Guidelines for using the PPM documentation

This guide describes features and components of APM available to you as an APM analyst. It also provides instructions about how to perform tasks specific to APM.

Note the following:

• This guide documents the default user interface for APM. Your APM administrator might have customized the APM fields, pages and entities to best suit your business needs and requirements. These customizations are not documented in this guide.

• Entities are a type of PPM request. They are unique to APM.

• On some PPM and APM pages, you can find that the APM entities divided into three categories: Entities, Activities, and Grouping. In this guide, the term entity applies to all types of APM entities, regardless of the categories in which they are located. For example, if the instructions tell you to select an entity from the Entities area of the Search Entities page, you might instead find the entity in the Activities or Grouping area.

Throughout this guide, you are referred to PPM documents for instructions or additional information because many APM tasks can also be performed from PPM menu bar options. Because of this, you might need to make minor adjustments to the instructions given in the PPM documents.

Be aware of the following:

• Since an entity is a type of PPM request, in many cases you need to use the PPM request instructions in the PPM documents for performing the necessary task. For example, to perform a basic entity search, you follow the instructions for performing a basic request search. These terms are usually interchangeable.

• When the instructions tell you to select an option from the Open menu on the menu bar, you might need to substitute Application Portfolio for the name of the submenu. For example, in the Demand Management guide, the instructions for running a saved search tell you to select Open > Demand Management > Saved Searches > Manage Saved Searches. To run a saved search in APM, you must substitute Application Portfolio for Demand Management—this means you select Open > Application Portfolio > Saved Searches > Manage Saved Searches to run a saved search.

• When you are following the PPM instructions, an additional page might open. For example, when you create an application entity from the Open > Application Portfolio > Create Entities option, the Create New Entity page opens. This is an APM–specific page, so it is not mentioned in the PPM instructions. In this case, you should select Application from the Entities area and then continue following the instructions as written in the PPM document. If the Create New Request page opens, select Application from the Request Type drop-down list, and then continue following the instructions as written.

• You do not have access to all the menus and options described in the referenced PPM documents. Your view of PPM and APM is determined by the implementation of your PPM, your APM role, and the level of access to features and data you are given by the APM administrator.