Prioritisation allows Initiative owners and decision-makers to compare Projects, Proposals, and Ideas using a consistent set of Evaluation Criteria.

Each Initiative is evaluated against the criteria included in a Prioritisation Model. The selected Evaluation values contribute points that determine the Initiative’s overall Score and Rank.

Use a Prioritisation exercise to:

• Compare Initiatives consistently
• Identify missing evaluation information
• Understand relative strategic value
• Support investment and governance discussions
• Provide evidence for prioritisation decisions
• Consider whether preferred Initiatives are realistically deliverable within available resource capacity

Important:
Prioritisation Models, Evaluation Criteria, Categories, impact values, and scoring points must first be configured by an authorised administrator.

Your organisation’s criteria, scoring approach, resource-planning process, and decision-making rules may differ from the standard Altus configuration. Always follow your organisation’s internal prioritisation and governance requirements.

Before Starting the Prioritisation

Before adding Initiatives to a Prioritisation, Initiative owners should complete the relevant evaluation information.

Active Evaluation Criteria and their Categories appear on the Initiative’s Evaluation tab.

To evaluate an Initiative:

1. Open the required Project, Proposal, or Idea.
2. Select the Evaluation tab.
3. Review each available Evaluation Criterion.
4. Select the appropriate value from each dropdown list.
5. Save the Initiative.

Each selected value has associated Evaluation Impact Points that contribute to the Initiative’s Score when it is included in a Prioritisation Model.

Tip:
Complete Initiative evaluations before beginning the prioritisation exercise. Missing values prevent the affected Initiative from receiving a complete Score.

Access the Prioritisations List

1. Navigate to Strategy.
2. Select Prioritisations.

The Prioritisations page lists the prioritisation exercises created for your organisation.

The default view is typically All Prioritisations.

From this page, you can:

• Switch between available views
• Edit visible columns
• Edit filters
• Search for a Prioritisation by Name
• Open an existing Prioritisation
• Create a new Prioritisation

The default columns include:

• Name: The name of the Prioritisation
• Created By: Who created the Prioritisation
• Created On: When the Prioritisation was created
• Status: Whether the Prioritisation is Active or Inactive

Create a Prioritisation

1. From the Prioritisations list, select New.
2. On the Details tab, complete:
3. • Name, using a short and specific title
   • Description, explaining the purpose or scope
   • Status, which is Active when the Prioritisation is created
3. Select Save.
4. Open the Prioritisation tab.

The Prioritisation tab is where you select a Prioritisation Model, add Initiatives, and compare their Scores and Ranks.

Important:
The Initiatives displayed in the Prioritisation workspace should not be confused with the Initiatives area available from the area switcher at the bottom of Altus.

When using the AI assistant or search, provide enough context to distinguish between an Initiative in a Prioritisation exercise and the broader Initiatives area.

Select a Prioritisation Model

1. Open the Prioritisation Model dropdown.
2. Select the required model.

Only Active Prioritisation Models appear in the dropdown.

After selecting a model, the right side of the grid displays:

• The Evaluation Criteria included in the model
• The order in which the criteria are applied
• The Evaluation values recorded for each Initiative
• The resulting Score and Rank

Important:
Confirm that the selected model is appropriate for the purpose of the exercise. Different models may use different Evaluation Criteria, points, and weighting arrangements.

Select Initiatives

1. Select Select Initiatives.
2. In the selection form, choose the applicable Initiative Type:
3. • Projects
   • Proposals
   • Ideas
3. Use Search to find an Initiative by Name.
4. Optionally use Group By to organise Initiatives into meaningful groups.
5. Select the required Initiatives.
6. Select Apply Initiatives.

The default selection view shows Active Initiatives.

The fields and columns displayed in the selection window are centrally configured by an administrator.

Tip:
Use Group By to select related Initiatives more efficiently. For example, group Proposals by Department and select the relevant departmental Proposals together.

Your grouping preference is retained when you close and reopen the selection form.

You can use Select Initiatives more than once to add or remove Initiatives during the exercise.

Review Scores and Ranks

After selecting a Prioritisation Model and Initiatives, Altus calculates each Initiative’s Score using:

• The Evaluation Criteria included in the model
• The Initiative’s selected Evaluation values
• The Evaluation Impact Points assigned to those values

Initiatives are ranked from the highest Score to the lowest Score.

Consider Resource Capacity During Prioritisation

Score and Rank help identify the relative strategic priority of Initiatives, but prioritisation decisions should also consider whether the organisation has sufficient capacity to deliver the preferred combination of work.

When reviewing ranked Initiatives, consider:

• The resources and roles each Initiative will require
• Existing resource commitments
• Proposed and Committed demand
• Resource availability across the planning period
• Known capacity constraints or overallocations
• Competing demand across other Projects and Initiatives
• Whether delivery timing should be adjusted to accommodate resource availability

Important:
A high Score or Rank does not automatically mean an Initiative can or should proceed immediately.

Prioritisation should balance strategic value with delivery feasibility, including resource capacity, investment constraints, dependencies, risks, timing, and organisational priorities.

Review Resource Capacity

Where Initiatives have resource demand available, use the relevant Resource Plan, Availability Heatmap, and Resources Insights to understand whether sufficient capacity exists to support the preferred Initiatives.

Review:

• Proposed Demand to understand requested resource effort
• Committed Demand to understand effort already allocated
• Availability to identify remaining resource capacity
• Resources Insights to understand capacity, workload, and utilisation trends

This can help identify situations where several highly ranked Initiatives compete for the same roles or resources.

Use Resource Constraints to Inform Decisions

Where resource capacity cannot support all preferred Initiatives, decision-makers may need to:

• Defer a lower-priority Initiative
• Adjust planned start dates
• Sequence Initiatives differently
• Reduce or phase delivery scope
• Reallocate existing resource commitments
• Identify alternative resources or skills
• Seek additional capacity
• Escalate competing priorities through the appropriate governance process

Tip:
Review resource capacity before finalising the prioritisation outcome, particularly where several Initiatives require the same scarce roles or resources.

Initiatives Without a Score

If an Initiative is missing a value for one or more required Evaluation Criteria:

• The Initiative does not receive a complete Score.
• The Initiative appears at the top of the view.
• The missing information can be identified and completed.

Important:
An Initiative appearing at the top without a Score is not necessarily the highest priority. It indicates that information required for scoring is missing.

Open or Remove an Initiative

To manage an Initiative already included in the Prioritisation:

1. Locate the Initiative in the grid.
2. Select the ellipsis (…) beside the row.
3. Select:
4. • Open Initiative to review its full record, or
   • Remove Initiative to remove it from the Prioritisation exercise.

Removing an Initiative from a Prioritisation does not delete the underlying Project, Proposal, or Idea.

Update an Initiative’s Evaluation

Evaluation values can be updated either:

• Directly from the Prioritisation grid, or
• From the Initiative’s Evaluation tab

Update from the Prioritisation

1. Locate the Initiative and Evaluation Criterion.
2. Open the dropdown.
3. Select the appropriate impact value.
4. Hover over the Information icon to review the impact description where available.
5. Review the recalculated Score and Rank.
6. Select Save.

When an Evaluation value changes:

• The Score is recalculated immediately.
• The Rank may change.
• The Initiative may move to a different position in the grid.

Important:
A value changed from the Prioritisation is written back to the Initiative only after you select Save.

Autosave is disabled within the Prioritisation experience. This prevents Evaluation changes from being written back to Initiatives without an explicit save action.

Warning:
Always select Save after updating Evaluation values. If you close or navigate away before saving, your changes may be lost.

Finalise the Prioritisation

The planning phase is complete when:

• All required Initiatives have been added
• Evaluation information is complete
• Missing Scores have been resolved
• Evaluation values have been reviewed
• Scores and Ranks are considered accurate
• Resource capacity and significant delivery constraints have been considered
• The Prioritisation has been saved

The resulting Rank provides structured decision support, but it should be considered alongside your organisation’s resource capacity, investment constraints, dependencies, risks, delivery timing, governance process, and professional judgement.

Important:
A calculated Rank supports decision-making but does not replace formal governance, approval, investment authority, or resource-planning decisions.

From Prioritisation to Optimisation

Where further planning is required, you can initiate an Optimisation directly from the Prioritisation.

Prioritisation helps answer:

Which Initiatives provide the greatest relative value?

Resource and optimisation planning can then help assess:

Which combination of those Initiatives can realistically be delivered within the relevant planning constraints?

Create an Optimisation

1. Select + Create Optimisation.
2. Enter the required:
3. • Name
   • Planning-period dates
   • Budget
3. Select Save and Close.
4. Continue to the Optimisation scenarios.

Best Practice:
Treat Score and Rank as decision support rather than the final decision. Consider prioritisation results alongside resource capacity, budget, dependencies, risks, timing, and other delivery constraints before confirming which Initiatives should proceed.

Note:
If the expected Optimisation quick-create experience does not appear correctly in your environment, contact your Altus administrator or implementation partner for assistance.

Maintain a Prioritisation

Initiatives, Evaluation Criteria, impact points, and Prioritisation Models may change after a Prioritisation has been created.

Changes that can affect Scores include:

• An Initiative owner changing an Evaluation value
• An administrator updating the Prioritisation Model
• An administrator changing Evaluation Impact Points
• An administrator removing an Evaluation Impact used by an Initiative

If an Evaluation Impact is removed, the related Initiative Evaluation may reset to unselected and must be completed again before a Score can be calculated.

When a change affects Scores:

• A banner appears in the Prioritisation.
• Score values are refreshed.
• Save the Prioritisation to remove the notification banner.

Handle Concurrent Updates

If another user changes an Initiative’s Evaluation while you are editing the same information from the Prioritisation, Altus may display a message indicating that the data has changed elsewhere.

In this situation:

1. Select Refresh.
2. Select Discard when prompted.
3. Review the updated Initiative information.
4. Reapply any required changes.
5. Save the Prioritisation.

Important:
Changes saved directly from the Initiative’s Evaluation tab take precedence over unsaved changes made in the Prioritisation grid.

This prevents an older version in the Prioritisation from overwriting more recently saved Initiative information.

Understand Active and Inactive Behaviour

Prioritisation elements can be Active or Inactive.

Active Items

Active items are generally:

• Visible
• Available for selection
• Editable by users with the appropriate security access

New Prioritisation records are Active by default.

Inactive Items

Inactive items are generally:

• Read-only
• Excluded from standard Active views
• Unavailable for selection in new configurations
• Retained for historical reference

Inactive items can usually be reactivated by an authorised user.

Inactive Evaluation Categories and Criteria

Changes to Categories and Criteria can affect what Initiative owners can evaluate.

Inactive Evaluation Criteria Category

When a Category is inactive:

• The Category is hidden from the Initiative’s Evaluation tab.
• All associated Evaluation Criteria are also hidden, including Active Criteria.

Inactive Evaluation Criterion

When a Criterion is inactive:

• The Criterion is hidden from the Initiative’s Evaluation tab.
• It cannot be added to a new Prioritisation Model.
• If already included in a Model, it remains associated and is identified as inactive.
• Its existing impact points continue to contribute to Score calculations.
• It remains visible but cannot be edited in the Prioritisation.

Inactive Prioritisation Models

When a Prioritisation Model becomes inactive:

• It no longer appears in the Model dropdown for new selection.
• A Prioritisation already using that Model retains the association.
• The Model is identified as inactive.
• The Prioritisation becomes read-only until an Active Model is selected.

Important:
Review existing Prioritisations before deactivating a Model so users understand the impact on active exercises.

Deactivate Rather Than Delete

Where a Prioritisation or related configuration is no longer required, deactivation is normally preferable to deletion.

Deactivation:

• Prevents active use
• Retains the record
• Preserves historical information
• Allows past Prioritisation exercises to remain understandable

Deletion permanently removes the record and its history.

Tip:
Use deactivation when the item should no longer be selected but its historical use still needs to be retained.

Understand Deletion Protections

Altus applies relationship protections to several Prioritisation configuration items.

Evaluation Criteria Categories

A Category can be deleted when no Evaluation Criteria are associated with it.

A Category cannot be deleted while Active or Inactive Evaluation Criteria remain associated with it.

Evaluation Criteria

An Evaluation Criterion can be deleted when no Prioritisation Model uses it.

An Evaluation Criterion cannot be deleted while it is associated with an Active or Inactive Prioritisation Model.

Prioritisation Models

A Prioritisation Model can be deleted when no Prioritisation uses it.

A Prioritisation Model cannot be deleted while it is associated with an Active or Inactive Prioritisation.

Prioritisations

A Prioritisation can be deleted after entering its Name to confirm deletion.

Warning:
Deleting a Prioritisation is permanent. The exercise will no longer exist and cannot be used for historical review.

Follow your organisation’s retention and governance requirements before deleting Prioritisation-related records.

Key Considerations

• Initiative Evaluations should be completed before comparison.
• Only Active Prioritisation Models can be selected.
• The default Initiative selection view displays Active Initiatives.
• Available Initiative Types and selection columns are centrally configured.
• Missing Evaluation values prevent an Initiative from receiving a complete Score.
• Unscored Initiatives appear at the top to highlight missing data.
• Scores and Ranks can change immediately when Evaluation values change.
• Score and Rank indicate relative priority but do not confirm sufficient delivery capacity.
• Resource capacity should be considered before final prioritisation decisions are approved.
• Highly ranked Initiatives may compete for the same roles, skills, or resources.
• Availability Heatmaps and Resources Insights can provide additional capacity information when assessing delivery feasibility.
• Prioritisation results can be carried forward into Optimisation where further planning against constraints is required.
• Autosave is disabled.
• Changes made from the Prioritisation must be saved before being written back to the Initiative.
• Direct changes to the Initiative can take precedence during a concurrent update.
• Administrative changes to Models, Criteria, or impact points can alter Scores.
• Inactive elements may remain visible historically but become unavailable or read-only.
• Deactivation usually preserves history more effectively than deletion.
• Calculated Rank should support, not replace, formal governance decisions.

Tips

• Evaluate Initiatives before adding them to the exercise.
• Use a clear Name and Description that explain the scope of the Prioritisation.
• Confirm the Model before assessing results.
• Use Search and Group By to select Initiatives efficiently.
• Investigate every Initiative without a Score.
• Review how Score changes affect Rank before saving.
• Review resource capacity before finalising the preferred set of Initiatives.
• Identify scarce roles or resources shared across highly ranked Initiatives.
• Consider sequencing or deferring Initiatives where capacity constraints prevent concurrent delivery.
• Use + Create Optimisation when ranked Initiatives require further planning against budget, timing, or delivery constraints.
• Save frequently because autosave is disabled.
• Refresh and discard local changes if another user has updated the Initiative.
• Deactivate obsolete Prioritisation elements instead of deleting them where history must be preserved.
• Follow internal governance requirements when using the final Rank to support decisions.