| Strategy Map | |
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Contents:
1. Overview
2. Using the strategy map
3. Target items and performance targets
4. Nesting measurable strategy map items
The strategy map is used to visualise the organisation's performance plan and to formally organise the organisation's performance goals from higher levels to lower.
The map comprises a principal vision that represents the organisation's principal performance goal and then subordinate objects (e.g. aims and objectives) to which can be attached measurable targets (performance targets) that are quantified using performance indicators and together contribute 100% to the overall vision. In addition to these objects, all strategy map items can contain action plans that are the organisation's road maps for acheiving specfic performance targets but do not contribute quantitatively to the performance targets.
The Escendency system comes with four default strategy item types; Visions, Aims, Objectives, and Targets.
However, an organisation can create any number of strategy map items in the Strategy Item Types module to reflect the needs and structure of the organisation and also edit (or delete) the Escendency system's default items.
How the organisation sets up their strategy map, therefore, is up to them. It is not uncommon for an organisation to use their own existing Corporate Performance Plan as a template (Fig. 1). Because the Escendency system requires SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) measurable targets to enable the performance plan to be measured it can thereby help streamline, and in some cases improve upon, an organisation's existing performance plan.
| Key: |  |
Vision |
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Aim | |
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Objective | |
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Target |
Fig. 1 Typical District Council strategy map based on the Council's Corporate Plan - one of the objectives has been expanded to illustrate target items. Some icons associated with the strategy map have been customised in the Strategy Item Types module.
To each of these items can be added one or more action plans with associated tasks. If the strategy map item is selected as measurable it can be associated with performance targets that each links to a specific performance indicator created by the organisation. Typically, performance targets are added to the lowest levels of the strategy map to which measurable performance indicators can be attached. The Escendency system then measures the contributions of each performance target associated with a strategy map item, wherever or however it is located in the map, but taking into account the contribution of the performance target to each component of the map it is linked to (and ultimately the organisation's vision).
The strategy map page has two panels (Figure 1). The left-hand panel shows a tree view of the organisation's aims, objectives and targets. On a new set up the tree will default to the vision item. The right-hand panel shows details of the selected item.
Click on the arrow at the top of the panel to change the size of the frame: it will expand to fill the whole window or shrink to fill half the window.
Click on an item in the tree to see its details. Details will appear in the right-hand panel.
2.2. Editing strategy map items
Right click on the item to edit and select edit item (figure 2). The same panel for adding an item will be displayed. If the item is measurable and has an active peformance target associated with it, certain fields will not be editable.
The contribution field is editable on measurable and non-measurable items even if child items have active performance targets and the new organisation weighting will be recalculated at the next overnight job. After the new data is entered press the "Update" button to save changes or "Cancel" to close window without changes.
Note: contributions are the weighting that declares how important the item is to the organisation, relative to others in the same group. Contributions for the entire performance system can also be set in the Strategic Contributions module (a useful option if the relevant contributions of strategy map items are not all known at the time of setting up the map).
Figure 2. Right click options on a measurable target item.
2.2.1. Cut and pasting strategy map items
Right click on the strategy map item to cut and select "cut" option. Right click on the strategy map item to nest the cut item and select the "paste item" option. This functionality is useful if the strategy map needs rearranging and is not limited by active performance targets.
2.3. Adding a strategy map item:
Right click on the strategy map item that the new item will be nested under and select add item. For a new set up there is only the default Vision item. An empty form will appear in the right-hand panel. Notice that the default item type is vision, measurable is set to no, status is set to open and the contribution field default is set to zero (Fig. 3).
Change the defaults as needed. If the item is to be assigned a performance target the measurable field should be set to "yes". Whether measurable or not, for the item and its child items to have any contribution to the overall vision add a relative value in the contribution field (typically a whole number though decimals are also accepted). After the new data is entered press the "Save" button to save the changes or "Cancel" to close the window without saving.
Note: contributions are the weighting that declares how important the item is to the organisation, relative to others in the same group. Contributions for the entire performance system can also be set in the Strategic Contributions module (a useful option if the relevant contributions of strategy map items are not all known at the time of setting up the map).
Figure 3: Create strategy map item window.
2.4. Deleting a strategy map item
Right click on the item to delete and select the delete option. A popup message will appear to confirm the deletion. Press OK to delete the item, or Cancel to leave it untouched.
2.5. Adding and viewing performance targets
For a comprehensive overview of performance targets and their roles in the Escendency system see performance target help.
To view and edit existing performance targets right click on a measurable strategy map item that has one or more performance targets associated with it (this option is not applicable to non-measurable items) and click on "add/view targets." Note: To edit measurer's and validator's comment click on the Edit Measurement option.
Figure: 4. View/Edit window for a measurable strategy map item's performance targets.
2.6. Adding and viewing peformance target responsibilities
To view and edit existing performance target's responsibilities right click on a measurable strategy map item that has one or more performance targets associated with it (this option is not applicable to non-measurable items) and select "add/view responsibility".
Figure 5: View and edit panel for responsibilities for target item's performance targets.
See Performance Target help for detailed information on editing and adding performance target responsibilities.
Any non-vision item can have an action plan attached. Action plans are monitored by the system but do not in themselves contribute to the performance measurement of the system. They are essentially organisation roadmaps that are put in place to help facilitate the success of specific performance targets. Users with action plan creator, or administrator, rights can create and edit action plans (see action plans).
3. Target Items and Performance Targets
It is helpful to distinguish between target items and performance targets: Target items are optional strategy map items, whereas a performance target is an organisation's specific measurable target that is measured using either statutory BVPI's or the organisation's own local performance indicators (Escendency systems come with two default types of performance indicators, BVPI and Local, that can be edited or added to in the Performance Indicator Type module).
Although performance targets are typically associated with target items in the strategy map, they don't have to be. If an objective is checked as measurable, for example, it can have any number of performance targets associated with it.
4. Nesting measurable strategy map Items
It is possible to nest measurable strategy map items: A performance target might depend on seveal other targets, e.g. a target of increasing the SAP of Council homes by 10% could comprise subordinate targets of increasing the number of energy efficient boiler installations, loft installations, increase the domestic use of solar panels, wind turbines etc (figure 6).
| Map item | Description |
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Primary Aim |
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Secondary Aim |
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Primary Objective |
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Secondary Objective |
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Primary Target |
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Secondary Target |
Figure 6: Example of a nested measurable strategy map item. The 5 secondary targets have their default contributions kept at zero.
However, to avoid confusion in performance target graphs, the nested measurable items should not have any contribution weighting. It is their completion alone that will satisfy the parent's status.