1.2 - Cascade Terminology
Previous Section: 1.1 - Why Cascade
A handy guide to help you learn the Cascade's language.
Action
A qualitative breakdown of progress toward an objective. Actions represent specific tasks, initiatives or even projects depending on the level of detail you need. You can track actions manually, by defining milestones or creating checklist items, or by connecting to a tool like Jira and track progress from within Cascade.
Example: ‘Hire a new Head of HR’, or ‘Update training program’
Alignment
Alignment is the term used to describe the structural relationship between two items in a plan.
Example: The Objective ‘Grow aggressively and take names’ is aligned to the Focus Area ‘Becoming an Industry Leader’
Checklist
A checklist represents an activity or a group of activities or tasks to be completed by a specific date. In Cascade, checklists are associated with tracking the Actions.
Example: For the action, "Set-up a new vertical for People and Culture", the checklist items can be "Hire a People and Culture Lead", "Set up the process and related documentation", "Build a team", and so on by specific dates.
Contributing Objective
A contributing objective is an objective that contributes to the health of another objective, and is linked to it to impact the overall success.
Example: The Objective "Create posters to increase visibility and publicity", will be the contributing objective to the Objective "To make the brand get lot of likes and views on social media".
Collaborator
A collaborator is a user that is working on a given item, but is not the owner.
Example: If my manager owns the Objective ‘Create maximum footfalls for website’, but I am also working towards that Objective, I would be a collaborator for that item.
Expected Progress
Expected Progress is the term used to describe the ideal progress value for a given item at a given point in time.
Example: The expected progress for my measure ‘Book 12 demos’ is 1 year would be 1 demo per month
Focus Area
Focus Area are categories that provide context and organize a set of related objectives. You can create multiple Focus Areas in your plan.
Example: Expand Global Recognition, Grow Sustainably and Responsibly.
Health
Health is an attribute that provides a summary of an entity based on its current performance and your expected progress and timeline. It can be At Risk, Behind, On Track, Achieved, or Exceeded.
Measure
A quantifiable definition of how your objective is going to be assessed. Measures provide tangible indicators of success and will represent a value. They can be manually tracked in Cascade or connected to an integrated source through a Metric.
Example: The measure associated with my sales Objective is Annual Revenue, tracked in $.
Metric
A metric is a quantifiable value often connected to a measure to track progress of a business function. In other words, metrics are a way for businesses to consolidate their KPIs into the Metric Library. They are not time-bound, do not have progress, do not have an owner.
Example: Maintain the NPS rating of 10 (not time-bound)
Milestone
A Milestone represents a percentage of an Action to be completed that has been connected to a specific date. Its an activity or set of activities that needs to be completed in a certain order by a certain date. In Cascade, milestones are associated with Action.
Example: If my action is ‘Invest in new production lines and machinery’, my Milestones could be “Project Approval” by June 1st, “Project Initiation” by June 15th, and “Launch” by June 30th.
Mission
The Mission represents what your organization is striving to achieve through the execution of its strategy.
Examples: To make the brand more environment-friendly, To deliver contents suitable for all age groups, and so on.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
The Multi-factor authentication or Two-factor authentication (2FA) is an additional security layer that requires a code (OTP), in addition to the username and password while authenticating. This can be enabled or disabled for all the users in a workspace only by the Admins.
Nested Objective
A nested objective is an objective that is added as a "success criteria" to another objective, and included in the progress calculation of that objective.
Example: The Objective "Increase social media campaigns", will be a nested objective to the Objective "To make the brand get lot of likes and views on social media".
Objective
Objectives are the descriptions of future states, or targets, that your organization will reach by executing their strategy. Objectives fall under Focus Areas and, will be composed of some combination of Actions, Measures, or Contributing Objectives.
Example: One of my university’s Objectives is to “Have a global outreach program”. Inside that Objective are Actions like ‘Tie-up with universities across the globe’.
Plan
A Plan is the road map your organization has for where it’s going and how it’s going to get there. The Plan is made up of your Focus Areas, Objectives, Actions, and Measures.
Progress
Progress is the indicator of how close to completion an item is at a given point in time. This is typically tracked with a percentage.
Example: I’ve made $5000 of my $10,000 plan, so my Progress is at 50%.
Project
A Project is a part of the Strategy Model, nested underneath an Objective. It is a group of tasks or actions executed to achieve the desired outcome. The health of a project is determined by the actions nested under it.
Example: Shift towards sustainable operations, transform to a technology company, and so on.
Relationships
A Relationship between functions or entities defines the way the work is impacted. It can have a qualitative or quantitative effect on the other, and allows you to see how initiatives are connected and impact each other.
Example: The Measure "Target 5000 delivery units per day" is dependent on the Project "Optimize resource and procurement in manufacturing units".
Risks
When there's an anticipation of an uncertain event or condition, that has an effect on the outcomes that you wish for, then they're termed Risks. In other words, risks are things which you're worried could happen with regard to the element, but have not necessarily happened yet. This effect may be negative, or a deviation from the expected.
Example: Internal risks can be compliance violation, operational deviation from strategic decisions, or external risks like market crash, inflation, pandemics, and so on.
Role
A role is the term used in Cascade to describe the level of access someone has inside a workspace. There are four roles: Admin, Manager, Contributor, and Viewer. Each role has a different level of permission.
Strategy Model
Strategy Model is the term used in Cascade to describe the structure on which the plans and their components are built. Its the framework that exists as a blueprint to your business' growth.
Success Criteria
Success Criteria is the term used in Cascade to describe what defines success for a given Objective. This includes the Projects, Measures and Actions that need to be completed in order to meet that Objective.
Tracking
Tracking in Cascade is how you keep an eye on the progress of a given item. You’ll track it by updating tasks, recording progress made, and keeping an eye on the health, of different items in your plan.
Types
Types or Goal types are properties that define an element, and can be used to identify different categories of work. Types can be applied to plans, objectives, projects, actions, and measures.
Example: Strategic, operational, financial KPI, mergers and acquisitions, leading or lagging indicator, and so on.
Values
The Values represent the aspects of your organization that will allow you to successfully execute this strategy.
Example: Values can be customer-friendly, collaboration, empathy, and so on.
Vision
The Vision is the summary of the future identity of your organization. The Vision is what will be the end result of your organization’s strategy.
Examples are, To become the market leader, to become the best social media influencer, and so on.
Workspace
A Workspace in Cascade encapsulates all of the data in your organization’s ‘bucket’. It will contain users, plans, teams, reports, and so on. One person can have access to multiple workspaces, but content, like plans or reports, cannot exist across multiple workspaces.
Next Section: 1.3 - Navigating Cascade