Best Practices on Using Calculations

• Use calculations only with Standard KPIs (non leaf level).
• Accept the default values for Standard KPIs (leaf level) and Objective KPIs.

Detailed Description of Behavior

To understand how the Calculation setting affects a KPI, it is important to understand the differences between three types of KPIs:

• Standard KPIs (leaf level). These KPIs have no KPIs below them in the scorecard hierarchy and have the option “Use calculated values of Actual and Target to compute score” selected in the Calculation dialog box.
• Standard KPIs (non leaf level). These KPIs have one or more KPIs below them in the scorecard hierarchy and have the option “Use calculated values of Actual and Target to compute score” selected in the Calculation dialog box.
• Objective KPIs. These KPIs have one or more KPIs below them in the scorecard hierarchy and have the option “Use calculated values of Actual and Target to compute score” cleared (not selected) in the Calculation Dialog box.

Calculation settings apply differently, depending on the type of KPI. In addition, be aware that each KPI has a value and a score. For Standard KPIs, the value is a number that either comes directly from a data source or is calculated based on child KPIs (such as the average of child KPIs). Values are not used with Objective KPIs.

For Standard KPIs, the score is a percentage that compares the KPI’s Actual value to its Target value. (This percentage can be a raw score or normalized score, based on its thresholds.) For Objective KPIs, the score is the weighted average of the scores of the child KPI. The score determines which indicator is shown. (Note that you can override the score by selecting Band by Stated Score in the Edit Bandings dialog box.)

Scores are shown on a scorecard, as illustrated:

The following table explains how calculations settings affect your scorecard KPIs: