Forum Discussion
Closing and scoring OKRs
Hi Viva Goals community,
I have a question related to closing and scoring OKRs.
When I go to close an Objective (blue bullseye icon) or Key Result (purple speedometer), I am given the option to adjust the score if desired. However, when I go to close an Initiative (green calendar), the Close dialogue box does not have the Score line that allows me to adjust the score - I am forced to take the score that is auto-calculated by Viva Goals.
1) Can people confirm that this is the case for them as well?
2) If this is indeed the case, can anyone from Microsoft or otherwise help me understand why the score adjustment feature is not available on Initiatives?
3) Is there any plan to change this for Initiatives in the future?
Thanks everyone!
Evan
- aarushiarora
Microsoft
Hi Evan_Hindman, thank you for your question. The scoring option is only available for OKRs and not for initiatives, as you observed. This is because the concept of scoring is more relevant and applicable to objectives and key results, so that you can evaluate the progress made towards achieving the goals and determining whether they were accomplished. You can read more about closing and scoring OKRs here: Close OKRs Overview | Microsoft Learn
Currently, there is no plan to introduce scoring for initiatives, however, I would love to understand further on your need for scoring initiatives to dive a little deeper. Thank you!
- I came to the community with the same question as Evan. The link you provide above implies you can score an Initiative bc it has Initiative in the headings - this page is similarly confusing - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/close-okrs-with-viva-goals-c0d9f91e-22e6-48ea-ba3a-23ebe7f059d8
Our company would like to score initiatives at close for all of the same reasons Evan describes below. We use status to show % complete of a timeline and 100% when closed. We were excited about a way of score the project at the end to show how the team score relative to the planned deliverables. We currently do not have a way to quantify and summarize projects that are not metric based.- aarushiaroraMy apologies for the confusion this documentation has created. We will ensure this reflects the right status of supported capabilities.
- Hi aarushiarora - thanks for this response, very helpful.
My company uses Initiatives in a similar fashion to Key Results, except instead of having a metric-based target, there is a specific milestone or deliverable that is the goal (e.g., "Launch new marketing campaign", or "gain approval from Board on [specific project]"). Key Results are not as helpful here, because there is not a metric to be tracked per se (project % could work, but this works just as well with an Initiative, and we've given the guidance to use Initiatives for goals of this nature).
In the same way as with a Key Result, if you achieve 70% of the metric, you can move the score to 0.6 or 0.8 with management's judgement, I'd like Initiative owners to be able to say "we completed 70% of this task this year, but we deserve a score of 0.8 because...".
Put another way - there actually IS scoring for Initiatives in the system already. When you Close an Initiative, the Score shows up as the last percentage complete for the Initiative. The only difference here is - you do not have the ability to adjust the final score the same way you do with Objectives or Key Results.
Thanks again for your response, hopefully my response gives useful context here!- aarushiaroraThis is definitely helpful, and yes - the percentage complete is also technically a score towards completion! Thank you for the context.
