Planning · Portfolio
Portfolio
See every item in planning, where each one has got to, and how strong its case is.
The Portfolio is the list of everything your organisation is planning. Each row is a portfolio item: usually a cluster of ideas promoted from the Inbox, sometimes an item raised directly. For each one you can see which planning step it is on, how far its requirements and reviews have got, how many people asked for it, its score and who owns it.
Use the Portfolio to compare items side by side, find the ones that need attention, and open any item to work on its plan.
Before you start
- To open the page, select Planning → Portfolio in the sidebar. The number beside it is how many items are active.
- If you cannot see this page, your organisation may not use it, or your role may not include it. See Understanding roles.
- The New item button only appears if your role allows you to raise items, which needs the same permissions as promoting from the Inbox.
Understanding the page
The list opens on Active items, newest first. Select any column header to sort by it.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Name | The item’s name, with its ID underneath. Select the name to open the item’s plan. If the item has child items, the ID line also says how many, and an arrow beside the name expands them. |
| Workflow group | The group that the item’s planning workflow belongs to, set up in Governance → Planning → Workflows. A dash means the workflow is not in a group. |
| Step | The workflow step the item is on. Once it has left planning, a tag shows where it went: In delivery, Parked or Not pursuing, or for a child item, Handed back or Cancelled. |
| Reviews | How many PRD review sign-offs have come back, out of how many were asked for, for example 3/5. It turns green when all are in. A dash means the PRD has not been sent for review yet. |
| Requirements | A bar and count showing how many requirements are fully defined, out of the total. The bar turns green when every one is. A dash means there are no requirements yet. |
| Demand | How many submissions are behind the item: the ideas in the cluster it was promoted from. A dash means no submissions are linked to it. |
| Score | A score out of 100 from the item’s scoring model. The ring’s colour shows its band. |
| Age | How long ago the item was created. Hover for the exact date. |
| Owner | The person driving the item through planning. Hover over the avatar for their name. |
On a phone, only the name, step, score and owner are shown.
The score
Hover over a score to see which model produced it (for example, RICE score), the score out of 100, and How the score evolved: the score after each planning step, the reason it changed and by how much.
The ring’s colour follows your organisation’s score bands. By default:
| Band | Score | Colour |
|---|---|---|
| Strong | 75 to 100 | Green |
| Okay | 50 to 74 | Amber |
| Weak | 0 to 49 | Red |
An orange chip beside the score, such as WSJF scoring, means the item uses a different scoring model from your organisation’s default. Its score is not directly comparable with the others.
Child items
Items raised by a parent item’s Sub-workflow step are child items. They sit under their parent in the list. Select the arrow beside the parent’s name to show or hide them. If a child’s parent is not in the current view, the child is shown at the top level, labelled child item with its name. See Sub-workflow step.
Choose what you are looking at
The toolbar above the list lets you narrow it down.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Lifecycle | Choose which items to list: Active (still in planning), In delivery, Parked or Not pursuing. |
| Step | Show only items on one planning step. |
| Workflow group | Show only items whose workflow is in one group, or No group. |
| Score | Show only items in one score range: High (70+), Medium (40–69) or Low (under 40). |
| Search | Find items by Name. |
| Sort | Sort by Name, Workflow group, Step, Requirements, Reviews, Demand, Score or Age. |
You can clear all filters at once from the toolbar. If no items match, the list says No concepts match your filters.
Raise an item straight into planning
Most items arrive by being promoted from the Inbox. New item lets you raise one directly when you already know it needs planning. Next still checks it and files it the same way as a submission, so the item arrives with a summary, a score and its evidence. It just skips the Inbox.
- Select New item. The Raise a portfolio item dialog opens.
- Under What’s the idea?, describe it in your own words: the problem, who it affects and what good would look like.
- Under How much is it hurting?, choose Blocking (work is stopping because of this), Friction (slower or harder than it should be) or Enhancement (better, not broken).
- Select Continue. Next reads the idea and checks what already exists. A progress bar shows what it is doing.
- Read Next’s summary. If the idea looks like something already raised, a warning tells you:
- If it matches a cluster in the Inbox, the ideas already raised for it can be brought in as evidence. Select View in inbox to look at it.
- If it matches an item already in the Portfolio, raising it creates a second, separate item. Select Open it to look at the existing one.
- Check the Name, and choose the Owner, Workflow and Scored with model, as you would when promoting a cluster.
- Select Create item. If Next found a matching cluster, choose Raise it with them to bring its ideas in, or Raise separately to keep them apart.
A confirmation appears and the new item opens, ready to plan.
If something goes wrong
- If Next cannot read the idea, you see Couldn’t read that idea. Select Continue to try again.
- If the idea was filed but not added to the Portfolio, the dialog says Filed, but not added yet. Your idea is safe in the Inbox. Select Try again to finish.
- You cannot close the dialog while it is saving.
What happens next
Open an item to work on its plan. Each item moves through the steps of its planning workflow. See Portfolio item.
When an item is promoted to delivery, parked or marked as not pursuing, it leaves the Active view. Switch the Lifecycle filter to find it again.
Good to know
- The list shows 25 items per page, with page buttons and a count underneath. If filters are hiding items, select Show all. If some items have not been loaded yet, the count says so; select Load the rest to load them.
- If the Portfolio is empty, it says No concepts yet. Promote a submission to start the portfolio.
- Which child items you have expanded is remembered while you move between the list and an item.