Data Model and Hierarchy

In general, the data model includes three types of entities: Work, People, and Plans.People are Who is doing the job, Work is What we are working on, and Plans are When things are supposed to happen.

The Apptio Targetprocess data model is shown in the diagram below.

All the items mentioned here can be used as cards or lanes when building views in the Apptio Targetprocess, or as a basis for building custom reports. You can also rename the items based on your preferences and working methods.

People

Every person in your company will have a User account in the Apptio Targetprocess.

It can be a User with a full license (with access to the Apptio Targetprocess) or an Integration User - an active user in the Apptio Targetprocess who can be assigned work and used for capacity planning, but who has NO access to the Apptio Targetprocess.

People form Teams. Teams can be cross-functional or organized around a specific business area.

Location shows which country or region the employee (User) is located in.

A Job Family is a group of Job Profiles that involve work in the same general occupation and require similar skills and expertise.

Expertise is a Skill with an Experience Level and Core Skill parameters (defining if it's a core skill for a Job Profile or a Person) set. It represents skills needed for a Job Profile or skills people have.

Involvement allows defining the engagement of a User in a Team in percentage %. It’s mainly needed when people work in several Teams, and we need to calculate their availability correctly.

Cost per Point: for Agile Release Train is used to predict the cost of work or calculate actual costs; for Teams Cost per Point is calculated as Team Cost per period divided by a completed effort (or Team Velocity) during the same period.

Teams can be a part of Agile Release Trains, Solution Trains, and Value Streams if you practice SAFe.

Work

Portfolios contain all the work items, such as Portfolio Epics, Epics, Features, User Stories, and Bugs, in the Apptio Targetprocess. On a Portfolio level, we decide on an item's terminology, workflow, custom fields, and other process settings. People get access to Portfolios to see and edit work items based on the permissions granted. If needed, ART (or Group) is used to organize Portfolios by any parameter, such as Type or Portfolio, Line of Business, Organization, etc.

A Portfolio is a renamed Project entity. A Portfolio is a most frequently used Object in the Apptio Targetprocess. It usually represents a portfolio of Products, Applications, Portfolio Epics, or any other Portfolio. You can rename it if needed.

Portfolio Epics represent Epics in SAFe, high-level initiatives or projects in a traditional work management approach.

Epics represent solution capabilities, service initiatives, or large features. They are big enough to span several product releases or planning intervals.

Features are ART-level work items representing new product features or smaller activities. Typically it's something too large to be implemented during a single iteration, but small enough to fit inside a Planning Interval or a Release.

User Stories and Bugs are Team-level items, representing a distinct piece of work in the system that fits into a single team iteration.

Portfolio Epics, Epics, Features, Bugs, and User Stories can exist in a Portfolio without a parent item (for example a User Story can be created in a Portfolio with no Feature).

There are two types of work items in the Apptio Targetprocess: Global (don't require a Portfolio when created) and Non-Global (need a Portfolio when created). The work items mentioned above are non-global native items in the Apptio Targetprocess hierarchy and this classification cannot be changed, which means they require a Portfolio to be selected when created. Most of the other items are new items created via an Extended Domain. They can be global or non-global based on customer requirements.

For each Work Item, we can define Key Milestones, Definition of Done (DoD), Acceptance criteria (AC), Measurements, Personal Tasks, and Requirements.

Key Milestones represent important dates in a work item's life cycle. It can be an MVP release, a project phase start, a pre-production release date, or any other important date.

Definition of Done is an agreed-upon set of items that have to be completed before an item is considered done.

Acceptance criteria are the conditions that an item has to meet to be accepted by a user, a customer, or other systems. They are unique for each item and define the behavior from the end-user perspective.

Measurements are tracked metrics relating to a work item. It can be used for KPIs or to capture essential updates.

Personal Tasks are your personal tasks related to the work item.

Requirements entail defining the system's intended characteristics and functionality to meet user needs.

Plans

Planning items in the Apptio Targetprocess are Solution Planning Intervals, Releases used as Planning Intervals, Team Iterations, and Milestones.

Solution Planning Intervals represent a regular, time-boxed period (usually 8 to 12 weeks) during which the Solution Train plans, aligns, and coordinates its efforts to deliver solutions that meet customer needs and strategic objectives.

Releases or Planning Intervals represent a regular, time-boxed period (usually 8 to 12 weeks) during which the Agile Release Trains plan and  deliver incremental value in the form of working, tested software or systems. It has predetermined start and end dates, during which progress is monitored and compared with planned velocity.

Team Iterations are shorter fixed-length timeboxes, used by Agile Teams to plan work and track progress.

Milestones in the Apptio Targetprocess represent important company events such as upcoming trade shows, a new regulation, or a meeting with a strategic committee. It is visible as colorful flags on a timeline view.

Request Management

Requests are used to represent incoming requirements, questions, or ideas from internal or external people - Requesters.

Use them for idea management, work intake, or customer support. Requests are a way to communicate an idea or a question and manage related work once a request is processed.

Risk Management

Risk Management is the process of identifying, assessing, and controlling threats to an organization's capital and earnings.

Risk Actions are taken to reduce either the likelihood of the risk occurring or the impact that it will have.

Budgeting

Year, Quarter, Month, Week, and Day represent calendar or fiscal Years, Quarters, Months, Weeks, and Days respectively. They can be generated for the past, current, and future years and allow managing budgets and capacity within a defined period.

Periods represent a custom time frame, usually used to organize Releases (Planning Intervals) or Team Iterations with the exact Planned Start/End Dates. 

Budget, Annual, Quarterly, and Monthly Budgets represent Budgets of a defined period for any item. It could be a Portfolio, Portfolio Epic, Initiative, ART, Product, or others. Budgets are generated automatically for an item (when installed from a solution) and allow for tracking of planned investments and actual costs by Month, Quarter, Year, and Period.

Rates represent People's or Teams' personal or blended rates. It can be a rate paid hourly, monthly, or annually. It's used to calculate planned expenses and track actuals.

Costs represent Labor costs. They can be entered into the system manually or calculated automatically based on work completed and people rates.

Expenses refer to Non-Labour expenses. It could be expenses such as rent, utilities, travel, software, hardware payments, or any other.

OKR

Objectives and Key Results framework is a tool to create alignment and engagement around measurable goals.

Objectives are memorable qualitative descriptions of what you want to achieve.

Key Results are a set of metrics that measure your progress toward the Objective.

Indicators are used to evaluate and measure the success or performance of an organization, business unit, project, or individual in achieving specific objectives.

In the Apptio Targetprocess we support three levels of Objectives: Ultimate, Strategic, and Tactical. The names of these levels can be renamed to suit your terminology. Or there can be unlimited level of Objectives, which represent Work Items (like Portfolio Epics, Epics, etc.) objectives.

Capacity Planning

Headcount signifies the count of individuals or team members within an Agile Release Train (ART) or organization. It plays a key role in assisting organizations with workforce optimization and efficient allocation of resources to attain their strategic objectives.

Work Allocations help define people and team demands and allocations on specific work items, such as Portfolio Epics or Epics (Capabilities).

Demand helps define people and team demand on specific work items, such as Portfolio Epics or Capabilities.

Availability shows the availability of a person or team in a certain period.

Work Allocations can be in percentage, hours, or FTEs for a User or Team. It can also represent a User allocation to a Team if a person is a part of multiple teams, and his capacity needs to be planned carefully.

Dependency Management

Impediments and Dependencies represent anything that keeps teams from getting work done.

An Impediment is a less powerful object than a Dependency; for example, you cannot assign people or create a workflow for it. Use Dependency if you either need people assigned or a workflow created.

Custom relations can be created between work items directly. They can be of a dependency, blocker, or duplicate type. These relations are visible on a work item view and visualized as colorful arrows on any board, list, or roadmap view.

Goal Management

PI Objectives are a summary of the business and technical goals that an Agile Team or train intends to achieve in the upcoming Planning Interval.

During PI Planning events, teams create Team PI objectives, which are later organized into Program and Solution PI Objectives.

Iteration Goal is a high-level summary of what a product owner and a team would like to accomplish during a sprint.

Retrospectives

A Retrospective is a look back at events that took place or work produced in the past.

Feedbacks are collected from each team member during a retrospective and converted into Action Items, which are later implemented during the upcoming sprints.

Vote represents a collective decision-making process within a team or group. Voting is often used during PI Planning Events to gather the team's preferences or opinions.

Release Management

Release Packages represent global product or solution releases happening on a scheduled or unscheduled basis, or versions of software delivered to production. Builds are intermediate development builds.

Incident Management

Incident Management solution allows you to capture service interruptions and track the time needed to restore the service to its operational state. Incidents can be created manually, as well as automatically in the system.

Time Tracking

Time Tracking is a process of recording time spent and remaining when working on a User Story or Bug. It's used in Time Sheets as well as for capacity and budgeting purposes.

Time Record allows defining time spent on completing a work item.

Test Management

There is an additional set of items that belong to the Test Management area in the Apptio Targetprocess data model.

For every work and planning entity, you can create a related Test Plan that contains a set of lower-level test plans and individual Test Cases. Then you can execute a Test Plan multiple times by creating related Test Plan Runs.

Read more about the Test Area in the Apptio Targetprocess.

Vacations

A Public Holiday is a non-working day during the year that is set by law. It's related to a country or multiple countries.

Sick Day is a day of absence from work taken due to illness. It's related to a user.

Vacation is a period when an employee spent away from work. It can be a full or a half-day off.

Day On is a period when an employee works overtime.