Preface

Intended Audience

Welcome to Release 12.1 of the Oracle Project Portfolio Analysis User Guide.

This guide contains the information you need to understand and use Oracle Project Portfolio Analysis.

You can choose from many sources of information, including online documentation, training, and support services, to increase your knowledge and understanding of Oracle Projects.

See Related Information Sources for more Oracle E-Business Suite product information.

Deaf/Hard of Hearing Access to Oracle Support Services

To reach Oracle Support Services, use a telecommunications relay service (TRS) to call Oracle Support at 1.800.223.1711. An Oracle Support Services engineer will handle technical issues and provide customer support according to the Oracle service request process. Information about TRS is available at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/trs.html, and a list of phone numbers is available at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/dro/trsphonebk.html.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible to all users, including users that are disabled. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Accessibility standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For more information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/.

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

Screen readers may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, some screen readers may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle does not own or control. Oracle neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Structure

1  Overview of Oracle Project Portfolio Analysis

Oracle Project Portfolio Analysis uses financial criteria, strategic goals, and information about available funds to help you evaluate, prioritize, and select the right projects to match your business objectives.


2  Creating a Portfolio

This chapter describes how to create a portfolio and the basic portfolio information.


3  Creating a Planning Cycle

This chapter describes how to create a portfolio planning cycle, and the planning cycle attributes.


4  Collecting Project Information

This chapter describes project configuration, how to collect projects, and planning cycle exceptions.


5  Creating and Managing Scenarios

This chapter describes scenarios, scenario components, and how to create and manage scenarios.


6  Approving a Portfolio Plan

This chapter describes the portfolio approval process, how to reject a portfolio plan, and how to close a planning cycle.


A  Formulas and Calculations

This appendix describes the formulas and calculations for the financial metrics in Oracle Project Portfolio Analysis.


Glossary

Related Information Sources

Integration Repository

The Oracle Integration Repository is a compilation of information about the service endpoints exposed by the Oracle E-Business Suite of applications. It provides a complete catalog of Oracle E-Business Suite's business service interfaces. The tool lets users easily discover and deploy the appropriate business service interface for integration with any system, application, or business partner.

The Oracle Integration Repository is shipped as part of the E-Business Suite. As your instance is patched, the repository is automatically updated with content appropriate for the precise revisions of interfaces in your environment.

Online Documentation

All Oracle E-Business Suite documentation is available online (HTML or PDF).

Guides Related to All Products

Oracle E-Business Suite User's Guide

This guide explains how to enter data, query, run reports, and navigate using the graphical user interface (GUI) available with this release of Oracle Projects (and any other Oracle E-Business Suite products). This guide also includes information on setting user profiles, as well as running and reviewing reports and concurrent programs.

You can access this user's guide online by choosing "Getting Started with Oracle Applications" from any Oracle Applications help file.

Oracle Projects Documentation Set

Oracle Projects Implementation Guide

Use this guide to implement Oracle Projects. This guide also includes appendixes covering function security, menus and responsibilities, and profile options.

Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Oracle Project Fundamentals provides the common foundation shared across the Oracle Projects products (Project Costing, Project Billing, Project Resource Management, Project Management, and Project Portfolio Analysis). Use this guide to learn fundamental information about the Oracle Projects solution.

This guide includes a Navigation Paths appendix. Use this appendix to find out how to access each window in the Oracle Projects solution.

Oracle Project Billing User Guide

This guide shows you how to use Oracle Project Billing to define revenue and invoicing rules for your projects, generate revenue, create invoices, and integrate with other Oracle Applications to process revenue and invoices, process client invoicing, and measure the profitability of your contract projects.

Oracle Project Costing User Guide

Use this guide to learn detailed information about Oracle Project Costing. Oracle Project Costing provides the tools for processing project expenditures, including calculating their cost to each project and determining the General Ledger accounts to which the costs are posted.

Oracle Project Management User Guide

This guide shows you how to use Oracle Project Management to manage projects through their lifecycle - from planning, through execution, to completion.

Oracle Project Resource Management User Guide

This guide provides you with information on how to use Oracle Project Resource Management. It includes information about staffing, scheduling, and reporting on project resources.

Oracle Projects Glossary

The Oracle Projects glossary provides definitions of terms that are shared by all Oracle Projects applications. If you are unsure of the meaning of a term you see in an Oracle Projects guide, please refer to the glossary for clarification. You can find the glossary in the online help for Oracle Projects, and in Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

User Guides Related to This Product

Oracle Assets User Guide

In Oracle Assets, you can post capital project costs to become depreciable fixed assets. Refer to this guide to learn how to query mass additions imported from Oracle Projects to Oracle Assets and to review asset information. Use this guide to understand the implementation steps required for application use, including defining depreciation books, depreciation method, and asset categories. It also contains information on setting up assets in the system, maintaining assets, retiring and reinstating assets, depreciation, group depreciation, accounting and tax accounting, budgeting and budgetary control, online inquiries, impairment processing, and Oracle Assets reporting. This guide also includes a comprehensive list of profile options that you can set to customize application behavior.

Oracle U.S. Federal Financials Implementation Guide

This guide provides information on how to implement Oracle U.S. Federal Financials. Use this guide to learn about the steps required to set up account codes, Federal reporting, subledger accounting, and other features used by U.S. Federal agencies and businesses that work with U.S. Federal agencies.

Oracle U.S. Federal Financials User Guide

This guide gives instructions for using Oracle U.S. Federal Financials. This product provides the basis for an integrated financial management solution for Federal agencies, providing features such as budgetary control, fund accounting, online funds checking, cost accumulation and allocation, United States Standard General Ledger (US SGL) accounts, Treasury cash accounts, regulatory and ad hoc reporting, multiple fund receivables accounting, and multiple organization capabilities.

Oracle Financials Implementation Guide

This guide describes how to implement the Oracle Financials E-Business Suite. It takes you through the steps of setting up your organizations, including legal entities, and their accounting, using the Accounting Setup Manager. You can find information on intercompany accounting and sequencing of accounting entries with relevant examples.

Oracle General Ledger Implementation Guide

This guide provides information on how to implement Oracle General Ledger. Use this guide to understand the implementation steps required for application use, including how to set up Accounting Flexfields, Accounts, and Calendars.

Oracle General Ledger User's Guide

This guide provides you with information on how to use Oracle General Ledger. Use this guide to learn how to create and maintain ledgers, ledger currencies, budgets, and journal entries. This guide also includes information about running financial reports.

Oracle Grants Accounting User Guide

This guide provides you with information about how to implement and use Oracle Grants Accounting. Use this guide to understand the implementation steps required for application use, including defining award types, award templates, allowed cost schedules, and burden set up. This guide also explains how to use Oracle Grants Accounting to track grants and funded projects from inception to final reporting.

Oracle HRMS Documentation Set

This set of guides explains how to define your employees, so you can give them operating unit and job assignments. It also explains how to set up an organization (operating unit). Even if you do not install Oracle HRMS, you can set up employees and organizations using Oracle HRMS windows. Specifically, the following manuals will help you set up employees and operating units:

Oracle Internet Expenses Implementation and Administration Guide

This guide explains how to configure Oracle Internet Expenses and describes its integration with other applications in the E-Business Suite, such as Oracle Payables and Oracle Projects. It describes the implementation steps required for application use, including how to set up policy and rate schedules, credit card policies, audit automation, and the expenses spreadsheet. You can also learn about the client extensions that you can use to extend the Oracle Internet Expenses functionality.

Oracle Inventory User's Guide

If you install Oracle Inventory, refer to this manual to learn how to define project-related inventory transaction types and how to enter transactions in Oracle Inventory. This manual also describes how to transfer transactions from Oracle Inventory to Oracle General Ledger.

Oracle Payables Implementation Guide

This guide provides you with information on how to implement Oracle Payables. Use this guide to understand the implementation steps required for how to set up suppliers, payments, accounting, and tax.

Oracle Payables User's Guide

This guide describes how to use Oracle Payables to create invoices and make payments. In addition, it describes how to enter and manage suppliers, import invoices using the Payables open interface, manage purchase order and receipt matching, apply holds to invoices, and validate invoices. It contains information on managing expense reporting, procurement cards, and credit cards. This guide also explains the accounting for Payables transactions.

Oracle Payments Implementation Guide

This guide describes how Oracle Payments, as the central payment engine for the Oracle E-Business Suite, processes transactions, such as invoice payments from Oracle Payables, bank account transfers from Oracle Cash Management, and settlements against credit cards and bank accounts from Oracle Receivables. This guide also describes how Oracle Payments is integrated with financial institutions and payment systems for receipt and payment processing, known as funds capture and funds disbursement, respectively. Additionally, the guide explains to the implementer how to plan the implementation of Oracle Payments, how to configure it, set it up, test transactions, and how to use it with external payment systems.

Oracle Project Manufacturing Implementation Manual

Oracle Project Manufacturing allows your company to associate manufacturing costs and inventory with a project and task. Use this manual as your first source of information if you are implementing Oracle Project Manufacturing.

Oracle Property Manager Implementation Guide

Use this guide to learn how to implement Oracle Property Manager and perform basic setup steps such as setting system options and creating lookup codes, contacts, milestones, grouping rules, term templates, and a location hierarchy. This guide also describes the setup steps that you must complete in other Oracle applications before you can use Oracle Property Manager.

Oracle Property Manager User Guide

Use this guide to learn how to use Oracle Property Manager to create and administer properties, space assignments, and lease agreements.

Oracle Public Sector Financials User Guide

Oracle Public Sector Financials is an overlay of features that extend the existing functionality of Oracle Financials for the specific needs of the public sector. This guide provides information about setting up and using Oracle Public Sector Financials. These features include multi-fund accounts receivable, encumbrance reconciliation reports, Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) 34/35 asset accounting, enhanced funds available inquiry, the Funds Available Detail report, and the Funds Check API.

Oracle Purchasing User's Guide

This guide describes how to create and approve purchasing documents, including requisitions, different types of purchase orders, quotations, RFQs, and receipts. This guide also describes how to manage your supply base through agreements, sourcing rules, and approved supplier lists. In addition, this guide explains how you can automatically create purchasing documents based on business rules through integration with Oracle Workflow technology, which automates many of the key procurement processes.

Oracle Receivables User Guide

This guide provides you with information on how to use Oracle Receivables. Use this guide to learn how to create and maintain transactions and bills receivable, enter and apply receipts, enter customer information, and manage revenue. This guide also includes information about accounting in Receivables. Use the Standard Navigation Paths appendix to find out how to access each Receivables window.

Oracle Subledger Accounting Implementation Guide

This guide provides setup information for Oracle Subledger Accounting features, including the Accounting Methods Builder. You can use the Accounting Methods Builder to create and modify the setup for subledger journal lines and application accounting definitions for Oracle subledger applications. This guide also discusses the reports available in Oracle Subledger Accounting and describes how to inquire on subledger journal entries.

Oracle Time & Labor Implementation and User Guide

This guide describes how to capture work patterns such as shift hours so that this information can be used by other applications such as Oracle General Ledger and Oracle Projects.

Installation and System Administration

Maintaining Oracle E-Business Suite Documentation Set

This documentation set provides maintenance and patching information for the Oracle E-Business Suite DBA. Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Procedures provides a description of the strategies, related tasks, and troubleshooting activities that will help ensure the continued smooth running of an Oracle E-Business Suite system. Oracle E-Business Suite Maintenance Utilities describes the Oracle E-Business Suite utilities that are supplied with Oracle E-Business Suite and used to maintain the application file system and database. It also provides a detailed description of the numerous options available to meet specific operational requirements. Oracle E-Business Suite Patching Procedures explains how to patch an Oracle E-Business Suite system, covering the key concepts and strategies. Also included are recommendations for optimizing typical patching operations and reducing downtime.

Oracle Alert User's Guide

This guide explains how to define periodic and event alerts to monitor the status of your Oracle E-Business Suite data.

Oracle E-Business Suite Concepts

This book is intended for all those planning to deploy Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, or contemplating significant changes to a configuration. After describing the Oracle E-Business Suite architecture and technology stack, it focuses on strategic topics, giving a broad outline of the actions needed to achieve a particular goal, plus the installation and configuration choices that may be available.

Oracle E-Business Suite Developer's Guide

This guide contains the coding standards followed by the Oracle E-Business Suite development staff. It describes the Oracle Application Object Library components needed to implement the Oracle E-Business Suite user interface described in the Oracle E-Business Suite User Interface Standards for Forms-Based Products. It also provides information to help you build your custom Oracle Forms Developer forms so that they integrate with Oracle E-Business Suite. In addition, this guide has information for customizations in features such as concurrent programs, flexfields, messages, and logging.

Oracle E-Business Suite Installation Guide: Using Rapid Install

This book is intended for use by anyone who is responsible for installing or upgrading Oracle E-Business Suite. It provides instructions for running Rapid Install either to carry out a fresh installation of Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, or as part of an upgrade from Release 11i to Release 12. The book also describes the steps needed to install the technology stack components only, for the special situations where this is applicable.

Oracle E-Business Suite System Administrator's Guide Documentation Set

This documentation set provides planning and reference information for the Oracle E-Business Suite System Administrator. Oracle E-Business Suite System Administrator's Guide - Configuration contains information on system configuration steps, including defining concurrent programs and managers, enabling Oracle Applications Manager features, and setting up printers and online help. Oracle E-Business Suite System Administrator's Guide - Maintenance provides information for frequent tasks such as monitoring your system with Oracle Applications Manager, administering Oracle E-Business Suite Secure Enterprise Search, managing concurrent managers and reports, using diagnostic utilities including logging, managing profile options, and using alerts. Oracle E-Business Suite System Administrator's Guide - Security describes User Management, data security, function security, auditing, and security configurations.

Oracle E-Business Suite User Interface Standards for Forms-Based Products

This guide contains the user interface (UI) standards followed by the Oracle E-Business Suite development staff. It describes the UI for the Oracle E-Business Suite products and tells you how to apply this UI to the design of an application built by using Oracle Forms.

Other Implementation Documentation

Oracle Diagnostics Framework User’s Guide

This manual contains information on implementing and administering diagnostics tests for Oracle E-Business Suite using the Oracle Diagnostics Framework.

Oracle E-Business Suite Flexfields Guide

This guide provides flexfields planning, setup and reference information for the Oracle Projects implementation team, as well as for users responsible for the ongoing maintenance of Oracle E-Business Suite product data. This guide also provides information on creating custom reports on flexfields data.

Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway Implementation Guide

This guide explains the details of how integration repository administrators can manage and administer the entire service enablement process based on the service-oriented architecture (SOA) for both native packaged public integration interfaces and composite services - BPEL type. It also describes how to invoke Web services from Oracle E-Business Suite by working with Oracle Workflow Business Event System, manage Web service security, and monitor SOAP messages.

Oracle E-Business Suite Integrated SOA Gateway User's Guide

This guide describes how users can browse and view the integration interface definitions and services that reside in Oracle Integration Repository.

Oracle E-Business Suite Multiple Organizations Implementation Guide

This guide describes how to set up and use Oracle Projects with the Multiple Organization feature for Oracle E-Business Suite, so you can define and support different organization structures when running a single installation of Oracle Projects.

Oracle iSetup User's Guide

This guide describes how to use Oracle iSetup to migrate data between different instances of the Oracle E-Business Suite and generate reports. It also includes configuration information, instance mapping, and seeded templates used for data migration.

Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide

This guide explains how to complete the setup steps necessary for any product that includes workflow-enabled processes. It also describes how to manage workflow processes and business events using Oracle Applications Manager, how to monitor the progress of runtime workflow processes, and how to administer notifications sent to workflow users.

Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide

This guide explains how to define new workflow business processes and customize existing workflow processes embedded in Oracle E-Business Suite. It also describes how to define and customize business events and event subscriptions.

Oracle Workflow User's Guide

This guide describes how Oracle E-Business Suite users can view and respond to workflow notifications and monitor the progress of their workflow processes.

Oracle XML Publisher Administration and Developer's Guide

Oracle XML Publisher is a template-based reporting solution that merges XML data with templates in RTF or PDF format to produce outputs to meet a variety of business needs. Outputs include: PDF, HTML, Excel, RTF, and eText (for EDI and EFT transactions). Oracle XML Publisher can be used to generate reports based on existing Oracle E-Business Suite report data, or you can use Oracle XML Publisher's data extraction engine to build your own queries. Oracle XML Publisher also provides a robust set of APIs to manage delivery of your reports via e-mail, fax, secure FTP, printer, WebDav, and more. This guide describes how to set up and administer Oracle XML Publisher as well as how to use the Application Programming Interface to build custom solutions. This guide is available through the Oracle E-Business Suite online help.

Oracle XML Publisher Report Designer's Guide

Oracle XML Publisher is a template-based reporting solution that merges XML data with templates in RTF or PDF format to produce a variety of outputs to meet a variety of business needs. Using Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat as the design tool, you can create pixel-perfect reports from the Oracle E-Business Suite. Use this guide to design your report layouts. This guide is available through the Oracle E-Business Suite online help.

Training and Support

Training

Oracle offers a complete set of training courses to help you and your staff master Oracle Projects and reach full productivity quickly. These courses are organized into functional learning paths, so you take only those courses appropriate to your job or area of responsibility.

You have a choice of educational environments. You can attend courses offered by Oracle University at any of our many Education Centers, you can arrange for our trainers to teach at your facility, or you can use Oracle Learning Network (OLN), Oracle University’s online education utility. In addition, Oracle training professionals can tailor standard courses or develop custom courses to meet your needs. For example, you may want to use your organization structure, terminology, and data as examples in a customized training session delivered at your own facility.

Support

From on-site support to central support, our team of experienced professionals provides the help and information you need to keep Oracle Projects working for you. This team includes your Technical Representative, Account Manager, and Oracle’s large staff of consultants and support specialists with expertise in your business area, managing an Oracle server, and your hardware and software environment.

Do Not Use Database Tools to Modify Oracle E-Business Suite Data

Oracle STRONGLY RECOMMENDS that you never use SQL*Plus, Oracle Data Browser, database triggers, or any other tool to modify Oracle E-Business Suite data unless otherwise instructed.

Oracle provides powerful tools you can use to create, store, change, retrieve, and maintain information in an Oracle database. But if you use Oracle tools such as SQL*Plus to modify Oracle E-Business Suite data, you risk destroying the integrity of your data and you lose the ability to audit changes to your data.

Because Oracle E-Business Suite tables are interrelated, any change you make using an Oracle E-Business Suite form can update many tables at once. But when you modify Oracle E-Business Suite data using anything other than Oracle E-Business Suite, you may change a row in one table without making corresponding changes in related tables. If your tables get out of synchronization with each other, you risk retrieving erroneous information and you risk unpredictable results throughout Oracle E-Business Suite.

When you use Oracle E-Business Suite to modify your data, Oracle E-Business Suite automatically checks that your changes are valid. Oracle E-Business Suite also keeps track of who changes information. If you enter information into database tables using database tools, you may store invalid information. You also lose the ability to track who has changed your information because SQL*Plus and other database tools do not keep a record of changes.