Overview of the Scenario Comparison Page

The Scenario Comparison page has the following major sections:

• Basic information fields for the scenario comparison are near the top of the page. To revise these fields, see Changing a Scenario Comparison's Basic Information. In particular, you can specify for the scenario comparison a supply budget and a set of resource pools, which you can compare against the sum of the costs and resources associated with the lifecycle entities in each individual scenario, in the Overview tab on the page.

• A set of tabs shows the results of the scenario comparison, with the Overview tab displayed by default. For information about these tabs, see Reviewing Results (Tabs) of a Scenario Comparison.

  Note: To calculate costs and benefits in all of its graphs and tables, the scenario comparison uses the following values from the set of proposals, projects, and assets selected for each scenario:

  • For previous periods, actual costs and benefits where specified (that is, where not blank and not zero), otherwise forecast (planned) costs and benefits

  • For the current period, the higher of forecast or actual costs, and the higher of forecast or actual benefits

  • For future periods, forecast costs and benefits

  The cost determinations are independent of any approved budgets associated with the selected proposals, projects, and assets.

  Also, to calculate Total Resources (person months), the scenario comparison uses the following values:

  • For previous periods, actual effort where specified, otherwise planned effort

  • For the current period, the higher of planned or actual effort

  • For future periods, planned effort

• An Export to Excel link is at the upper left of the Scenario Content section. Clicking this link exports to Microsoft Excel the basic information fields (at the top of the scenario comparison) and the displayed columns of the Scenario Content table (including indication of any dependency violations).

  Only displayed columns are exported to Excel, in the order they are displayed. In other words, the Microsoft Excel file reflects any changes you have made to the columns selected for display and to their order.

• The Scenario Names field provides links to the Scenario Details pages for each scenario in the scenario comparison. This is the same set of links that appears in the Scenario Details field near the top of the scenario comparison.

• The Scenario Content section lists the lifecycle entities that meet the criteria you specified when you created the scenario comparison. The heading includes the number of items in the scenario comparison, an Add Content button, a Remove Content button, if any row is selected, and an Update Scenarios button.

  Note: Clicking Update Scenario saves all the changes you have made to the selection of items and accordingly updates the graphs on all the tabs above the Scenario Content section. Clicking it does not save any change you have made to the basic information fields above the graphs, such as Comparison Name and Description.

  You can change the scenarios by adding and removing lifecycle entities from the entire scenario comparison, and by including and excluding particular lifecycle entities from the three individual scenarios to differentiate them. See Viewing and Changing Scenario Comparisons.

  The columns of the Scenario Content section provide information for each lifecycle entity, as described in the following table:

  Column	Description
  Name	Name of the lifecycle entity, displayed as a link that allows you to open the lifecycle entity.
  Phase	Phase of the lifecycle entity — Proposal, Project, or Asset.
  Business Unit	Business unit specified for the lifecycle entity, if any.
  Projected Cost	Total cost for the lifecycle entity, calculated as the sum of the following: For each previous month, actual costs where reported (that is, where not blank or zero), otherwise forecast costs For the current month, the higher of forecast cost and, if reported, actual cost For future months, the forecast costs
  Projected Benefit	Total financial benefit for the lifecycle entity, calculated as the sum of the following: For each previous month, actual benefits where reported (that is, where not blank or zero), otherwise forecast benefits For the current month, the higher of forecast benefit and, if reported, actual benefit For future months, the forecast benefits
  Total Resources (person months)	Total number of person months required by the lifecycle entity, as specified in its attached staffing profile.
  Nominal Return	Nominal return for the lifecycle entity, calculated as described in Total Nominal Return. This column is displayed only if the corresponding parameter has been enabled by an administrator, as is the case in the example in Figure 5-1. Scenario Comparison page.
  Net Present Value	Net present value for the lifecycle entity, calculated as described in Net Present Value (NPV). This column is displayed only if the corresponding parameter has been enabled by an administrator, as is the case in the example in Figure 5-1. Scenario Comparison page.
  Custom Field Value	Custom financial metric specified by an administrator for the purpose of ranking the lifecycle entity. This column is displayed only if the corresponding parameter has been enabled by an administrator, as is the case in the example in Figure 5-1. Scenario Comparison page.
  Score	Total Score calculated for the lifecycle entity. See Determining Value and Risk Ratings.
  Scenario 1, 2, and 3	List of check boxes that indicate which lifecycle entities (rows) are included in or excluded from each of the three scenarios for comparison purposes. Initially, all lifecycle entities are selected for all three scenarios. To differentiate the scenarios to be compared, deselect the check boxes as desired, as in the example in Figure 5-1. Scenario Comparison page. Note: By default, scenarios in a scenario comparison are identical if they have the same set of lifecycle entities selected. However, you can change the start date for any lifecycle entity in a scenario (see Adjusting Start Dates for Lifecycle Entities in a Scenario), which makes that scenario different from other scenarios with the same entities. The difference is not identified on the Scenario Comparison page.

• At the bottom of the Scenario Comparison page, the Notes section allows you to add notes to the scenario comparison. See Adding Notes to a Scenario Comparison.