UNDERSTANDING ALTERNATIVE CATEGORIES 2014 v1.0

Alternative Categories Users can create Alternatives groups and categories that can be then be assigned to each of the alternatives within the decision Add meta data to classify and organize the alternative list Alternative Categories can be filtered for display and analysis. Each Alternative “Group” will have multiple “Categories” which are used to further assign specific attributes to the alternatives Alternative Groups (Sample) Alternative Categories (Sample) Project Lifecycle Planning, Design, Development, Implementation, Operational Geography North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa Business Function Procurement, Operations, Product, Marketing, Sales, Client Services Market Sector Consumer Goods, Financial, Healthcare, Industrial Goods, Services, Technology Product Lifecycle Introduction, Early Growth, Late Growth, Maturity, Decline

Creating Alternative Groups 3 In the Define tab under Alternatives, click on the Add Group button. This will insert a new column in the sheet, and you can name the group 11 Note: Once the group is created you can double click the name to edit the name or click on the X to delete the group. To add another group, repeat the same steps columns

Entering Alternative Categories within a Group 4 Mouse over the Alternative Group that you want to manage categories under and click the pencil icon. This will open the Manage Categories dialog box Mouse over the Alternative Group that you want to manage categories under and click the pencil icon. This will open the Manage Categories dialog box 11 Type the Category Name into the dialog box and press enter or click the ADD button to append to the list. When finished adding categories, click the X to close the window 22 Note: To modify existing categories within a group, click on the pencil icon in the header to reopen the Manage Categories dialog. Clicking on the document icon allows edit of the Category Name.

Assigning Alternative Categories 5 Click in a column that has a Category & Alternative Group defined. Use the drop down box to select the appropriate category. When a category is selected it will change from Categorized to the selected display name, e.g. Recondition, Repair, Replacement 11

Assigning Alternative Categories cont. 6 To assign multiple alternatives to the same category, hold down the SHIFT or CTRL buttons and click on the alternatives you want to select 11 When multiple rows are selected a banner at the top of the screen will appear and you can use the drop down to select the appropriate category assignment 22 22

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