Creating Metrics

Metrics vary widely based on the type of information required at your company. The procedure below discusses how to create the basis for any metric. See the additional topics in the Learn More list below to add features such as expressions to form calculated metrics.

Planners can also create metrics when defining a planning element in Accolade Innovation Planning. Metrics created in Innovation Planning contain a subset of options that are applicable to metric usage in Innovation Planning.

To create a metric:

1. From the System menu, select Content Sources > Metrics.

To narrow the metric list, search by the metric name, system name, or category.

2. Do one of the following:

• To add a new metric - Click Add New in the upper right corner of the page.
• To edit an existing metric - Click the name of the metric to open it for editing.
• To create a metric based on an existing metric - Click in the Copy column to create a copy that can be used as a base to build a new metric.

To copy a metric, the user must have "Can Edit" for at least one access group in the system and "Can View" for at least one access group on the metric. If you "Can Edit" any of the access groups the metric belongs to, the copy will have those groups. If you do not have "Can Edit" on any of the metric's access groups, the copy inherits your highest access group you can edit. See Designing the Access Group Hierarchy for more information on access groups.

3. Complete the following information to identify and describe the metric:
   
   Required fields display with red text and an asterisk * if the field is empty.

Field	Description
Display Name	Enter a name, up to 64 characters long, which identifies the metric.
System Name	Enter a unique, shorter name that identifies the metric in queries, reporting views, Accolade Office Extensions add-in, Accolade online reports, and field codes, and other areas in Accolade. The name must be unique among metrics and can contain only letters (English alphabet), numbers, and the underscore. Note:  Modifying system names of existing metrics is not recommended. If you modify an existing system name, you must also update the name in each query, report, template, and so on that references the metric.
Description	Enter a description of the purpose or nature of the metric. This description helps other users identify the metric throughout the system.
Category	Enter or select the group to which this metric belongs. More... Use categories to organize like metrics together. For example, if there is a large number of metrics assigned to a process model, a Project Manager can use a category selection to locate metrics within their projects. Leave this field blank to add to the Default category. To define a new category, select New Category and enter the category name. To delete a category, remove every item from the category. Empty categories are deleted automatically.
Order	Enter a number to specify the metric's place when it displays in a list of metrics. Lower numbered metrics display higher in the list.

4. Select one or more of the "Available to" options to make the metric available in other portions of Accolade. More...

    

   Option	Description
   Available to Business Intelligence Tools	Select this check box to enable the metric for use in your organization's business intelligence application. Note:  If the Available to Planning check box is selected, the Available to Business Intelligence Tools and Available to Reporting options will be automatically added to the metric settings when the metric is created. If the metric is selected for inclusion in a portfolio snapshot, you cannot clear this option.
   Available to Matrix	Select this check box to enable the metric for use in matrices. Important! A metric that is available to matrices can only be used in matrices, and is not available as a standard metric. This setting cannot be changed after the metric is created. Metrics available to a matrix cannot be displayed individually on project pages or in a standard quick grid. They can only be displayed in a project document based on the matrix Excel template or in a matrix grid within a quick grid. This option is not available for metrics created within Innovation Planning
   Available to Phases	Select this check box to allow the metric to be defined as a phase metric for use with element types in Accolade Innovation Planning. This option is only available to select or modify from within Innovation Planning.
   Available to Planning	Select this check box to allow the metric to be added to element types in Innovation Planning. If the Available to Planning check box is selected AND the metric is defined as a date type, select a shape from the drop-down list to represent a milestone date when included in a planning view. See Assigning Milestone Metrics to Planning Element Types for more information. Note:  If the Available to Planning check box is selected, the Available to Business Intelligence Tools and Available to Reporting options will be automatically added to the metric settings when the metric is created. If the metric is used as a setting for a public planning view, you cannot clear this option.
   Available to Portfolio Optimizer	Select one of the following to indicate the metric availability within Portfolio Optimizer: Not Available - Not available in Portfolio Optimizer. Reporting Only - Included in reports and in calculations, but is not visible or editable in Portfolio Optimizer. This option allows you to create metrics for reporting or calculations that are available to other metrics in Portfolio Optimizer without including the metric in the list of available columns in Portfolio Optimizer. Edit - Visible and fully available in Portfolio Optimizer. Metrics that display on a project’s Portfolio page should be selected for Portfolio Optimizer for users to see the same metric data in Portfolio Optimizer as seen in the project.
   Available to Reporting	Select this check box to allow the metric in reports created using the Accolade Office Extensions add-in, Accolade Online Reporting, or reporting view, and within snapshots. Note:  If the Available to Planning check box is selected, the Available to Business Intelligence Tools and Available to Reporting options will be automatically added to the metric settings when the metric is created. If the metric is selected for inclusion in a portfolio snapshot, you cannot clear this option.
   Available to Resource Editor	Select this check box to make the metric displayable in the project details within Resource Editor, when associated with a project's model.
   Available to Workflow Line-up	Select this check box to make the metric displayable in the Workflow Line-up page. Important! The number of metrics selected as available to the workflow line-up has the potential to exponentially slow down the Workflow Line-Up page load and navigation. Consider which metrics require visibility on this page.

5. (Optional) If the Available to Planning check box is selected AND the metric is defined as a date type, select a list metric with defined colors to set the color of a milestone date icon when included in a planning view. See Assigning Milestone Metrics to Planning Element Types for more information.
6. Select the Active check box when the metric is ready to use in projects.

To deactivate a metric that is not in use, clear the Active check box. Note that you can only deactivate metrics that are not included on a model.

7. Check the metric options to determine how and where a metric displays throughout the system. More...

    

   Option	Description
   Allow Updates from All My Work page	Select this check box to include the metric as part of updating projects from the All My Work page. Users must have Allow Updates from All My Work page rights to update projects from the All My Work page. This option is not available for calculated metrics.
   Filter Metric	Select this check box to make this metric available as a filter in Search and various other locations throughout Accolade. A filter metric should contain values that clearly distinguish different project types or project groups. By default, you can create three filter metrics in Accolade, however the Maximum Filter Metrics Allowed parameter can be updated to allow for a maximum of 10. Although any type of metric other than long string can be designated as a filter metric, list metrics may be most usable for this purpose because of the ease of selecting the exact value needed. Using string metrics as filter metrics requires entering the exact string when filtering projects using filter metrics. Example When a project contains descriptive metric data, such as project type, select the same filter values Search and similar pages to find the project. The pages list only those projects with matching filter values.
   Inherited Metric	Select this check box to have this metric inherit its value from an instance of the same metric in a project higher in a portfolio structure. Finish creating the base metric and continue with creating a metric that inherits its value.
   Track History	Select this check box to save information such as when a metric value changed, who made the change, when the change was made, and the original value before the change for historical reporting purposes. Important! Tracking metric history has the potential to create a large amount of history information. Carefully consider which metrics require history tracking, and track only those needed for historical purposes.
   Searchable Metric	Select this check box to make the contents of the metric searchable. This applies to: String List Long String Multi-Select List

8. In the Restrict to These Roles field, select one or more user roles to restrict the metric availability to users with one of those roles.
9. In the Initialize From field, select the metric whose value you want to display in this metric before another value is entered. This list contains other metrics of the same data type.
10. In the Data Type field, select the type of data this metric represents.

The Data Type selection determines what other options are available when configuring the metric.

Data Type	Description
String	Creates a text box that accepts up to 500 characters.
Number	Creates a text box that accepts only numerals, a decimal point, and a dash. Number metrics have a 15 character limit (including decimal points and dashes).
Date	Creates a calendar control that enables a date selection. Date metrics can also be defined as milestone dates.
List	Creates a drop-down list of items for a single selection. The complete list has a 2500 character limit, and each entry in the list has a 500 character limit for the list item display name. If the list source is a query or reference table, the list character limit does not apply.
Long String	Creates a text box where the options and character limit depends on if the Rich Text check box is enabled: If Rich Text is enabled - Allows users to format the text using buttons in the toolbar of the text box. There is a 2 GB limit to data that can be entered. If Rich Text is not enabled - Allows users to enter plain text that can be formatted using markdown formatting. There is a 2000 character limit. Long String metrics cannot be flagged as filter metrics. If you require more than 2000 characters, enable the Rich Text check box or enable one or more Extended Project Data fields in the metadata in the process model. See Capturing Large Data Strings in Accolade for more information.
Multi-Select List	Creates a drop-down list of items for multiple selections. Data limits are the same as for an ordinary list. The complete list has a 2500 character limit.

11. Complete the appropriate options for the metric type you are defining.
Number

 

Field	Description
Number Format	Enter a custom number format to specify how the value displays in a Word or PowerPoint document, or in quick grids when added to an Accolade field. If you do not enter a number format, numbers display without formatting.
Decimal Places	Enter an integer from 0 to 14 to specify the number of decimal places allowed in values for this metric. This is also the number of places to which the value is rounded in Accolade and in metric field codes. If you did not create a number format for Microsoft Office documents, this value also determines the value's decimal places when displayed in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Example To display the metric value as an integer, enter 0. To display its values with two decimal places, such as 3.14, enter 2. Metrics do not show trailing zeroes except in Portfolio Optimizer, project history, and Smart documents. For example, metrics set to 3.20 will show as 3.2.

Date

 

Field

Description

Relative Date

Select this check box to specify a time period before or after another date that serves as the metric reference date, such as a project start date or another date metric. The actual date is calculated and is displayed in reports in a column named <metric name> Calculated. Example If Period is set to Monthly, Relative To is set Project End Date, and the Project End Date is June 1, then a metric value of 1 equals July 1, a metric value of 2 equals August 1, and so on. You can also enter negative numbers to specify periods before the Relative To date.

List

 

Field	Description
List Source	Select how to enter the list items, by entering a list manually, by query, or by reference table column selection. Finish creating the base metric and then continue with creating the list for single and multi-select list metrics or creating a cascading list metric.

Long String

 

Field

Description

Rich Text

Select this check box to enable rich text editing. When Rich Text is selected, the following options are disabled: Business Intelligence Tools Planning Portfolio Optimizer Reporting Resource Editor Workflow Line-up Allow updates from All My Work page Filter Metric Inherited Metrics Track History Initialize From Snapshots In addition to the above, all options on the Calculated Formula and Events tab are disabled as rich text metrics cannot be used in calculations. Additionally, long string metrics and matrix metrics configured as rich text cannot contain HTML script tags. Note:  Rich text metrics are available for use in the following areas: PowerPoint field codes, quick grids, advanced pods, and Web API.

Multi-Select List

 

Field	Description
List Source	Select how to enter the list items, by entering a list manually, by query, or by reference table column selection. Finish creating the base metric and then continue with creating the list for single and multi-select list metrics or creating a cascading list metric.

12. Associate the metric to multiple models.
13. On the Security tab, configure access group restrictions for the metric.

Click Process Model Usage on the Security tab to see the list of process models that the metric is associated with. The list includes all process models the metric is included in, as well as links to the process model's component tree pages that you have Edit access to.

14. Click Create to create the new metric or Apply to save changes to an existing metric.
15. (Optional) Continue with creating and scheduling metric calculations by selecting the Calculated Formula and Events tab to calculate the metric value from an expression of one or more metrics or Accolade fields and assign when the metric will calculate by based on a specific event or designated time.

Notes:    Administrators can view existing metric definitions, but cannot add or modify metrics. Accolade is installed with limits to the number of metrics available to reporting via the Accolade Office Extensions add-in. Number - 900 Date - 900 List - 450 Multi-Select List - 250 String - 200 Long String - 50 Accolade Portfolio Optimizer, Innovation Planning and Roadmapping are optional Accolade components that you may not have access to. To implement these solutions, contact Sopheon Customer Support.