Scenario Planning constraints tell Profit.co's optimization engine which rules to follow when recommending resource allocations across your portfolio. Configuring one means naming it, setting its priority, and choosing how strictly it should be enforced.
Table of Contents
- What Are Scenario Planning Constraints?
- Why Do Scenario Planning Constraints Matter?
- How Do I Configure Scenario Planning Constraints?
- What Happens When You Use Scenario Planning Constraints?
- What Are the Best Practices for Scenario Planning Constraints?
- Related Articles
- What Are Some Frequently Asked Questions About Scenario Planning Constraints?
What Are Scenario Planning Constraints?
A Constraint Type is a rule a Super User defines inside Scenario Planning to govern how Profit.co's optimization engine allocates resources across projects. Each Constraint Type has a name, a plain-language description, a Priority level (High, Medium, or Low), and a Flexibility Score slider ranging from Most Strict to Most Flexible.
The Priority level determines which enforcement category the constraint falls into: High priority constraints are enforced as Must Meet hard rules, Medium priority as Should Meet flexible goals, and Low priority as Optimize goals with minimal enforcement.
| Priority Level | Constraint Behavior |
|---|---|
| High → Must Meet | A hard constraint representing an absolute requirement. Optimization fails if it's violated, so critical business rules are never compromised. |
| Medium → Should Meet | A medium-priority goal that allows violations with a penalty, giving flexibility when necessary to achieve overall optimization. |
| Low → Optimize | A low-priority goal with minimal penalty for violations, giving maximum flexibility to find the best overall solution. |
Prerequisite
A Super User must enable the Scenario Planning toggle before Constraint Types can be created. Only Super Users can enable Scenario Planning or create Constraint Types.
Why Do Scenario Planning Constraints Matter?
Without configured constraints, a resource allocation recommendation has no rules to follow, forcing a portfolio manager to manually check every option against each business rule by hand. Configuring Must Meet, Should Meet, and Optimize tiers up front lets Profit.co enforce critical rules automatically and account for trade-offs on the flexible ones without extra manual review.
Color-coded priority badges, red for High, yellow for Medium, green for Low, plus a plain-language description on every Constraint Type, let stakeholders see which rules are non-negotiable and which are guidelines without opening the configuration screen.
How Do I Configure Scenario Planning Constraints?
Step 1: Open Scenario Planning Settings
- Navigate to Settings → Portfolios and Projects → Portfolios and switch to the Scenario Planning tab.
Step 2: Enable Scenario Planning
- Turn on the Scenario Planning toggle for your organization.
Step 3: Create a Constraint Type
- Click the + Create button.
Step 4: Name and Describe the Constraint
- Enter the constraint type name and a description explaining the rule in plain language.
Step 5: Set the Priority Level
- Assign a Priority of High, Medium, or Low.
Step 6: Set the Flexibility Score
- Move the Flexibility Score slider anywhere from Most Strict to Most Flexible to control how strictly this specific constraint is enforced during optimization.
Tip
Instead of building a Constraint Type from scratch, Profit.co provides pre-configured templates such as Budget Limits, Strategic Mandates, and Resource Caps to start faster.
What Happens When You Use Scenario Planning Constraints?
| Scenario | What Happens |
|---|---|
| You configure a High-priority (Must Meet) constraint that can't be satisfied. | Profit.co fails the optimization run and does not produce an allocation recommendation, since Must Meet constraints represent absolute requirements that can never be compromised. |
| You configure a Medium-priority (Should Meet) constraint that can't be fully satisfied. | Profit.co still generates an allocation recommendation and applies a penalty for the violation instead of blocking the optimization. |
| You configure a Low-priority (Optimize) constraint that isn't fully satisfied. | Profit.co applies only a minimal penalty and keeps maximum flexibility to find the best overall allocation. |
| You move a constraint's Flexibility Score toward Most Strict instead of Most Flexible. | Profit.co enforces that constraint more rigidly during optimization, reducing how often it can be violated even at a penalty. |
| You configure multiple constraints across all three priority levels. | Profit.co evaluates High-priority constraints first, so they dominate the optimization ahead of the Medium- and Low-priority goals. |
| You disable the Scenario Planning toggle after Constraint Types already exist. | Profit.co hides Scenario Planning and its Constraint Types from the organization, and restores them unchanged if a Super User re-enables the toggle. |
What Are the Best Practices for Scenario Planning Constraints?
- Reserve High priority (Must Meet) for rules that truly cannot be broken, since Profit.co fails the entire optimization run rather than producing a partial recommendation when one is violated.
- Adjust the Flexibility Score to fine-tune enforcement within a priority tier rather than changing the Priority level itself, since Priority determines which enforcement type applies while Flexibility Score adjusts how strictly that type is applied.
- Write a plain-language description for every Constraint Type, since stakeholders reviewing recommendations see the color-coded priority badge and description, not the underlying configuration screen.
- Start from a Constraint Type Template, such as Budget Limits, Strategic Mandates, or Resource Caps, when the rule matches a common pattern instead of configuring Priority and Flexibility Score from scratch each time.
- Check your Must Meet constraints first if an optimization run fails to produce a recommendation, since a single unmet hard constraint is enough to block the entire result.
Related Articles
- What is the Prioritization and Optimization grid in the PPM module?
- What is Resource Management in the PPM module?
What Are Some Frequently Asked Questions About Scenario Planning Constraints?
They reflect Priority level only: red for High, yellow for Medium, and green for Low. The Flexibility Score is shown separately as a slider position.
Priority level sets which enforcement category applies, Must Meet, Should Meet, or Optimize. The Flexibility Score slider then fine-tunes how strictly that specific constraint is enforced within its category, from Most Strict to Most Flexible.
No. Scenario Planning, Stages, and Templates are configured as separate sections under Settings → Portfolios and Projects, so enabling or disabling one does not affect the others.
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