Search for	Example	Results
A single word	`cat`	Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats".
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase.	`"cat food"` (quotation marks)	Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase.

Search for	Operator	Example
Two or more words in the same topic	`AND` `and` `+` (plus symbol) `&` (ampersand)	`cat AND dog` `"cat food"+milk` `"cat food"&"dog food"`
Either word in a topic	`OR` `or` `\|` (pipe)	`cat OR dog` `cat \| dog`
Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase	`NOT` `not` `!` (exclamation point)	`NOT cat` `! dog`
Topics that contain one string and do not contain another	`^` (caret)	`cat ^ mouse`
A combination of search types	`( )` parentheses	`cat + (dog \| mouse)` `cat \| dog + (! mouse)`

IT Business Analytics10.10

Develop > Customize KPIs, Metrics, Pages, and More > End User - View and Analyze the Business Objectives > Explorer - What If

Explorer - What-If

IT Business Analytics provides information regarding the status and values of Objectives, KPIs, or Metrics on the past and current periods in the Dashboard and Explorer tabs. The What-If tab provides a glimpse into the future by forecasting the entity future behavior of the Objective, based on historical data, so you will be able more easily understand the underlying trend and to do all you can now to improve or maintain the desired behavior. In addition, the tab enables you to view the historical, current, and future behavior of the selected Objective.

The capability is available only to Power users (users with the Power Named User License). For details, see Licenses

If the Objective is not set to the current period, the What-If button is disabled.

To access:

Calculation method for the Score

Calculation method for forecast

Minimum historical data

The best forecasts are based on a large amount of historical data.

To provide the best forecast using the above algorithm, the calculation relies on as much historical data as is available. The following table indicates what are the minimum historical periods needed to calculate a certain future period.

Future Period	Minimum historical data to calculate single future period	Maximum period possible for this periodicity	Maximum historical data to calculate maximum future period
1 day	30 days	14 days	420 days
1 week	12 weeks	4 weeks	48 weeks
1 month	12 months	3 months	36 months
1 quarter	6 quarters	3 quarters	18 quarters
1 year	3 years	3 years	9 years

Limitations

View the What-If of an Objective

To view the What-If of an Objective:

As a Power user with the Forecast permission, click Explorer.
Select the relevant Objective in the Active KPIs pane, and click What-If.
The historical view of the Objective appears alongside the forecast. (The forecast is calculated using the DoubleExponentialSmoothingModel algorithm described above).
Beneath the historical view, you can view details about the Objective child KPIs, their thresholds, and values.
You can drag the pointer of a KPI up or down to adjust it to the value you want to check and to view the change in score and forecast on-the-fly.

Once you finish dragging the pointer, the score and the Forecast graph are updated.
The display maintains the current forecast graph (pale green line) with the new forecast graph (black line) based on the changed values to enable you to compare between the current forecast and the What-If forecast.
You can change the values of other child KPIs and watch how that changes the score and graph.
To go back to the original values, click the Reset to default button for each child KPI.
Note
- The changes to the values of the KPIs in the What-If tab are reset any time you leave the page.
- The What-If page displays data only when Current is selected in the in period <period> in the title of the page.

The Explorer - What-If page includes the following areas:

What-If page

Active KPIs

User interface elements are described below (when relevant, unlabeled elements are shown in angle brackets):

UI Element	Description
<Search>	Enter the relevant string to display, in the tree, the nodes whose name includes the string. In addition, the child nodes of the filtered nodes are also listed even when the child node names do not include the string. If the display is filtered (in case you accessed the Explorer from one of the components in the Dashboard), the <Search> box displays information about the filter. For example:
	Advanced Search. Opens additional fields to help you refine the component's filter: Status: Select one of the All, Good, Warning, Critical, or No Data values to display only the elements with the selected status, in the Active KPIs area. When you select No Data, the search returns only the elements with no data. Type: Select: All. To display all the elements in the tree with the selected status. KPI. To display only the KPIs with the selected status. Metric. To display a list of all the Metrics (the Status is changed to All). If you had selected a value in Status, and then you select Metric, then the Status field displays All, and becomes inaccessible. Objective.To display only the Objectives with the selected status, and their KPIs.
Active KPIs	Depending on how you accessed the Explorer tab, the pane lists all the Scorecards, Perspectives, Objectives, KPIs, KPI Breakdowns, Metrics, Metric Breakdowns, and Unassigned KPIs, active in the IT Business Analytics or a subset of these items. The list of Scorecards that is displayed corresponds to the Scorecards that are permitted for your user. For details about permissions, see User Management Note A Scorecard Administrator who wants to see a newly created Scorecard in Explorer (and who has the correct permissions to see the Scorecard), needs to refresh the Explorer using the Refresh button to display the Scorecard. Click one of the Scorecards, Perspectives, Objectives, KPIs, KPI Breakdowns, Metrics, Metric Breakdowns, or Unassigned KPIs to display their detailed information in the other pane. The area also displays on the right side of the Active KPIs pane, a subset of the following items depending on the type of item you selected: The name of the item. The value of the item. The trend icon indicates the trend of the value calculated over the current period. The status of the item, during the current period. It can be: indicates that the status is Good. indicates that the status is Warning. indicates that the status is Critical. indicates that the status is Pending and that the calculations have not yet been performed or completed.

UI Element

Description

<Search>

Enter the relevant string to display, in the tree, the nodes whose name includes the string.

In addition, the child nodes of the filtered nodes are also listed even when the child node names do not include the string.

If the display is filtered (in case you accessed the Explorer from one of the components in the Dashboard), the <Search> box displays information about the filter. For example:

Advanced Search. Opens additional fields to help you refine the component's filter:

Status: Select one of the All, Good, Warning, Critical, or No Data values to display only the elements with the selected status, in the Active KPIs area. When you select No Data, the search returns only the elements with no data.

Type: Select:
- All. To display all the elements in the tree with the selected status.
- KPI. To display only the KPIs with the selected status.
- Metric. To display a list of all the Metrics (the Status is changed to All). If you had selected a value in Status, and then you select Metric, then the Status field displays All, and becomes inaccessible.
- Objective.To display only the Objectives with the selected status, and their KPIs.

Active KPIs

Depending on how you accessed the Explorer tab, the pane lists all the Scorecards, Perspectives, Objectives, KPIs, KPI Breakdowns, Metrics, Metric Breakdowns, and Unassigned KPIs, active in the IT Business Analytics or a subset of these items.

The list of Scorecards that is displayed corresponds to the Scorecards that are permitted for your user. For details about permissions, see User Management

Note A Scorecard Administrator who wants to see a newly created Scorecard in Explorer (and who has the correct permissions to see the Scorecard), needs to refresh the Explorer using the Refresh button to display the Scorecard.

Click one of the Scorecards, Perspectives, Objectives, KPIs, KPI Breakdowns, Metrics, Metric Breakdowns, or Unassigned KPIs to display their detailed information in the other pane.

The area also displays on the right side of the Active KPIs pane, a subset of the following items depending on the type of item you selected:

The name of the item.
The value of the item.
The trend icon indicates the trend of the value calculated over the current period.
The status of the item, during the current period. It can be:
- indicates that the status is Good.
- indicates that the status is Warning.
- indicates that the status is Critical.
- indicates that the status is Pending and that the calculations have not yet been performed or completed.

What-If area

The display of the What-If for a specific Objective depends on the user permission for the Objective.

User interface elements are described below (when relevant, unlabeled elements are shown in angle brackets):

UI Element	Description
<Name> in period <Selection> <Score> <Trend> <Status>	The title lists: <Name>. The name of the selected Objective. <Selection>. The list of periods that is displayed corresponds to the periods for which the forecast can be calculated based on the available historical data. Note Make sure that Current Mode is selected in the in period <period> in the title of the Overview page. Score. The score of the selected Objective. The score displayed here is the result of the score calculations performed on the values of the child KPIs for the current period. Trend. The trend icon indicates the trend of the value of the selected item in the selected period compared to its value in the previous period. Status. The status of the KPI, KPI Breakdown (Metrics, and Metric Breakdowns do not have a status), during the current period. It can be: indicates that the status is Good. indicates that the status is Warning. indicates that the status is Critical. indicates that the status is Pending or No data, meaning that the calculation of the status was not yet completed or the status was not calculated or that there was en error in the calculation.
Objective Score	Details about the Objective Score. Score. The score of the selected Objective. The score displayed here is the result of the score calculated, on-the-fly, for the values of the child KPIs indicated by the pointer. Trend. The trend icon indicates the trend of the value of the selected item in the selected period compared to its value in the previous period. Status. The status of the KPI, KPI Breakdown (Metrics, and Metric Breakdowns do not have a status), during the current period. It can be: indicates that the status is Good. indicates that the status is Warning. indicates that the status is Critical. indicates that the status is Pending or No data, meaning that the calculation of the status was not yet completed or the status was not calculated or that there was en error in the calculation.
<Graph format>	Real data graph Indicates a regular "point" corresponding to a division of the time period. You can move the cursor above the graph to display a line that shows the exact date of a specific point. is shown at the top of the display when there is no calculated data for the selected item for the selected period. This can be due to an incorrect formula (for example: division by zero), an arithmetic error due to missing data, or other reasons. <Threshold>. The chart automatically displays the thresholds of the selected Objective. <X-axis>. The X-axis displays the time frame of the selected item, split into equal segments. <Y-axis>. The Y-axis displays the values of the selected item in the relevant unit. What if graph - displayed when you use the what-if feature Indicates a regular "point" corresponding to a division of the time period. You can move the cursor above the graph to display a line that shows the exact date of a specific point. is shown at the top of the display when there is no calculated data for the selected item for the selected period. This can be due to an incorrect formula (for example: division by zero), an arithmetic error due to missing data, or other reasons. <Threshold>. The chart automatically displays the thresholds of the selected Objective, KPI, or Metric. <X-axis>. The X-axis displays the forecast time frame of the selected item, split into equal segments. <Y-axis>. The Y-axis displays the forecast values of the selected item in the relevant unit.
Calculate by	The type of calculation used to calculate the score of the Objective. For details, see About Active Objectives.
<Child KPIs>	Graphs that present the Objective child KPIs details: Drag the pointer of a KPI up or down to adjust it to the value you want to check. Once you finish dragging the pointer, both the historical line and the Forecast graph above are updated. The display maintains the current graph in the background with the new graph based on the changed values displayed in the foreground to enable you to compare between the current graph and the What-If graph. Note The changes to the values of the KPIs in the What-If tab are reset any time you leave the page. Click to go back to the original values of the child KPI.

Toolbar

User interface elements are described below (when relevant, unlabeled elements are shown in angle brackets):

UI Element	Description
	Send mail. Opens an Outlook email, with the name of the selected entity in the Subject box.
	Save snapshot. Captures the current view in Explorer (all of it) in a new window. A dialog box opens to ask you where you want to save the image.
	Print. Displays the Print dialog box where you can select the printer and how to print the content of the corresponding Explorer tab. The printout includes: The contents of the area that was selected while you clicked the button. The Annotations Area.
	Show/Hide Annotations. The button is enabled only for Objectives, KPIs, KPI Breakdowns, Metrics, Metric Breakdowns, or Unassigned KPI. It opens a box where you can add your annotation or hide them after viewing. For details, see Annotations. Click the button again to close the Annotation area. Note The Show/Hide Annotations icon with a little + sign in the bottom toolbar indicates that a new annotation was added to the selected item during the past week. The number of days during which the annotations are considered to be new is a setting that is configurable by your administrator in Admin > Scorecard > Dashboard Settings > Number of days annotations are considered new. For example, if the administrator gives the setting the value 14, then the + sign will indicate that the annotation was added in the last 2 weeks. The default is a week.

Send Help Center feedback