Where to enter values for Strategic Value Score & Effort SWAG on portfolio epics

[Louise Boulton]

Background

• In the Portfolio menu > Portfolio Epics a table is exposed that includes Strategic Value Score (SVS) & Effort SWAG as columns that can be selected
• The help for that page states that SVS is for those not using scorecards or WSJF
• When I open any portfolio epic, I can't see any fields to enter those values.

Question 1

• Where are the fields located to enter SVS & effort SWAG values?
• Are they hidden or impacted in any other way depending on any setting relating to prioritisation method and scorecard selection?

Question 2

• What is the calculation that JA does to order by SVS or Effort SWAG on the table of Portfolio Epics?

Question 3

• When scorecard prioritisation is in use, what's the relationship between the order that results from sorting by SVS or Effort SWAG on that table, and the order that is shown when you open an epic in the slide out on the right > Value tab > Analyse button > ROI score table & Value Score are exposed? Will the order be identical or not?

[Steve Sauser]

@Louise Boulton Thank you for your questions, I will attempt to address each one in order.  

Answer 1

• The fields for Strategic Value and Effort Swag are contained within the Epic under the "Full Details" Section.  

• If you are unable to see the fields in Full Details then it means the fields have been toggled off in the Detail Panel Settings. 
  • Settings (Cog wheel in the top right of your screen) --> Detail Panel Settings --> Select your portfolio --> Choose the appropriate Work Item --> Toggle on in the Active Column "Effort Swag" and "Strategic Value Score" --> Save

Answer 2

• I assume you are talking about the Backlog view in this case (the Grid view does not sort based upon selecting a column heading). 
  • There is no default sort by for any of the Strategic Value, Effort Swag, or Score. 
• The Backlog is a rank order and when selecting any single column you will receive a preview of the order the backlog will be in based upon your selection.  You can either choose Cancel or Apply to the question of "Do you want to apply this rank". 
  • Choosing Apply will rank the backlog by that column order. 
  • There is no multi-rank capability (such as "Rank by Strategic Value Score and then by Score"). 

Answer 3

• There are no relationships between Score (Value Score) and Strategic Value Score / Effort Swag.  

There are multiple methods to use in order to rank a backlog, however those methods don't intersect.  If you are seeking a method which allows a multi-factor evaluation either leverage the Score or WSJF; these will both allow you to get to a single value which would represent the consumption of all the data elements contained in each one.  

• It is unusual to use all of these methods at the same time, especially without comprehensive documentation and processes that are well communicated and able to be adhered to by all parties involved in the backlog prioritization patterns.  
• It would be important to define very clearly both the when and why behind each value with a cadence that is clear when the values must be entered for a given prioritization event.  

Please let us know if you have additional questions.  

[Steve Sauser]

@Louise Boulton

Question 1 - Tina is 100% accurate, the score will not be recalculated by actions taken inside the Epic (Save or Save & Close will not recalculate).  If you change the Scoring Model then you will need to rescore each Epic, once the rescore is done the value will be updated inside the Epic that was updated.  

Question 2 - The filters options will always be available, even if a value does not exist in them.  If you want to see which issues (epics in this case) do not have a value populated for Effort Swag or Strategic Value Score you would want to add those 2 columns to the "# Columns Shown".  

• This will allow you to sort (order by) either one of these so that the ones missing a value would be shown at the top of the page(s).  

[Louise Boulton]

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me, this is very useful. Two follow up questions:

1. About using the scorecard to prioritise: we have had to change numbers in the scoring so we are not using zero as a valid selection (workaround for this bug https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JIRAALIGN-7461). I was exploring an alternative approach to prioritisation whilst waiting for a fix, which is what led to my question. Can you confirm that once we have edited our scorecard, that epics will need to be scored again on the value tab in each epic? I assume that the score is calculated once the Save button is clicked in the epic, so edits to the scorecard will not be picked up without doing that again?

2. The view I'm talking about is reached from Portfolio > select a portfolio > click Portfolio Epics which is the first item on the menu on the left side. Not the backlog, which is the second menu item. The view in question presents data in a table that is sortable by heading. The Apply Filter button on that view has the options Strategic Value Score and Effort SWAG. Is it possible to prevent those choices appearing when those fields have never been populated?

Thanks for your help.

[Tina Behers]

@Louise Boulton Yes you are correct.  When you change the scorecard, the epics will need to be rescored to calculate using the new values.