Capture demand data
The license package Strategic Portfolio Management is required to work with demands. The use case Demand Management must be activated.
A demand is a request for change in the enterprise’s IT landscape. Demands in Alfabet are typically strategic or impact the IT landscape and therefore must be taken into consideration in the enterprise's project planning process. Typically, a demand is mapped to a number of architecture elements that need to be changed in order to fulfill the demand. This information can be used to initiate the architecture planning process as well as to identify synergies and redundancies across demands. Once a demand is identified, it can be assigned to and realized via a project. A demand can only be assigned to one project.
In the navigation panel, click Investment Architecture > Demands. Per default, the data workbench displays only a set of basic attributes. You can add more columns to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench or you can navigate to a demand's content area and define it in more detail there. Click to learn about how to use data workbenches.
Go to Investment Architecture > Demands and click New > Demand and specify the basic data.
Click the Navigate 
button next to a demand to open its content area. Specify the demand's attributes as well as the relationships that the demand has to other assets in the repository.
Try to capture as much information as possible about the demand because complete data considerably improves the results of business questions and other analytics.
Once a demand is in the repository, you can define more details about it in the Demands data workbench.
Per default, the data workbench displays a limited set of basic attributes. You can add more columns via the Structure column to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench.
Or specify and analyze the demand in detail in its content area . In the data workbench, click the Navigate button for a demand to open its content area > Overview page.
Define the demand's basic data. All mandatory fields must be defined to create the demand and save it.
- Name: (Mandatory) Enter a unique name for the demand. The name should help others easily understand the purpose of the demand.
- Classification: Specify where the demand is due to a business or process pain point, need for new functionality, or is required because a technology is reaching its end-of-life.
- Priority: Specify how critical the requestor needs the demand.
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Status: Specify the current status of the demand from initiation to realization:
- New: The demand has only mandatory data defined. A demand with this status can be deleted.
- In Design: The demand is being scoped and defined. A demand with this status cannot be deleted.
- Under Assessment: The demand is being evaluated for implementation. A demand with this status cannot be deleted.
- In Realization: The demand is being worked on. A demand with this status cannot be deleted.
- Completed: The demand has finished. A demand with this status can be deleted.
- Rejected: The demand is no longer valid and can be deleted.
- Target Date: Specify when the demand should be realized. Click the calendar icon to select the date or enter the date in the date format Month/Day/Year. For example: 4/30/2023
- Requesting Organization: Specify the organization that is submitting the demand.
- Assigned to Project: Specify the project that will realize the demand.
- Authorized Access tab: The user who creates the demand is the authorized user per default. This can be changed. Select one or more authorized user groups that shall have write permissions to the demand. All users in the authorized user group can edit the demand.
A role represents a functional responsibility that a user or organization has for the demand. Assigning users and organizations to roles is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets?.
Responsibilities are based on preconfigured role types. Your company may also configure custom role types via the Portfolio Admin user profile. Depending on the role type, a specified user and/or a specified organization may fulfill the responsibility for the demand. A user assigned responsibility via a role has read-only permissions to the demand. To change data about the demand, they must also be specified as an authorized user or member of an authorized user group.
Roles can be assigned to a project in the Demands data workbench or the demand content area via Overview > Responsibilities. A person can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:
- Demand Manager: A person who is responsible for the demand.
- Stakeholder: A person or organization who has an interest in the demand and therefore requires read-only access permissions.
To specify responsibilities for the demand:
- Click in the relevant role field to open the selector.
- Expand the ORGANIZATION or USER sections in the selector and select the person or organization fulfilling the role.
- Click OK to save the role definition and close the selector.
An evaluation is a measurement of the performance of a demand. Preconfigured indicator types and possibly custom indicator types added by your company are available to evaluate and are used in various analyses in Alfabet. Some indicator types are automatically computed by the system and others must be manually defined.
Define the demand's indicators. Click the navigate button of the demand to open the content area. Go to the Overview page and scroll to the Evaluations view and open it.
Select an indicator type and click Edit Indicator or click Group Edit to open a dialog where all indicator types can be edited that are not automatically computed by the system.
Update computed indicators. Click the Calculate button to update computed indicators via the Calculate button. The indicators will be recalculated based on the current data.
The assets that are impacted by a demand make up the architectural scope of the demand. You can specify any application, business capability, business process, component, information flow, or organization that is impacted by the demand.
Information flows specified for applications that have been added to the demand's architecture scope will not be automatically added to the demand. You must explicitly add the relevant information flows to the demand in the Affected Architecture Scope view.
- Go to the demand's content area > Architecture Scope > Affected Architecture.
- Select the cell below a class header to add an asset to the architectural scope of the demand and click New > Add Existing Architecture Element.
- Select one or more assets and click OK.
- To document the planned changes to one or more architecture elements assigned to the demand's scope, click the
3-dots button > 
Edit. Provide a comment about the demand and set the Change Category to describe the how the asset will be changed by the demand: - New: The asset will be introduced in the scope of the demand.
- Updating: The asset will be significantly updated in the scope of the demand.
- Changing: The asset will be changed to some degree in the scope of the demand.
- Retiring: The asset will be retired in the scope of the demand.
For every asset that is added to the demand scope, you can go to the asset's content area and go to Investment Context > Investment Overview > Relevant Demands to view all demands that the asset is included in.
The assets that are impacted by a demand make up the architectural scope of the demand. To view all demands and understand their impact on all affected architecture elements, go to the Demands data workbench > Visualize > Demand Analysis > Affected Architecture.
To view all demands and understand their impact on all affected architecture elements, go to the Demands data workbench > Visualize > Demand Analysis > Affected Architecture.
To understand all demands that impact a specific application, business capability, business process, component, information flow, or organization, go to the asset's content area > Investment Context > Investment Overview.
You can specify any application, business capability, business process, component, information flow, or organization to be impacted by a demand.
- Select the cell below a class header to add an asset to the architectural scope of the demand and click New > Add Existing Architecture Element.
- Select one or more assets and click OK.
Information flows specified for applications that have been added to the demand's architecture scope will not be automatically added to the demand. You must explicitly add the relevant information flows to the demand in the Affected Architecture Scope view.
- To document the planned changes to one or more architecture elements assigned to the demand's scope, click the 3-dots button > Edit. Provide a comment about the change.
Review a demand's affected architecture and analyze what affectected architecture it shares with other demands. Consider whether the demands could be delivered in a single project and thereby save project costs.
The architecture elements are grouped according to the class to which they belong. You can limit the number of architecture elements displayed by showing only demands in a specific release status. Click the 3-dots button > 
local filter button and specify the Demand Release Status field.
The following columns are displayed:
- Architecture Element: Displays the architecture element assigned to the selected demand and another demand
- Demand: Displays the other demand that the identified architecture element is assigned to.
- Status: Displays the other demand’s release status.
As demands are raised and analyzed in the system, they feed into the transformation planning by being promoted to projects. You can create a new project to realize the demand. All of the affected architecture specified for the demand will be copied to the new project. Also roles, evaluations, and attachments assigned to the demand can be copied to the new project. You can also associate an existing project with the demand. Only one project can be assigned to a demand. Many demands can be assigned to a project.
A preconfigured out-of-the-box Demand to Budget workflow is available that supports the demand-to-budget process. The workflow starts with the creation of a demand and guides the user through the process of either making a new project out of the demand, or assigning the demand to an existing project with similar architecture scope. Once the workflow is initiated and advances to the next workflow step, relevant users will receive a notification that will explain the task and provide a link to where they can complete the task.
To manually create a new project for a demand, go to the demand content area and click Action > Assign Demand to a New Project. In the editor that opens, specify the fields in the Basic Data page. Go to each page to select the affected architecture, roles, evaluations, and attachments that you want to copy from the demand to the new project.
Alternatively, click Action > Assign Demand to an Existing Project and select the relevant project.
The project will be displayed in the demand's content area > Overview > Assigned to Project. Double-click the project to go to its content area and further plan the project including its business case and costs, the tasks to realize it, the skills and resources required, etc.
The following business questions rely on demand data: