Add-ons
Additional modules that can be added to Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management without having to upgrade the product. Add-ons can be developed by Oracle Primavera or by third parties.
Alert
An automatically generated notification sent via e-mail to a pre-defined list of recipients when a condition or event occurs.
Alignment
The extent of agreement, coordination, conformance, and consistency among organizational purpose, vision, and values. Alignment exists when there is the correct balance between spending/technology investments and business priorities.
Analytic Assessment
The subjective or objective assessment of a key performance category used for performance or investment management. The analytic assessment is often derived from one or more key performance indicators. For instance, a health assessment often considers quality, staff, schedule, and budget factors within defined performance parameters or bands.
Analytic Scorecard
An analytic scorecard is used to derive key performance categories from a group of key performance indicators. Examples of analytic (automated) scorecards include: Business Value, Risk, Quality, Budget, Staff, Schedule, and Health assessments.
Analytics
Analytics are the combined metrics that communicate the present status for the entity being measured. For example, there are budget analytics that would be a series of related financial measures all combined to give a clear understanding of the state of the organization spend.
Automation
The process of collecting present processes and practices which are manual, and transferring the process and practice elements to a state where they are monitored and/or managed by a technology solution.
Best Practices
The processes, practices, or systems identified in public and private organizations that, when performed improve an organization's performance and efficiency in specific areas. Best practices vary from organization to organization based on their processes and key performance categories.
Budget Assessment
The budget assessment is a key performance category that compares the budget plan to actual performance. It often contributes to the overall health assessment of an investment.
Business Investment
The decision of an organization to focus and direct resources toward an investment that will achieve the meeting of key business objectives (KBOs).
Business Process
A collection of related, structured activities - a chain of events - that produce a specific service or product for an internal or external customer. In PPM, a workflow represents a business process and automates the series of tasks defined by it.
Business Value
The expected return back to the business from an investment. Various approaches to value, like ROI, and EVA are derived from external systems or Business Value measures and seen in Investor Maps and Scorecards.
Candidates
Proposed items, not yet added to a portfolio's scenario. Candidates are distinguished from other items by their icon, and may be referenced differently by the functions.
Collaborate
Collaborate is a menu consisting of various options for sharing PPM information with others. These include an option for creating alerts to be sent to various recipients when triggered, and an option that enables users to e-mail the current Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management browser page to a colleague. There is also an option in which users can obtain the address (URL) of the current browser page, which can be pasted into Microsoft Office applications or saved for future reference.
Dashboards
Provides visual graphs and instant insight into an individual technology investment, a group of investments or a specific criterion. Enables managers to focus in on key performance indicators and trends critical to their specific areas of interest and responsibility.
Data as of
User interface label applied to field data that can be adjusted to reflect a pre-defined date or timespan called a version. Wherever Data as of appears in the interface, it represents a user-configurable option to adjust the current object based on data as of a specific date or version.
Data Mining
The process of exploring and analyzing, by automatic or semi-automatic means, large quantities of data in order to discover meaningful patterns, correlation and rules within the larger set of data.
Data Transforms
Data that is automatically extracted at pre-defined intervals and transformed from other software or databases and imported into the Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management (PPM) database. Data transforms replace the need for manual entry. This data forms the basis for performance analysis by the PPM system.
Dependencies
An Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management feature that lets you assign dependencies to items and portfolios independent of their grouping. An item/portfolio either Depends On or Supports other items/portfolios.
Documents
Documents related to a particular item can be collected in a central repository and shared across the organization with any users that have appropriate security permissions. Documents can include Word files, Excel spreadsheets, reports, illustrations, and any other document types.
Folders
A folder is a collection of related objects or folders. Each object type has its own folder hierarchy. For example, it is not possible to have Scorecards in a Maps hierarchy. Each folder hierarchy has its own `root'. Objects and folders may appear in multiple folders. However, each object has a single home folder. All other instances of that object are referenced objects.
Forms
A Form is the center for data-entry in Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management. Forms can be used to enter organizational data. Additionally, you can use Forms as a reporting tool to view, summarize, and categorize data efficiently. Forms also enable you to create custom-designed forms that cater to the specific needs of your organization. Forms feature the ability to enter default values.
Health Assessments
The level of and delta between a technology investment's plan and its actuals. The healthier a technology investment is, the closer the actual status is to the initial plan. For example, health is often a combination of budget, staff, schedule, and quality assessments and is used during the operational phase of a technology investment's life.
Hierarchies
All Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management objects are organized in hierarchies. Arranging objects in hierarchical trees creates an organizational map that defines the organizational environment and makes it easier to navigate among objects and views. Hierarchies also support the process of applying and managing system security.
Home Folder
Objects may appear in multiple folders. This allows information to be shared by different processes. However, each object has a single home folder. All other instances of that object are referenced objects. By default, all created objects inherit their security settings from their home folder.
Home Portfolio
Items may appear in multiple portfolios. This allows information to be shared by different processes. However, each item has a single home portfolio. All other instances of that item are referenced items. By default, all created items inherit their security settings from their home portfolio.
Hypertext
Text that acts as hypertext when displayed in descriptions or annotations fields. Text will be displayed as hypertext when entered in one of the following formats:
- <sample>
- http://www.oracle.example.com
- \\servername\directory
- www.oracle.example.com
- ftp.oracle.example.com
- ftp://oracle.example.com
- mailto:person@oracle.example.com
- person@oracle.example.com
Hypertext does not display as hypertext when it appears in editing dialog boxes.
Indicator
An icon used throughout the PPM application to represent a value, result, or performance within a series of 2-7 possible scores, each with its own indicator symbol and color. The system supports sixteen indicator slots.
Instance (of a workflow)
A specific occurrence of a workflow. A workflow, as defined within a single template, can have multiple instances, includingworkflows in progress as well as completed workflow instances.
Investment
Investments either consume or plan to consume management resources, like time, money and staff. Investments go through a budget lifecycle involving justification, prioritization, selection, review and shut down.
Investment Management
This process supports annual and incremental strategic budget planning, as well as the ongoing budget and review processes. The ultimate goal of technology investment management is to have a continuous budgeting process of portfolio and investment justification, prioritization, selection, review and adjustment.
Investment Portfolio
A group and/or collection of technology investments or initiatives that are related and that an organization combines together to better manage and measure results. For example, these results are often used to better communicate the IT operations to the business.
Investor Maps
Multi-dimensional graph-views enable one to effectively manage their technology investment portfolio and draw attention to areas of risk and visually portray the technology investment strategy. For example, dimensions like ROI, time to return, degree of fit with business objectives, budget, performance and risk can all be used to analyze the distribution of technology spend.
Item
An item is a development effort with a defined beginning and end, delivering a specific product and/or deliverable.
Key Business Objective (KBO)
Objectives defined by the business or organization at large that will achieve the long-term success of the entire business or organization. KBOs are used to align sub-business units with the overall direction of the business or organization.
Key Performance Category (KPC)
These are derived from Key Business Objectives (KBOs) and are measures that represent one aspect of the KBO. For example, the KPC for an investment could be the health that is derived by data from several indicators. KPCs are the KBOs "next-level down" components.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
These are the measures that make up a Key Performance Category (KPC). For example, the Staff as KPC - could be made up of the following KPIs - headcount, turnover and skill inventory. KPIs are normally analyzed on a plan versus actual basis. The KPI plan is defined during an investment justification process and the KPI actual is extracted from transactional systems according to a scheduled basis.
KPI Performance Band
KPIs have performance bands (pre-set limits) associated with them. These are seen in the Dashboards and assist in quickly seeing if a KPI is within acceptable performance limits. These performance bands are defined by rules that perform the KPI analytics necessary to set a red, yellow, or green indicator.
Life Cycle
The life cycle is a collection of phases that encapsulates the Stage-Gate processes used in many organizations to monitor progress in application development, technology operations or vendor management.
Locale
Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management (PPM) checks the default regional settings of the operating system of the user's computer. If PPM supports the computer's default locale, the user interface automatically uses the regional settings (digit grouping and decimal symbols and date separator and formats) for that locale. If the computer's locale is not yet supported, PPM automatically uses English (United States) regional settings.
Processes
The The Processes tab on the Guide pane provides you with a way to organize your work. Processes displays sets of favorite URLs and guided processes that provide you with direct access to objects, including documents, and any local or web URL.
Operational Excellence
The reliability and predictability of services as well as the ability to successfully meet agreed upon levels of service for the business and measurements of productivity for major activities.
PPMC
Primavera Portfolio Management Console. A server utility that incorporates many of the server functions within a single interface.
Performance Management
Effectively automating data collection and analysis, status reporting and the portfolio review process allowing decision-making to be based on data, not conjecture.
Permissions
The basic building blocks of the Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management system security infrastructure. Permissions include Read, Edit, Create, and other actions and combinations of actions. Each of these permissions can be assigned to roles, users, and user groups, as well as to high level portfolios, objects, and items, and then propagated to any element down the hierarchy. Permissions can also be adjusted for individual elements regardless of their position in the hierarchy.
Phases
Phases are the key components of a Life Cycle. They include the key deliverables, checklists, document links and action items being managed for a technology investment.
Portfolio
A collection of related items, which are grouped in order to manage and view performance of common business activities and goals. You can also group related portfolios into a single portfolio. Portfolios can be grouped according to any parameter you define, such as type of business activity or geographic region.
Processes
Processes are sets of favorite URLs and defined practices arranged in a series that provide you with guidance, including direct access to objects, including documents, and any local or web URLs. Processes provide you with a way to organize your work. Using processes allows for better collaboration and easier navigation.
PPM
Primavera Portfolio Management.
Quality Assessment
A key performance category, or indicator, that compares the quality plan to actual performance. The quality assessment often contributes to the overall health assessment of an investment. For example, quality may be characterized by KPIs like defects or customer satisfaction.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A concept used to aid in investment decisions. ROI can be simply calculated by considering the annual benefit (over multiple years) divided by the initial investment. Financial measures are elusive in the early stages of an investment when they are needed for decision-making. This forces diverse methods of selection and de-selection based on a conceptual ROI.
Risk
Current understanding of present factors that, once comprehended, give an ability to assess and predict the future success of technology investment or goal achievement. Managers make efforts to reduce the probability of these factors actually occurring by identifying countermeasures to minimize risk.
Roles
Roles are used to help assign security permissions. Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management includes two roles: Manager and Owner. Every item and portfolio has a Manager. All other objects have an Owner. An Owner or Manager of an item, object, or portfolio acquires the security permissions assigned to the Owner and Manager roles for that item, object, or portfolio.
Schedule Assessment
A schedule assessment is a key performance category, or indicator that compares the schedule plan to actual performance. The schedule assessment often contributes to the overall health assessment. The schedule assessment is usually based on information extracted from a project management system.
Scorecard
The Scorecard provides a consistent framework for monitoring and communicating the status and health of initiatives. It also creates an early-warning system to alert managers to potential crises. The Scorecard facilitates meaningful dialog within the business on the status of key performance categories.
Security
Security provides the ability to protect data (not everyone should see the financial numbers) and objects (not everyone should be able to manipulate the value-lists).
Staff Assessment
A key performance category or indicator that compares the staff plan to actual performance. The staff assessment often contributes to the overall health assessment. The staff assessment often includes KPIs like headcount, skills match and turnover.
Status Reports
Forms serve as a reporting tool, displaying up-to-date data, metrics, and measurements. They enable users to view Portfolio category values, indicators, annotations, and free text. Users can access external web sites and documents, and other modules within the application by embedding web links in any text they enter. Status reports can be circulated within the organization in several ways. Links to forms can be sent using email, hard copies can be printed, and forms can be exported as Microsoft word files (can also be embedded in Excel, Power Point, and other documents).
Storage
Each element has a home portfolio or folder in which the element is stored. The element can then be referenced in other folders and portfolios. Referenced elements inherit their security settings from their home portfolio or folder.
Technology Spend
The financial outlay of the organization regarding its expenditures in areas associated with technology such as: hardware, software, human resources, depreciation and general operation costs. This is thought of as the actual financial spend, versus planned.
UAA
User Access and Audit log.
Value-Added
Activities and/or steps that add to or change a product or service; these are the activities or steps that customers (internal and external) view as important and necessary.
Version
A pre-defined date or time span applied to PPM data to analyze and compare information in a consistent manner. Versions appear in fields labeled Data as of.
What-If Scenarios
A PPM feature allowing users to look at present and future work portfolios, making adjustments that produce different budget, resource and planning scenarios. These scenarios then aid in technology investment decision-making.
Workbooks
The dynamic module of the system that aggregates investment details, action items, checklists, contacts, and other information to support and automate daily management activities.
Workflow
The automated series of steps and tasks representing a business process defined to achieve a business goal. For example, Standard New Project Approval Process and Fast Track New Project Approval Process might represent two workflows. Workflows can be initiated and terminated either automatically or manually; however, they require a human reviewer to sign off on their final completion.
Workflow Trigger
The event that activates a workflow or one of its steps. The following events may act as workflow triggers:
- A change to the value in a particular Category.
- A change in the status of another workflow or step.
- A user manually starting a workflow or step.
Workflow Processor
The component of the system that performs operations and dispatches events associated with a published workflow. Examples of events handled by the processor include automatic triggering of workflows, tracking, step and task completion, and notifications and alerts.