How KPI Trends Are Calculated

Trend indicators show whether the trend of a key performance indicator (KPI) is favorable or unfavorable for a project. When you define KPIs you specify a value for tolerance percentage. The tolerance percentage is taken into account while calculating trend indicators for a KPI.

Note: KPI trends may not be useful if KPI values are generated often. The reason is, if the tolerance percentage is 10 percent and KPI values are generated every day, the values decrease by 1 percent each day. In this scenario, no change is observed in the trend as the decrease is well within the tolerance. However, if you generate KPI values at the start and end of the month, a significant change is observed in the trend.

Settings That Affect KPI Trends

The trend indicator that appears for a KPI is based on the default set in the performance trend indicator setup. The different trend indicators available are:

• Up, favorable: The project performance trend is increasing in value and is desirable.

• Up, unfavorable: The project performance trend is increasing in value and is undesirable.

• Down, favorable: The project performance trend is decreasing in value and is desirable.

• Down, unfavorable: The project performance trend is decreasing in value and is undesirable.

• Unchanged: The project performance trend is unchanged.

You can change the sort order of the trend indicators based on how you want to sequence KPIs in a table based on the performance of KPIs in a project.

How KPI Trends Are Calculated

Trend Indicators are calculated based on the percentage increase or decrease in a KPI value, while taking into consideration the tolerance percentage specified while creating the KPI. The following example illustrates how trend indicators are calculated for a KPI.

Consider a scenario where KPI values are generated for the first time on January 15, 2011, and again on February 15 and April 15. KPI trends are calculated when there are at least two values that exist for a KPI.

KPI Values Generated on January 15, 2011

This table displays the trend when KPI values are generated the first time on January 15, 2011. All values in the following tables are percentages unless specified otherwise.

KPI	Tolerance Percentage and Trend Indicator Setting	Current KPI Value and Status Indicator	Previous KPI Value and Status Indicator	Trend Indicator
PTD Actual Spent Labor Effort Percentage	5 Up is Favorable	70 On Track	NA	NA
PTD Actual Spent Equipment Effort Percentage	5 Up is Unfavorable	30 On Track	NA	NA
PTD Actual Invoice Amount	5 Up is Favorable	$5000 Warning	NA	NA
Actual Billable Cost Percentage	2 Up is Favorable	90 On Track	NA	NA
PTD Actual Margin Percentage	2 Up is Favorable	30 On Track	NA	NA

After generating KPI values on January 15, 2011, the most critical KPI is PTD Actual Invoice Amount. The overall project health status is Warning, because the most critical KPI, PTD Actual Invoice Amount, has a status of Warning.

KPI Values Generated on February 15, 2011

This table displays the trend when KPI values are generated on February 15, 2011.

KPI	Tolerance Percentage and Trend Indicator Setting	Current Period KPI Value and Status Indicator	Previous Period KPI Value and Status Indicator	Trend Indicator based on Previous Period
PTD Actual Spent Labor Effort Percentage	5 Up is Favorable	71 On Track	70 On Track	Unchanged
PTD Actual Spent Equipment Effort Percentage	5 Up is Unfavorable	29 On Track	30 On Track	Unchanged
PTD Actual Invoice Amount	5 Up is Favorable	$4800 Warning	$5000 Warning	Unchanged
Actual Billable Cost Percentage	2 Up is Favorable	91 On Track	90 On Track	Unchanged
PTD Actual Margin Percentage	2 Up is Favorable	30.2 On Track	30 On Track	Unchanged

This table shows how the trend indicator is calculated based on the previous period. Although the KPI values for the current period are different from the previous period, the difference in the values isn't significant enough to change the trend indicator, based on the tolerance percentage defined for each KPI. For example, the PTD Actual Spent Labor Effort Percentage is 71 percent, compared to the previous period KPI value of 70 percent. If the current period KPI value is more than 73.5 percent, which is more than 5 percent higher than the previous period, then the trend indicator is Up, Favorable. If the current period KPI value is less than 66.5 percent, which is more than 5 percent lower than the previous period, then the trend indicator is Down, Unfavorable.

The overall project health status is Warning, based on the most critical of all KPI statuses. After generating KPI values on February 15, 2011, the most critical KPI is PTD Actual Invoice Amount.

KPI Values Generated on April 15, 2011

This table displays the trend when KPI values are generated the on April 15, 2011.

KPI	Tolerance Percentage and Trend Indicator Setting	Current Quarter KPI Value and Status Indicator	Previous Quarter KPI Value and Status Indicator	Trend Indicator Based on Previous Quarter
PTD Actual Spent Labor Effort Percentage	5 Up is Favorable	75 On Track	71 On Track	Up, Favorable
PTD Actual Spent Equipment Effort Percentage	5 Up is Unfavorable	25 On Track	29 On Track	Down, Favorable
PTD Actual Invoice Amount	5 Up is Favorable	$3500 Critical	$4800 Warning	Down, Unfavorable
Actual Billable Cost Percentage	2 Up is Favorable	91 On Track	91 On Track	Unchanged
PTD Actual Margin Percentage	2 Up is Favorable	28.5 Warning	30.2 On Track	Down, Unfavorable

This table shows how the trend indicator is calculated based on the previous quarter. The current KPI values are compared to the latest generation date of KPIs for the previous quarter.

It is possible that the previous period trend and the previous quarter trend are calculated based on KPI values from the same generation date. This occurs when the previous period generation date is the same as the latest generation date in the previous quarter.

The first three KPI values changed enough since the previous quarter to change the trend calculator. For example, the current quarter value of PTD Actual Invoice Amount is $3,500, which exceeds the threshold tolerance of 5 percent from the previous quarter KPI value of $4,800. Therefore the KPI is in a Critical status, and the trend indicator is Down, Unfavorable. If the current quarter value is greater than $5,040, which is more than 5 percent higher than the previous quarter, then the trend indicator is Up, Favorable.

A project manager might review the KPI values, statuses, and trends shown in this table and determine that a transaction was not billed, because the KPIs that are based on revenue and invoice amounts have both dropped.

The overall project health is critical because of the status of the PTD Actual Invoice Amount.