Who is this article for?

Users who want to learn more about Performance Indicator trends.

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Trends display how performance changes over time, providing insight into patters. This article will explain how the system calculates the different trend patterns based on Performance Indicator (PI) data.

In this article:

1. Long Trend
2. Short Trend
3. Calculation type
4. Trend arrows

1. Long Trend

The Long Trend Arrow is calculated by finding the difference between that period vs the average of the previous x number of time periods.

In this case, 'x' is defined by the calculation type.

2. Short Trend

The Short Trend is calculated by finding the difference between the current and previous periods.

This depends on the set calculation type, as it determines which previous period to use (either the last period or the same period last year).

3. Calculation type

There are two options that determine how the Trends are calculated. This field is the 'Trend Calculation type' which can be found in the 'PI Settings' tab.

• Ongoing Trend - Uses the last x Values in the collection in the Long Trend calculation.
• Year to Year Trend - Uses the Values from the last x years of that period in the Long Trend calculation.

The table below gives an indication of how the two methods can produce different results:

4. Trend arrows

Trend Arrows will always be calculated based on if the Value is getting better or worse relative to the Target, regardless of the PI's status.

For 'Aim to Max' PIs, higher is better, and for 'Aim to Min' PIs, lower is better. For 'Goldilocks' PIs, getting closer to the Target is better and getting further from the Target is worse.

If the Value is better than the calculated average, the Trend arrow will point upwards.

If the Value is worse than the calculated average, the Trend arrow will point downwards.

If the Value is the same as the calculated average, the Trend arrow will be replaced with a dash.