Strategy Map

A strategy map is an industry standard visualization diagram that tracks business performance by perspectives, objectives, and metrics. This type of diagram is also called a strategy map.

You can use IBM® Cognos® TM1® Scorecarding to create Strategy Maps by defining your perspectives and objectives and then mapping your metrics to them. A Strategy Map organizes perspectives, objectives, and metrics into the following hierarchy:

A Strategy Map can have multiple perspectives.
Each perspective can have multiple objectives.
Each objective can have multiple metrics.

The standard perspectives for a Strategy Map include the following items:

Financial performance
Customer knowledge
Internal business processes
Learning and growth

A Strategy Map combines perspectives, objectives, and metrics with traffic light status and trend indicators icons into one diagram. When you hover your mouse over the metric indicator icons for an objective, a list of the related metric indicators displays. It shows the status and trend icons for each one. Hovering your mouse over the indicator icons for a perspective shows the name of the diagram and perspective.

Figure 1. Example of a Strategy Map Example of a Strategy Map showing perspectives, objectives, and metrics.

Strategy Maps Connections

Connections in a Strategy Map display as directional arrows to show a visual relationship or flow between the objectives in the diagram. A Strategy Map does not require connections, but you can add them if you want.

Default values for Strategy Maps

When you create a Strategy Map, the following perspectives and objectives are automatically created for it. You can use these perspectives and objectives as a starting point, edit them, or create you own combinations.

Financial
- Grow Revenue
- Reduce Expenses
Customer
- Reduce Complaints
Internal Processes
Learning and Innovation

Status and Status Calculations for Strategy Maps

The perspectives and objectives in a Strategy Map diagram display a summary for the status of the underlying metrics in the diagram. You can set the status calculation option to control how the underlying metrics are summarized or "rolled-up" for each perspective and objective in the diagram.

The status for a metric is a calculated value that represents the performance of the score for a metric. The returned numeric value is displayed as a traffic light indicator icon to visually show the status in the diagram. The possible values for status include Excellent, Average, Poor, and Incomplete as described in the following table.

Table 1. Status for summarizing metrics in Strategy Map diagrams
Status	Description
Excellent	A green circle icon indicates a satisfactory status for the associated metrics. The metric is on target or above.
Average	A yellow diamond icon indicates caution about the status for the associated metrics. The metric is within one tolerance of target.
Poor	A red square icon indicates a warning about the status for the associated metrics. The metric is more than one tolerance from target.
Incomplete	Represents an incomplete status for when there is no data for the Actual or Target Metric indicators. A score or status cannot be calculated when one of these values is missing.

The available status calculations that you can choose to control how metrics are summarized in the diagram are described in the following table.

Table 2. Status calculations for summarizing metrics in Strategy Map diagrams
Status Calculation	Description
No status	Does not show any status for the metrics that are associated with this perspective or objective.
Most frequent status	Shows the status icon for the most frequently occurring status of all the metrics that are associated with this perspective or objective. For example, if the associated metrics were Excellent (2), Average (4), Poor (1), and Incomplete (0), a status of Average would be displayed.
Most positive status	Shows the status icon for the most positive status of all the metrics that are associated with this perspective or objective. The status is selected in the following order of priority; Excellent, Incomplete, Average, Poor. For example, if the associated metrics were Excellent (1), Average (1), Poor (3), and Incomplete (1), a status of Excellent would be displayed.
Least positive status	Shows the status icon for the least positive status of all the metrics that are associated with this perspective or objective. The status is selected in the following order of priority; Poor, Incomplete, Average, Excellent. For example: If the associated metrics are Excellent (1), Average (1), Poor (1), and Incomplete (1), the least positive status is Poor. If the associated metrics are Excellent (1), Average (1), Poor (0), and Incomplete (2), the least positive status is Incomplete. If the associated metrics are Excellent (1), Average (1), Poor (0), and Incomplete (0), the least positive status is Average.