Initiatives

Setup Initiative Types

You can configure what Initiative Types are selectable within Prioritisation. This configuration setting is found under General Settings within the Strategy header.

Initiative Types

An initiative can be any type of work such as Ideas, Proposals, or Projects. To remain flexible to our users' requirements, we have made a setting to define what type of entity (or data) is defined as an initiative for Prioritisation.

This setting will impact what data can be added to a Prioritisation and which Entities will have an Evaluation tab (i.e., if a Project is defined as an Initiative, an Evaluation tab will appear in Projects for the Project Manager to evaluate their project against evaluation criteria).

Clicking on Edit Defaults will load the default setup for you to start editing from the default (and not from blank settings).

Warning: Be aware that clicking Edit Defaults will also load the defaults on the Evaluation Impact. So, if you have already configured your Evaluation Impacts (within the same setting page above), you may lose your configuration.

By default, the system allows users to select the following Initiative Types to include in their Prioritisation model:

• Projects
• Proposals
• Ideas

Warning:

• Removing an entity from the Initiative Type list excludes it from prioritisation and prevents it from receiving a Prioritisation Score.
• If all Initiative Types are removed, the system defaults back to Projects, Proposals, and Ideas. To avoid showing the Evaluation tab, at least one Initiative Type must remain defined:
  • Option 1: Define an unused entity as an Initiative Type.
  • Option 2: Keep Projects as an Initiative Type and hide the Evaluation tab for each Project Type in the Project Type configurations.

You can edit these options by selecting the pencil icon or remove them by selecting the bin icon within their row.

You can also re-order the options, which will determine the order of the tabs in the Select Initiatives form when selecting initiatives in the Prioritisation.

Clicking on the pencil icon will open the edit form of the Initiative Type:

The Initiative Type window contains the following fields:

• Type (Table): This is the table that contains the Initiative Type you would like to display in the Select Initiative window of the Prioritisation when a user wants to add initiatives.
• Custom Tab Label: This is where you can optionally override the name of the tab that will display within the Select Initiative window. If left blank, the name of the Type (Table) will be used.
• Add initiative (Related View): This is where you can select what view you would like to display for the tab in the Select Initiative window. The view determines the columns that display and any filters that are applied to the data. You can create your own view with additional filtering to customize the list of available initiatives to meet your organization’s requirements. See the Custom Entity Initiatives section below for instructions on how to configure this for your own tables.
• Lookup field (on initiative): This is the lookup field for the Initiative table that tells the system how to link the Initiative to the selected type of table. See the Custom Entity Initiatives section below for instructions on how to configure this for your own tables.
• Form (containing the Evaluation tab): This identifies the form for the entity you specified as the Type (Table) above that contains a tab which embeds the Initiative form. See the Custom Entity Initiatives section below for instructions on how to configure this for your own tables.

Optional - Add Custom Initiative Types

Out of the box, the following tables/entities are configured as Initiative Types in the Strategy General Settings - Ideas, Proposals, and Projects. The main form for each of those types contains an Evaluation tab which embeds the form for the associated Initiative for that record.

When a user navigates to the Evaluation tab, if no Initiative record exists in Dataverse relating to the currently viewed record, then a new Initiative will be created (but only if the current user has write access to the primary entity) and will be linked to the primary record via a lookup field on the Initiative. In addition, a lookup field on the primary record will be populated with a link to the related Initiative.

Custom Entity Initiatives

Custom tables/entities or other out-of-the-box entities can be configured to participate in the Initiative prioritisation process by following these steps:

1. In an unmanaged solution where you are adding other customizations, select to Add existing > Table.
2. Select the Initiative table.
3. Click Next.
4. Ensure that the No objects selected message appears (If objects have been selected, click Select objects and click Cancel to remove those object references), and then click Add.
5. From your unmanaged solution, select the Initiative table name.
6. Select Columns.
7. Select New column.
8. Add a new column where Data type is a Lookup and where the Related table references the table you wish to add to Initiative prioritisation. Click Save to create the new column.
9. Next, select to add a column to the entity/table that you are adding as an Initiative type. If that entity/table is not yet referenced in your unmanaged solution where you are managing your customizations, then go ahead and add it.
10. Select to add a column of type Lookup which references the Initiative table. Ensure that the field you create has a Schema name of initiative. Click Save.
11. Next, select to edit the main form for the table that you are adding as an Initiative type. If the form is not yet referenced in your unmanaged solution where you are managing your customizations, then go ahead and add it.
12. Select to add a new 1-column Tab to the entity form.
13. Enter details for the tab including Evaluation as the Label and tab_prioritisation as the name.
14. Select to add the Form component to your new form tab and configure it to use the Initiative lookup column, and to use Information as the Related form. Then click Done.
15. Select the Events tab and select to add an On Tab State Change event handler.
16. Ensure that the sensei_SenseiProject.bundle.js library is selected, and then enter sensei_SenseiProject.Generic.Prioritisation.onTabSelect as the function.
17. Next, to allow the Plan action button to direct users to the Evaluation tab, ensure that the form is updated to use the RoleSecurityHandler onLoad function. From the form information pane, select the Events tab.
18. Click to expand the On Load section.
    • If there is already a reference to the sensei_SenseiProject.Generic.RoleSecurityHandler.FormOnLoad handler, then skip to the last step (Save and Publish).
    • If there is no existing handler for the sensei_SenseiProject.Generic.RoleSecurityHandler.FormOnLoad handler, then select + Event Handler.
19. Ensure that the event type is set to On Load and that the library is set to sensei_SenseiProject.bundle.js and then enter the function name as sensei_SenseiProject.Generic.RoleSecurityHandler.FormOnLoad and ensure that both Enabled and Pass execution context as first parameter are selected. Then click Done.
20. From the top right corner of the form editor, select Save and publish.
21. Next, as an Altus Admin User, navigate to the Settings area of the Altus app, and select General Settings under Strategy.
22. If this is the first time you are modifying this setting, select Edit Defaults to populate the setting with the coded default values. Warning: This will also apply the defaults on the Evaluation Impact and therefore erase what you may have configured previously.
23. Select to add a New Initiative Type.
24. Enter the Type (Table) by selecting the entity/table that you wish to add to the Initiative prioritisation process.
25. Select the View (relating to the table you selected) that you wish to use for this table when selecting Initiatives to prioritise. You can select an existing view or create your own view with your selected columns and filters. Views can be created by users with at minimum Environment Maker permissions to the Power Platform environment that Altus is installed on. Views can be configured with the columns you wish to show and the filters that you wish to apply to the table data.
26. Select the Lookup field that you added to the Initiative entity which is a lookup back to the table you selected.
27. Select the form for your Type (Table) that contains the Evaluation tab which embeds the Initiative form.
28. Select to Save the configuration setting.
29. Ensure also that Pass execution context as first parameter is selected. Click Done.

Upon navigating to your entity form in the Altus app, it should behave the same way as an out-of-the-box configured Initiative Type when selecting the Evaluation tab.

Custom Initiative Types - Configuration Example

Initiative Types can also be configured so that you can display and select from a subset of an existing Initiative Type on another tab.

Take for example an organization that has a custom Project Type called ‘Business Case’ and they wish to display the Projects of type ‘Business Case’ as a separate Initiative Type.

In this example, the Project table is already configured to participate as an Initiative (e.g., the Project form is already set up with an Evaluation tab, the Project table already contains a lookup field to Initiative and the Initiative table already contains a lookup field to Project).

1. Create a view for the Project table that includes a filter to display only active Projects that are of the Project Type ‘Business Case’. Save and publish this view.
2. Navigate to the Configuration Settings in Altus and select the Strategy > General Settings setting. If you have not modified any Initiative Types previously, clicking on “Edit Defaults” will load the default setup for you to start editing from the default (and not from blank settings). Warning: Be aware that clicking on Edit Defaults will also load the defaults on the Evaluation Impact. So, if you have already configured your Evaluation Impacts (within the same setting page above), you may lose your configuration.
3. From the list of Initiative Types, select + New Initiative Type.
4. Enter the following details for your Initiative Type:
   • Type (Table): Select Projects (this is the table that contains the data).
   • Custom Tab Label: Enter a name for the tab. Example here uses ‘Business Cases’ - so as to distinguish this Initiative Type from the existing Projects Initiative Type.
   • Add initiative (Related View): Select the view that contains your active Business Cases (in this example ‘All Active Business Case Projects’).
   • Lookup field (on initiative): Project.
   • Form (containing the Prioritisation tab): Information.
5. Click ‘OK’, then save the configuration setting.

Your Business Case initiative tab should now appear in the Prioritisation Plan when you select initiatives.