. The format is the Outcome ID followed by the Checkpoint ID, also separated by a dot. For example, if the Checkpoint ID is '23', it would be appended to the Outcome ID '2323.42' to form '2323.42.23.'
Name:
For Initiatives: The title of the initiative.
For Outcomes: Customizable text that varies based on the parameters of the outcome, which are also used within the initiative. An example could be a statement like "Increase [Custom Field] from 0 to 5." Here, [Custom Field] will be replaced with the actual name of the custom field.
Checkpoint Name: This field specifies the name or title of each checkpoint associated with an outcome. It helps to further segment and categorize the progress and status of each initiative.
Parent IDs:
Parent Initiative ID: This field denotes the ID(s) of the parent initiative(s). If an initiative has more than one parent initiative, all parent IDs will be listed and separated by a comma.
Parent Outcome ID: This field is simply the ID of the initiative associated with the outcome. It shows where the outcome originates from in terms of initiatives.
Parent Checkpoint ID: This field is the ID of the outcome linked with the checkpoint, following the same format as in the Item ID (i.e., the Initiative ID.Outcome ID).
Type:
Еach entry here is labeled, and the options are Initiative, Outcome, and Checkpoint.
2. Progress and Projection
Outcome Progress:
For Initiatives: This field is not applicable for initiatives and will thus be shown as 'N/A.'
Outcome Progress: This field shows the percentage progress of the outcome based on its current and target values. For instance, if the starting value was 10, the current value is 30, and the target value is 50, then the outcome progress is 50%.
Checkpoint Progress: This field indicates the progress made towards achieving the target value of the checkpoint, expressed as a percentage of the current value of the related outcome. The starting value for this calculation can either be the target value of the previous checkpoint or, if no previous checkpoint exists, the starting value of the outcome.
Outcome Progress Expected:
For Initiatives: This field is not applicable for initiatives and will thus be shown as 'N/A.'
For Outcomes: It shows the expected percentage of the outcome's progress. This calculation takes into account the expected value in relation to the start value and target value of the outcome. For instance, if there are no checkpoints, it will take the start date and end date of the outcome and see where today's date falls as a percentage between the two.
If there are checkpoints, it will take the end date of the previous checkpoint (if there isn't one, the start of the outcome) and the end date of the checkpoint in which it is currently (if there is no next checkpoint, the end date of the initiative). Then it will take today's date and find the percentage that should be within the range between the start and end dates taken earlier.
For Checkpoints: It will show the expected percentage of the checkpoint's progress according to the start date and target date of the current checkpoint. For the start date, it will take the target date of the previous checkpoint, if there is one, or the date when the first value of the outcome has been set. For the target date, it will use the date of the current checkpoint. For checkpoints that have already passed, it will show 100%. For future checkpoints, it will show 0%.
Outcome Projection:
For Initiatives: This field is not applicable for initiatives and will thus be shown as 'N/A.'
For Outcomes: The projection is represented as a percentage of the expected progress for the outcome based on the start and target value. The projection shows the expected percentage of the outcome by the target date. If the initiative doesn't have a target date or the target date is in the past, 'N/A' is displayed.
For Checkpoints: The progress is calculated as a percentage of the expected progress for the checkpoint, relative to the start and target dates of the current checkpoint. The projection is based on the target value and target date of the checkpoint. If a checkpoint has already passed, 'N/A' is displayed.
Work Progress:
For Initiatives: Work progress is calculated based on the completion of the children of the initiative. The children of the initiative that are considered are those at the lowest level, and their sizes are taken into account when determining the overall progress.
For Outcomes and Checkpoints: Work progress is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed.
Work Progress Expected:
For Initiatives: The expected work progress is calculated as a percentage based on today's date and the expected linear progress of the initiative.
For example, if the initiative started on January 1, 2023, and is expected to end on January 30, 2023, and today is January 15, 2023, the expected progress of the initiative would be 50%.
If the initiative has no end date, "N/A" is displayed.
Note: If the initiative has not started yet, several cases can occur:
- If there's a planned end date in the past, the expected progress is displayed as 100%.
- If there's a planned start date in the past, it's used as the start date of the initiative.
- If there's a planned start date in the future, the expected progress is displayed as 0%.
- If there's no planned start date, “N/A” is displayed.
- This value doesn't depend on whether the initiative has children or not.
For Outcomes and Checkpoints: Expected work progress is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed.
3. Target Dates/Values and Children
Target Date:
For Initiatives: The target date is derived from the initiative's fields, prioritized in the following order.
- If there are checkpoints, it takes the date of the last checkpoint.
- If there is a planned end date, that date is used.
- The deadline field is used.
For Outcomes: The target date is decided based on the following priority:
- If there are checkpoints, it uses the date of the last checkpoint (only if the checkpoint is after the deadline/planned end date, i.e., the latest date is considered).
- If there is a planned end date, that date is used.
- The deadline field is used.
- If there is no end date and no checkpoints, “N/A” is displayed.
For Checkpoints: The target date is the end date of the checkpoint itself.
Start:
For Initiatives: This is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed.
For Outcomes: The starting value of the outcome itself is used.
For Checkpoints: The target value of the previous checkpoint is used. If there is no previous checkpoint, the starting value of the outcome is used.
Target:
For Initiatives: This is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed.
For Outcomes: The target value of the outcome is used.
For Checkpoints: The target value of the checkpoint is used.
Current:
For Initiatives: This is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed.
For Outcomes: The current value of the outcome is used.
For Checkpoints: The current value of the outcome is used.
Important: For checkpoints that have already passed, it takes the value of the outcome at the end date of the checkpoint. For future checkpoints, it displays “N/A”.
Children Total:
For Initiatives: The total number of first-level children for the initiative is displayed.
For Outcomes and Checkpoints: This is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed.
Children Finished:
For Initiatives: The total number of first-level children of the initiative that have been completed is displayed.
For Outcomes and Checkpoints: This is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed.
Children In Progress:
For Initiatives: The total number of first-level children of the initiative that are currently in progress is displayed.
For Outcomes and Checkpoints: This is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed.
Children not started:
For Initiatives: The total number of first-level children of the initiative that have not started yet is displayed.
For Outcomes and Checkpoints: This is not applicable, so “N/A” is always displayed
The Initiatives and Outcomes report is the foundation of the Initiatives and Outcomes Dashboard - more about it, you can learn in the dedicated article.
Limitations
Please note that there are result limitations when working with the "Initiatives and Outcomes" report (and all other reports from the Reporting Tool). They are the following:
- 10K results in the Businessmap UI
- 50K results for export
- 50K results for Power BI reports