Plan portfolio scenarios

Scenario planning lets you ask “what if?” about a portfolio without touching the real projects: what happens to budget and workload if we defer Project A, cut Project B, and add a hypothetical new initiative in Q3? Scenarios are sandboxes, nothing in them changes live project data.

Create a scenario

1. Open Portfolios from the sidebar, select a portfolio, and switch to the Scenario Planning tab.

2. Select New Scenario and give it a name that states the hypothesis, for example “Budget Cut 20%” or “Add Project Alpha”.

3. Add the portfolio’s projects to the scenario and set each one to Include, Exclude, or Defer.

4. Optionally override a project’s budget, start date, or end date inside the scenario to model a trimmed or shifted version of it.

5. You can also add a hypothetical project that does not exist yet: give it a name, dates, a budget, and a team size (headcount), and the scenario treats it like real demand.

Read the impact analysis

The Impact Analysis tab compares the scenario against the portfolio as it stands today:

• Budget: the scenario’s total (included projects, with any budget overrides applied) against the portfolio’s baseline total.
• Timeline: the combined date range the included projects span.
• People: projected hours per person across the included projects, compared with their recorded capacity, so over-allocation shows up before you commit to the plan.

Tip

Keep one scenario per question. Three small scenarios (“defer Alpha”, “cut budgets 20%”, “both”) compare more cleanly than one scenario you keep editing.

Apply a scenario to the portfolio

A scenario is a sandbox until you decide it is the plan. Apply to portfolio on the scenario writes it to the real portfolio and the real projects, in one step.

Selecting it opens a confirmation that lists exactly what will change before anything is written:

• Projects that will be added to or removed from the portfolio.
• Each project’s new start, end or budget, showing the before and the after.
• Hypothetical projects that will be skipped, because a project that only exists inside the scenario has nothing real to write to.
• A warning where the scenario’s dates would end a project before it starts. Those dates are not applied; a budget change on the same project still is.

What each decision does when applied:

In the scenario	On the portfolio
Include	Adds the project if it is not in the portfolio, and writes its overrides
Exclude	Removes the project from the portfolio, and changes none of its fields
Defer	Keeps the project in the portfolio and writes its new dates

A project the scenario does not mention is left completely alone.

Note

Applying twice is safe. A portfolio that already matches the scenario shows Nothing to apply rather than rewriting the same values, so there is no harm in confirming what a scenario would do by opening the dialog.

The whole apply is one transaction: either every change lands or none does. It records a SCENARIO_APPLIED entry in the audit log, and fires a Scenario applied to portfolio workflow trigger for each changed project, carrying the before and after values, so a downstream system can mirror the decision rather than discovering it later. See build a workflow.

Permissions

Viewing scenarios comes with the Enterprise plan’s scenario planning feature. Creating, editing, and deleting scenarios requires the scenario management permission, which defaults to organization owners, admins, and portfolio managers, and can be adjusted in the permission matrix.

Applying a scenario is a separate, higher bar, because it writes to live projects: it needs the manage portfolios permission, or ownership of the portfolio being written to.

Best practices

1. Name scenarios after the hypothesis, not the actor. “Defer Alpha by Q3” is more useful than “John’s idea”. The name should be searchable a year later.
2. Keep scenarios atomic, one question per scenario. A scenario testing 4 things at once obscures which change drives the impact. Three atomic scenarios are easier to compare.
3. Update scenarios when underlying projects change. Scenarios reference live projects; project changes are reflected. If a real project’s budget shifts, the scenario’s include/exclude logic still applies but the impact analysis shifts. Document intentional scenarios at point in time.
4. Use scenarios for stakeholder conversations. Showing three concrete options beats arguing about hypothetical numbers. Build the scenarios, walk through impact, let the room pick.
5. Archive (don’t delete) old scenarios. Last year’s “what if we cut by 20%” scenario is useful context when budgets come up again. Onplana doesn’t archive today, for now, prefix with “[2026Q1]” to indicate vintage.

Troubleshooting / common pitfalls

• Scenario Planning tab missing. Scenario planning is an Enterprise feature. Check your plan on the Billing tab.
• Scenario shows old project data. The underlying project changed after the scenario was created. Refresh or re-add the project.
• Hypothetical project hours look too low/ high. The headcount × standard weeks math is approximate. For precise modeling, use per-task estimates on a real planning project.
• Impact analysis says portfolio total unchanged. Scenario only changes Include/Exclude/Defer + overrides. If you set them all to Include with no overrides, the math matches the live portfolio.
• I can’t see scenarios but should. Scenario planning is Enterprise and above. Below Enterprise, the tab is hidden.

How this combines with other features

• Scenarios + Portfolio. Scenarios sit on portfolios. A portfolio without projects has no scenarios to model. See Group projects into portfolios.
• Scenarios + Capacity. Impact analysis surfaces over-allocation against current capacity. Combine with Capacity Planner to validate the plan is staffable. See Plan team capacity.
• Scenarios + Budget. Budget overrides let you model trimmed versions of real projects. Useful for “what if we cut this by 20%” conversations. See Set budgets and currency.
• Scenarios + Proposal pipeline. Approved proposals enter scenarios. A pipeline-heavy scenario models “what if we approve all 5 proposals?” See Understand the proposal pipeline.

Coming from another tool

Tool	Mapping
Microsoft Project Online Portfolio Analysis	Direct concept
ServiceNow PPM What-If Analysis	Direct concept
Smartsheet Resource Management	Lacks first-class scenarios
Custom Excel model	Onplana automates the math + visualization
OnePlan	Direct concept

FAQs

Do scenarios change my real projects? No. A scenario only stores its own overrides and include/exclude/defer choices. Adopting a scenario means applying those decisions to the real projects yourself.

How are hypothetical projects staffed in the analysis? Their estimated workload is spread evenly across the team size you gave them, using standard full-time weeks, so they add plausible demand without naming real people.

Can portfolio managers build scenarios? Yes, by default. Portfolio Manager is the role scenario planning is built for, so they can create, edit, and delete scenarios alongside owners and admins out of the box. An owner can tighten this to owners and admins only in the permission matrix if your scenarios carry sensitive what-if budget data you want to restrict.

Can I share a scenario externally? Today scenarios are read inside Onplana. Use Export CSV (when available) or screenshot the impact analysis to share with stakeholders who lack access.

Can I run an AI-assisted scenario generator? Not today, scenarios are manually built. AI-assisted scenario generation is on the roadmap.

Does Onplana auto-adopt a scenario? No, scenarios are sandboxes. Adopting means applying changes to live projects yourself. The deliberate separation prevents accidental commitment.

Related

• Set budgets and currency, budget overrides feed scenarios
• Plan team capacity, capacity check during scenarios
• Understand the proposal pipeline, proposal-driven scenarios