This article covers how to choose and edit the KPI scoring types that are available in Spider Impact. For information about actually using these KPI scoring types, see the Using KPI Scoring Types article. For information on changing how scores are displayed, see the App Administration: Scoring article.

Choosing Standard Scoring Types

The Scoring Types page in the Administration section allows you to choose which scoring types are available for both KPIs and non-KPIs. This allows system administrators to show fewer scoring type options to users. You can order scoring types via drag and drop, and you can add new scoring types by clicking the “Add Scoring Type” button.

Here we’re adding the standard “4 Color Scored Middle” scoring type, and when we select it, we can see a preview of that scoring type’s thresholds and scores.

Custom Number Scoring Types

You can add custom scoring types to match any unconventional colors or thresholds you may have in your organization. When you add a custom scoring type, you choose its “KPI Value Type”, and a short description explains when to use each one. Multi-Threshold Number scoring types let you choose the number of thresholds, what they're called, what their scores are, and the colors between them. Updaters enter a value for each threshold.

Here we’ve added a fourth threshold and are choosing to make the KPI blue whenever the score is more than 9.

You can also create Stabilize Number scoring types. They're the same as Multi-Threshold Number scoring types, except the highest score is in the middle.

Single Goal Number Scoring Types

Single Goal Number scoring types are for KPIs where one number matters most: the goal. Each period, updaters enter only the KPI's value and its goal, and Spider Impact calculates every other threshold from the goal.

Instead of naming thresholds, you give each threshold a score and a color, and choose which threshold is the goal. Spider Impact places each threshold in proportion to the goal. For example, in this Revenue Target scoring type the goal's score is 10, so a threshold at a score of 2.5 falls at a quarter of the goal. A KPI with a $40,000 goal turns orange at $10,000, yellow at $20,000, light green at $30,000, and green when it reaches $40,000.

A KPI with a Single Goal Number scoring type scores by how close it gets to its goal, with zero as the worst result. Because the scale runs from zero up to the goal, these scoring types are for KPIs where higher values are better, and each goal must be greater than 0. For a KPI where lower values are better, use a Multi-Threshold Number scoring type.

Minimum and Maximum Scores

The score range for the whole application (0 to 10 by default) is set in Application Administration, along with whether scores can go beyond it. This is covered in the Scorecard Scoring Administration article. When scores are allowed to go beyond the range, each Multi-Threshold Number, Stabilize Number, and Single Goal Number scoring type can set its own limits.

The application-wide settings decide which limits a scoring type can set. In this example, scores can extend above 10 but not below 0.

• When “Allow Scores To Extend Below 0” is “Yes”, each custom number scoring type has a “Minimum Score” field.
• When “Allow Scores To Extend Above 10” is “Yes”, Multi-Threshold Number and Single Goal Number scoring types have a “Maximum Score” field. Stabilize Number scoring types don't, because their highest score is the middle threshold.

Leave a field blank for no limit. This Revenue Target scoring type caps scores at 15, so a KPI earns credit for beating its goal, up to 150% of the goal. One runaway result can't distort everything that rolls up above it.

Example: Scoring as a Percent of the Goal

Single Goal Number scoring types and score limits work well together. Use them when you want updaters to enter a single goal, but you want to score against it in a more nuanced way. First, set “Show Scores As” to “Percentage” in Application Administration and allow scores to extend above the maximum. Then create a Single Goal Number scoring type with the goal at 100%, yellow at 85%, orange at 70%, and red below 70%, and set its “Maximum Score” to 150%. Updaters still enter only the KPI's value and its goal each period.

A KPI that comes in at $34.7K against a $40K goal scores 86.6%, in the yellow band. A $70K month scores 150% rather than 175%.

Custom Text Scoring Types

You can create custom text scoring types where you create a predefined list of text KPI values that a user can choose from. In this example we’ve chosen Unscored Text with the following options:

• Failed
• Meets Expectations
• Exceeds Expectations

When you choose Scored Text each KPI value also has a color and a score.