How are Progress and Status calculated?

In this article:

Each OKR in Ally contains a progress bar that displays the last identified progress.
Ally.io assesses progress in 2 ways: Actual and Expected.

Ally calculates the expected progress % based on the 'Start date' and 'End date' specified by the owner of the OKR. The progress bar and graph below is found on the objectives' quick view. (Click on the objective name to open up the objective’s quick view). You can also click on the ‘full view’ of the OKR to view the progress graph.

Note:

On the first day of the time period, the expected progress would be 0%.

On the final day of the time period, the expected progress would be 100%.

Actual Progress is determined when the user makes a check-in to the OKR either automatically via a data integration or via the roll-up of Key Results to an objective.

For manual check-ins, a progress % or KPI value must be explicitly added by the user.

You will also see under the progress bar how and when the last update was made, the % complete or KPI, along with the notes left at the time of check-in and who made the update when the 'Show more info' on the dashboard list view is turned on.

Ally.io lets you validate and indicate the progress of your OKRs with a status. OKR statuses are color-coded and below are the definitions of the different status colors:

When the status is manually set by a user, say, for example, a user checks in and marks status as ‘On Track’, the progress bar will show status as ‘On Track’.

When the status is automatically set by Ally.io (for data integrated OKRs or parent objectives having progress rolled up from key results), there are two ways in which the status can get updated currently.

Status will be calculated based on the progress updates of that particular objective or key result.

In cases where all the key results of an objective have 'Postponed' or 'Closed' as the status, then the parent objective’s status will automatically be marked as 'Postponed' or 'Closed' respectively irrespective of the Progress %. Here’s how status is calculated based on the progress updates for an OKR:

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress > 25%) , then At Risk

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress > 0% & <=25%) , then Behind

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress <= 0%) , then On Track

Note: This will be the norm for all Ally.io organizations created from May 9, 2020, and applicable for both Data Integrated OKRs & Parent Objectives having Key Results.

For example, the objective ‘Wow the market with a revolutionary product’ has three key results that contribute to its progress. The objective’s status will be derived on the progress %. In the example, the expected progress of the objective is at 52% and the actual progress is at 47%. Since (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress > 0% & <=25%) the status is derived as ‘Behind’.

When the status is derived based on ‘key results’, the status of the parent objective is set based on the status of the key result. If key results have Closed or Not Started status, the parent objective’s status is calculated as follows:

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress > 25%) , then At Risk

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress > 0% & <=25%) , then Behind

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress <= 0%) , then On Track

When any of the key results do not have Closed or Not Started status, and have any of the below statuses in order of precedence, the parent objective's status sets to this value:

In cases where all the key results of an objective have 'Postponed' or 'Closed' or ‘Not Started’ as the status, then the parent objective’s status will automatically be marked as 'Postponed' or 'Closed' or ‘Not Started’.

Note:

Ally.io now supports a progress bar customization setting using which admins can now override the current automatic scoring system.

The default progress ranges within Ally.io are calculated as follows:

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress > 25%) , then At Risk

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress > 0% & <=25%) , then Behind

If (Expected Progress - Aggregate Progress <= 0%) , then On Track

However, admins no longer need to stick to these progress ranges and can now customize and define the ranges for the respective progress status that they need to set for tracking the OKR progress.

Note: The progress status customization setting is available only in the Enterprise edition.

FAQs:

Q: Why is the status of the parent OKR not calculated based on the child KRs' status?

A: For the Ally.io organisations that were created on or before May 8, 2020, when the status is derived based on ‘key results’, the status of the parent objective is set based on the status of the key result. We have now updated from this model based on the requests we've received from our customers. The status of OKRs will be determined based on the progress of that particular objective/key result and not based on the status of key results. If the organisation was created after May 8, 2020, it will follow the later approach.

Q: How is Expected Progress calculated?

A: Ally calculates the expected progress line and % based on the time period given for the OKR. On the first day of the time period the expected progress would be 0%. On the final day of the time period the expected progress would be 100%.

Q: What do the colors on the progress bar mean?

A: The overall Status of an Objective is conveniently visualized on the Progress bar. The different possible colors are summarized below.