CAST HIGHLIGHT - Custom Indicators

Custom indicators are key dimensions to support portfolio segmentation and prioritization. The 

ability to create new indicators enables customers & partners to implement their own 

methodology (IP) within the solution.

Custom indicators are implemented using custom survey questions combined with weights.

Please note that only Portfolio Managers can create/modify/delete indicators. The configuration 

of an indicator can be changed over time, and CAST Highlight handles the re-computation to 

update scores according to the new rules.

Custom indicators are available at both Portfolio & Application levels, and they are included in 

export files.

The CAST Highlight November 2018 release includes a new capability to create & customize 

indicators. Here are the corresponding release notes. 

Scope & Use

Dashboards \ Custom Indicators

Consolidates all the custom indicators. Each tile displays the 

lowest & highest scores. The table presents the custom indicator 

scores for all applications.

Dashboards \ Applications Results

The custom indicators appear in the table and are also available 

in the advanced filters. They are also part of the CSV & XML 

export files.

Application ID Card

The custom indicators appear on the Overview tab at the 

application level.

Computation Model – Logical Approach

Here is a diagram that explains the indicator computation principle:

The sum of the scores for the selected question responses is  normalized to provide a final score of between 0 and 100

Application Contributors provide answers to  questions in the online surveys associated with the campaign. Custom indicators receive their values  from the combination of responses and the  associated weights

Business Impact Calculation Example

The Business Impact is a standard indicator which is meant to prioritize the applications across 

portfolios. Whether we are trying to rationalize, modernize or simply understand the applications, 

Business Impact puts these assets in perspective.

By default, Business Impact is a score between 1 to 100 which is computed using 9 questions. 

These answers can be either “numbers” or “single selections”.

Each of these nine questions have specific weights associated with each of their answers 

(Manage Portfolio \ Manage Custom Indicators)

Each question applies the weight presented on the previous slide

The sum of the scores varies between a Minimum: 44 and a Maximum438

Here is a diagram that explains the indicator computation principle:

The sum of the scores for the selected question responses is  normalized to provide a final score of between 0 and 100

For each application, the App. Owner provides  answers to 9 questions related to the Business 

Impact. Each question has a corresponding weight as  seen into the previous slide 

Here is a table that shows the Business Impact scores depending on the survey answers for 4 apps.

Create a customer indicator & select the questions

 From The Manage Portfolio Menu, select Manage Custom Indicators 

 From the left hand side, press the “+ New Indicator” button

 Provide a name and description (optional), and select the existing questions that will be used 

to compute the custom indicator.

 Important: you can pick & choose questions from the existing standard survey sections or from 

your own custom survey sections.

Configure the weight formulas

Define the score for each survey question that belongs to the indicator 

 In case the answer is a single-selection > define a weight for each choice

 In case the answer is a number > define several ranges & apply a weight

“-1” for infinite

 CAST Highlight allows scores to be recalculated (bulb icon)

Computation Model – Best Practices

The “weight” are the number of points you’d like to grant to a dedicated answer.

Because the indicator score is computed through many weighted answers, it’s mandatory to keep consistency 

between the weights for a given indicator across the questions.

For instance, we want to compute an indicator based on three questions.

• The question A is extremely important, so we’ll grant more weight to all its answers

• Questions B has less impact on the customer indicator, so the question response weight is established 

  accordingly.

• Finally, although Question C is generally the least impactful amongst the proposed options, there is one 

answer which can drastically influence the overall indicator score.

To make sure your indicator spreads the weight in alignment with your grading system, make sure that you 

always keep an eye on the total weight, its distribution by question and its distribution by answer

Custom Indicators Suggestions

IT Portfolio Management Topic

• Business / IT Alignment Index

• Using dimensions such as: Customer Satisfaction, Customer Experience, 

Part of the Roadmap, Business Value … 

IT Rationalization Topic

• Retire, Replace, Remain, Reprioritize Index

• Using dimensions such as: obsolescence, total cost of ownership, business 

value …

Cloud Migration Topic

• IaaS / CaaS Index

• Using dimensions such as: Elasticity, Scalability, Latency, Throughput …

Digital Transformation Topic

• Digital Readiness Index

• Using dimensions such as: Scalability, Growth, Customer Experience, 

Innovation …

Frequently  Asked Questions

Indicators can use:

• Questions which come from the standard existing survey sections, namely: Business Impact, Software 

Maintenance, Application Properties & CloudReady

• Custom questions
• Questions which come from several survey sections.

Indicators are computed as soon as at least one answer is provided. The score is calculated through the provided answers. For instance, if the indicator is built on 5 questions and the app. owner only answered 2 out of 5, then the 

indicator score will still be computed but only based on the information provided so far.Indicators can be built using both standard & custom questions.

There is no limitation in terms of: number of indicators or number of questions that are associated to them.

If any changes are made to the scoring for a custom indicator, such as changing the score for the answers or adding or removing questions, simply click on the bulb icon to recalculate the custom indicator using the new weights.

Deleting a question from a custom indicator removes the question’s contribution to the indicator weight formula; it  does not remove the question from the question catalog.

Prior to deleting a question from the Question catalog, you must first ensure that this question is not used as part of  a custom indicator