Copy Metric Values in Bulk

The Metric Bulk Actions copy function allows users to copy the values from one Metric view and paste them to other Metric views in multiple instances of a Metric template. This saves users from having to manually enter the same values one-by-one into different Metric views, which is unnecessarily tedious and time-consuming.

Example: Imagine you have a Metric template named "Expenses" that is attached to a number of Projects in a Portfolio. Within the "Expenses" Metric, you have a "Projected" view that displays all of the costs you are planning to spend. Once all of these costs are approved, they move into the "Actual" view. Instead of going into every instance of the "Expenses" Metric on all of the Portfolio Projects it is attached to, you can simply perform a Copy from the Metric Bulk Actions page. This way, the values from every "Projected" Metric view are automatically copied onto the "Actual" Metric views in every "Expenses" Metric in your chosen Portfolio.

You can either run the bulk copy immediately or save it to automatically run on a fixed schedule.
Additionally, you can filter by the Projects by Tags to ensure that only the Projects you wish to include in the bulk copy will be affected. In such a case, a PowerSteering administrator can create a Tag called "Ready for Metric Copy" that can be set to "Yes" once the "Projected" costs have been approved. This way, only Metrics on approved Projects will be included in the copy.

Note: This will result in both numeric values and Tag / Custom Field values being copied to the selected view(s).

Tip: Bulk copy will respect any locks that have been placed on a Metric. This means that it cannot place any Metric values into locked cells. Make sure that the cells that should receive Metric data are unlocked before conducting a Metric copy. Alternatively, you can take advantage of this by locking any cells that should not receive copied Metric data.
See Metric Lock for more information on locking your Metrics.

PowerSteering currently features two Metric Bulk Actions interfaces that can be used to copy Metric values:

The Metric Bulk Actions wizard (default)
The Legacy interface

Note: The legacy Metric Bulk Actions page is still temporary available for users who are unfamiliar with the new page, but it will soon be deprecated in a future PowerSteering release. If you would like to use it in the meantime, reach out to your PowerSteering representative.

Copying Metric values in bulk using the updated wizard

A new Metric Bulk Actions interface has recently been introduced to PowerSteering. Along with a cleaner and fresher look, the new interface breaks down the process of creating new Metric Bulk Actions into separate steps, alleviating the informational overload that comes with lengthy webpages.

Additionally, the new wizard offers additional functionality that is not available on the legacy page. Users can save their Metric Bulk Actions to the "Metric Bulk Action Jobs" page and schedule them to run automatically. This saves users from having to tediously create identical Metric Bulk Action jobs whenever they need these jobs to repeat themselves. This will also prevent any issues that occur due to forgetting to run a Metric Bulk Action.

Note: After bulk copy jobs are created, you can use the "Metric Bulk Action Jobs" page to edit them. Simply navigate to the page (Review → Metric Bulk Actions from the Navigation Menu), select one of the listed jobs, and follow the steps below starting from Step 3.

To copy Metric values in bulk using the updated wizard:

Before You Start: Metric Bulk Actions are open to all PowerSteering by default, but users will only be able to change Metrics that they have permission to change. For instance, if you are planning to copy Metric data from one view to another using a bulk action but you do not have permission to update the Metric instance on one of the Portfolio's work items, only the Metrics you have permission to change will be affected.

Tip: Consider designating a specific PowerSteering administrator to create and schedule Metric Bulk Actions Jobs. Users who belong to the Admin Group have permission to edit Metrics on all work items, so this will ensure that all Metrics in the chosen Portfolio will be affected when the job runs.

Select Review → Metric Bulk Actions from the Navigation Menu:

Note: If you do not see the Metric Bulk Actions option, it may be limited to select users in your organization. Reach out to a PowerSteering administrator for more information.
Select the Create button in the top right-hand corner of the page.
Select which Portfolio of work items you will conduct the Metric Bulk Action on.
Decide which Portfolio Tags should be used to filter the work items that will be included in the Metric copy:

Note: The Portfolio Tags will consist of Tags that have been associated with work items that belong to the Portfolio.

The following options are available for each Tag:
- Omit this tag (default): The value of this Tag will have no impact on which work items are included in the Metric copy.
- Any value for this tag: Work items will only be included in the Metric copy if a value has been chosen for the Tag.
- No value for this tag: Work items will only be included in the Metric copy if no value has been chosen for the Tag.
- Select values: Work items will only be included in the Metric copy if they contain the chosen value(s) for the Tag.
  
  Tip: To make sure that the correct work items get included in the Metric copy, it might be wise for PowerSteering administrators to create a specific Tag for it. For example, a Tag called "Ready for Metric Copy" can be used to indicate whether or not a work item is ready to have it's Metric views copied:
  
  Contact your PowerSteering administrator if you think this would be helpful.
Select the Next button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page.
Select the Metric Template that will be affected by the Metric copy.
Use the "Apply to" drop-down menu to determine whether to include or exclude Metric instances marked "Ready for Rollup".

Note: "Ready for Rollup" is a replaceable term. It may be represented by another term in your PowerSteering environment. Contact a PowerSteering administrator if you are unsure.
- All: Each Metric instance will be affected by the copy regardless of its "Ready for Rollup" status.
- Ready for Rollup: Only Metric instances marked "Ready for Rollup" will be included in the copy.
- Not Ready for Rollup: Only Metric instances that are not marked "Ready for Rollup" will be included in the copy.
Select the Next button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page.
Use the "Ready for Rollup" drop-down menu to determine how each Metric's "Ready for Rollup" status will be affected by the Metric copy.

Note: "Ready for Rollup" is a replaceable term. It may be represented by another term in your PowerSteering environment. Contact a PowerSteering administrator if you are unsure.
- No Change: The Metric copy will have no effect on the "Ready for Rollup" status of the Metrics.
- Set: Each Metric affected by the copy will automatically be set to "Ready for Rollup".
- Clear: Each Metric affected by the copy will automatically not be set to "Ready for Rollup".
Select Copy from the "Action" drop-down menu.
Use the "From View" drop-down menu to determine which view the Metric data will be copied from.
Use the "To Views" drop-down menu to determine which view(s) the Metric data will be copied to.
Determine how you would like the Metric Bulk Action job to run.
- Run: The Metric Bulk Action job will run immediately. It will not be saved to the "Metric Bulk Action Jobs" page and it will never run again.
  
  Note: Selecting this will end the procedure; your bulk copy will be complete. You may skip the remaining steps.
- Next: You will be navigated to the "Save & Schedule" page. From here, you will be able to create a schedule for your bulk copy to automatically run. It will be saved to the "Metric Bulk Action Jobs" page.
  
  Note: If you select this option, continue through the rest of the procedure.
Enter a name for your saved Metric Bulk Action job.
Enter an informative description for your saved Metric Bulk Action job.
Use the "Frequency" drop-down menu to determine the job's run schedule.
- Never: The Metric Bulk Action job will be saved, but it will not have any scheduled run times in the future.
  
  Tip: This option should only be selected if a run schedule has not been determined yet or if a temporary pause should be placed on the job.
- Weekly: The Metric Bulk Action job will run on a weekly basis. The fields that appear can be used to specify the run schedule.
  - Start: Select a start date for the Metric Bulk Action job.
    
    Note: The job will not necessarily run on this day. This date determines when the job becomes active. It will run based on the "Every" and "On" selections below.
  - Time: Select the time of day the Metric Bulk Action job will run.
    
    Tip: It is best to schedule jobs to run outside of working hours. This will reduce the likelihood of users editing their Metrics during a Metric Bulk Actions job.
  - End: Select an end date for the Metric Bulk Action job.
    
    Note: The job will not necessarily run on this day. This date determines when the job becomes inactive. It will run based on the "Every" and "On" selections below.
  - Every: Determine the weekly interval for the Metric Bulk Action job.
    
    Example: If "2 Weeks" is selected from the "Every" menu and "Tuesday" and "Friday" are selected from the "On" menu (below), the job will run on the Tuesday and Friday of every second week. During the first week, the job will run on Tuesday and Friday. During the second week, the job will not run. During the third week, the job will run on Tuesday and Friday again. This pattern will continue until the "End" date is reached.
  - On: Determine which days of the week the job will run on.
- Monthly: The Metric Bulk Action job will run on a monthly basis. The fields that appear can be used to specify the run schedule.
  - Calendar: Determine which Calendar will be used to schedule the Metric Bulk Action job.
    
    Note: Administrators can create Alternative Calendars in PowerSteering.
  - Start: Select a start date for the Metric Bulk Action job.
    
    Note: The job will not necessarily run on this day. This date determines when the job becomes active. It will run based on the fields below.
  - Time: Select the time of day the Metric Bulk Action job will run.
    
    Tip: It is best to schedule jobs to run outside of working hours. This will reduce the likelihood of users editing their Metrics during a Metric Bulk Actions job.
  - End: Select an end date for the Metric Bulk Action job.
    
    Note: The job will not necessarily run on this day. This date determines when the job becomes inactive. It will run based on the fields below.
  - Schedule By: Determine how the schedule will search for the day to run the Metric Bulk Action job.
    - Fixed day of the month: A fixed date of the month will be used to identify when the job runs. This will open up drop-down menus that can be used to specify when the job will run.
      
      Example: Selecting "5" from the "Day" menu and "2 months" from the "Of every" menu will cause the Metric Bulk Action job to run on the 5^th of every second month.
    - Relative day of the month: A relative day of the week will be used to identify when the job runs. This will open up drop-down menus that can be used to specify when the job will run.
      
      Example: In the image above, the Metric Bulk Action job will run on the third Thursday of every second month.
Select the Save button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page.

Note: If Run is selected instead, the Metric Bulk Action job will run immediately and the job will not be saved. All of the "Save & Schedule" settings will be discarded.

Note: When a Metric Bulk Action job is scheduled, there is no way to temporarily delay it without editing the schedule. If a user requests more time to edit a Metric before a Metric Bulk Action job occurs, it is best to wait for the job to complete and then manually edit the Metric afterward.

If Run was selected, the job will run immediately. A "Results" page will appear with a report on which Metrics were successfully affected by the bulk copy.

Tip: Select any of the listed work items or Metrics to navigate to them.

If Save was selected, the new job will be saved to the "Metric Bulk Action Jobs" page.

From here, it can be edited at any time. It will run based on its schedule.

Tip: Use the "Next Run" column to see when the job is scheduled to run again.

In either case, you can navigate to one of the Metrics and see that the values on the "From" view have been copied to the "To" view(s).

A comment will be automatically generated for each copied Metric.

Copying Metric values in bulk using the Legacy interface

The legacy Metric Bulk Actions interface is still available for users who are not yet familiar with the new Metric Bulk Actions wizard. However, these users should learn how to use the new interface as soon as possible because the legacy page will soon be made unavailable in a future release.

Additionally, the new wizard offers new functionality that is not available on the legacy page. Users can save their Metric Bulk Actions to the "Metric Bulk Action Jobs" page and schedule them to run automatically. This saves users from having to tediously create identical Metric Bulk Action jobs whenever they need these jobs to repeat themselves. This will also prevent any issues that occur due to forgetting to run a Metric Bulk Action.

Note: If you would like to use this page, you will need to reach out to a PowerSteering representative. Please be aware that it will eventually be deprecated, so users should learn how to use the new Metric Bulk Actions page as soon as possible.

To copy Metric values in bulk using the Legacy interface:

Select Metric Bulk Actions from the "Review" menu of the Icon bar:

Click to enlarge.
Select a Portfolio from the drop-down menu to filter the Work Items by.
Decide which tags should be used to filter the Work Items:

Omit this tag (default): The value of this tag will have no impact on which Work Items are included in the Metric copy.

Any value for this tag: Work Items will be included in the Metric copy only if a value has been chosen for the tag.

No value for this tag: Work Items will be included in the Metric copy only if no value has been chosen for the tag.

Select values: Work Items will be included in the Metric copy only if they contain the chosen value(s) for the tag.

Tip: To make sure that the correct Work Items get included in the Metric copy, it might be wise for PowerSteering Administrators to create a specific tag for it. For example, a tag called "Ready for Metric Copy" can be used to indicate whether or not a Work Item is ready to have it's Metric views copied:

Contact your PowerSteering Administrator if you think this would be helpful.
Decide whether or not to include/exclude Work Items marked Ready for Rollup using the "Apply to" menu:

Note: Ready for Rollup is a replaceable term in PowerSteering. Your company may have replaced Ready for Rollup with a different term that will appear as an option in this list.

All: Every Metric instance will be included in the copy, regardless of whether or not it is Ready for Rollup.

Ready for Rollup: Only Metric instances that are marked Ready for Rollup will be included in the copy.

Not Ready for Rollup: Only Metric instances that are not marked Ready for Rollup will be included in the copy.
Select the Metric with the Metric view that you would like to copy to other Metric views:

Note: Once you choose a Metric template, you can see how many Metric instances will be affected below the drop-down menu.
Select Copy from the "Action:" menu.
Select the Metric view that you would like to copy values from using the "View from:" drop-down menu.
Select the Metric view that you would like to copy values to using the "View to:" drop-down menu:

In this example, the values from the "Prj Plan" Metric view will be copied onto the "Prj Act" Metric view.
Decide whether or not to change the "Ready for Rollup" status of the Metric instances:

No change: The Metric copy will not affect the "Ready for Rollup" status of any of the Metrics.

Set: The Metric copy will set the "Ready for Rollup" status of the Metrics to "Yes."

Clear: The Metric copy will set the "Ready for Rollup" status of the Metrics to "No."
Click the Run button.

After clicking Run, a progress bar will indicate the percent complete as well as the number of items being processed. Below the progress bar is a log of what was impacted during the bulk procedure. You can click on the links in either the Project or the Metric column to directly access those Projects and Metrics:

If you click on one of the Metric links, you will see that the values from the "View from:" view should be copied directly onto the "View to:" view: