Import Custom Constraints

You can import custom constraints from:

Categorical Alternative Attributes - establish strategic buckets for use in "Balance and Coverage" analysis and for use as a constraint
Numerical Alternative Attributes - useful as constraints and for analysis

Navigate to Allocate > CUSTOM CONSTRAINTS, then click the Import Custom Constraint(s) button:

From Categorical Alternative Attributes (Strategic Buckets)

You can view and manage alternative attributes from the Alternatives or Strategic Buckets pages.

For example, from the Strategic Buckets page below we see an attribute named "Time frame" with Short, Medium, and Long term category items:

To import the Time Frame attribute as a custom constraint, navigate to Allocate > CUSTOM CONSTRAINTS page and then click the Import Custom Constraint(s) button:

Select "From Categorical Attribute...":

A dialog will open where you can select the categorical attribute:

You can link any custom constraint that came from an Alternative Attribute to its source attribute as "Auto-Updating" (Read-Only).

When this option is checked, any updates to the attribute will automatically update the constraint. The constraints in the Allocate Main grid will be disabled for editing (Read-only).

When "Auto-Updating" is unchecked, and you want to manually update or reload the constraints, use the button.

or from the Portfolio Canvas page, click the hamburger icon for the custom constraint column and then click Synchronize values from linked attribute.

Custom constraints linked to an alternative attribute have a blue chain icon when auto-updating , and a gray chain icon when auto-updating. You can click the icon to toggle on and off.

When creating custom constraints from a categorical alternative attribute, all the attribute categories are selected by default. You can create a separate custom constraint for each categorical alternative or, by deselecting some categories, a sub-set of the attribute categories. In the image below, all the categories of the Sponsor attribute are selected and a separate constraint will be created for each category.

In the image below, the Long, Medium, and Short constraints belong to the Alternative Attribute named "Timeframe." When a project has a particular alternative attribute, a "1" will be placed in the appropriate column. The primary purposes of this is to get a count and to allow for balance and coverage constraints (the totals and constraint rows are not shown in the image below). For example, you can constrain the portfolio to fund a minimum of 3 projects for each of Long, Medium, or Short timeframe.