Execution - Managing a Plan

  • Updated

Introduction

As a Plan Manager, you'll constantly juggle multiple tasks: locating and understanding your plan's details, navigating through work plans, managing resources, keeping track of financials, deriving insights through AI, visualizing dependencies, and updating status reports. That may sound like a lot, but with OnePlan's intuitive interface and capabilities, you're equipped to handle it all with ease.

Interactive Tour

Take a guided tour through the OnePlan My Portfolio Area using this interactive demo. Click Continue to begin!

You can also click to enter full-screen mode for a better view.

Locating and opening a Plan

To start, let’s quickly find our plan.

Click on Home in Navigation Home.png, search for Data Warehouse Migration, and click on the Plan.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Navigate from Homepage.png

Details Tab: Understanding Your Plan

Click on the Details tab.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Detail Overview.png

This tab provides a comprehensive overview of your Plan, including:

  • Plan Stages – As you move your plan from stage to stage, you can configure OnePlan to display different sections of the form to only focus on the data needed for that stage and you can also trigger workflows to get approval to move your plan.
    Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Plan Stages.png
  • General Information – You can configure OnePlan to capture whatever metadata you would like to capture to help you categorize your plan.
    Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Paln Information.png
  • Business Case – you can have the team enter a business case for the plan.
    Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Business Case.png
  • Prioritization – OnePlan supports all types of prioritization calculations, you can add standard business drivers, or you can use an agile prioritization method such as WSJF (Weighted Shortest Job First) or you can simply just add questions to help come up with a Prioritization score for the plan.
    Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Prioritization.png

Expand the Enterprise Architecture section by clicking on the name.

Here you can link your plan to other plans in the system, For example, Key Results, Applications, Products, and Value streams

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Enterprise Architecture.png

Schedule Information – In OnePlan you can either manually enter the start and end date of the plan or you can use the Work Plan to build out a detailed schedule to populate the dates.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Project Schedule.png

Financial Summary – In OnePlan you can just manually enter the financial information in the Details form, or you can use the Financial Plan to build out a detailed time phase financial plan that will populate these financial fields.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Project Financials.png

Effort Summary - In OnePlan you can just manually enter the amount of effort needed in the Details form or you can use the Resource Plan to build out a detailed time phase resource plan that will populate these work fields.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Project Effort.png

Plan Health and Trends – Health fields can be manual to allow managers to control the overall health of a plan, or you can create calculations to automate these status fields. For example, if you have 2 active issues, Issue Health turns to At Risk, or if you have High priority issue that I active turns Issue Health to Off Track.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Project Health.png

Plan Status – The Plan Status fields are the latest status narrative, you can use OnePlan’s Status reports which we will show you later how to snapshot and submit this status to managers for review.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Project Status.png

Work Plan: Planning Work

Managing a Schedule

Whether you prefer to build and manage simple to-do lists or more complex schedules, OnePlan has got you covered.

  1. Click on the Work Plan List tab and make sure you are on the Schedule Work Type.
  2. Switch view to To Do.
  3. Expand All Levels Expand.png.

This is a simplistic view of how you can manage a list of To Do items for this Plan.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Schedule List.png

Switch view to Advanced Scheduling.

Now you can see you can take the same list of work and build out a complex schedule using different Dependency Types, Scheduling Modes, Constraints, etc.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Advanced Scheduling.png

Switch view to Gantt.

You can also include a Gantt in your List view to get a visual of the time for your schedule.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Gantt.png

Click On the Integration button Connected System.png.

OnePlan also Integrates with the more popular work management tools.

In this popup dialog box, you can see as a user you can also use other popular Work Management tools.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Connected Systems.png

Managing a Backlog

If would like to also manage a backlog of work, users can create and organize an agile backlog with your schedule. OnePlan is the only planning tool that allows users to build a schedule and/or manage a backlog all in OnePlan.

  1. Change the Work Type to Backlog.
  2. Change the view to Backlog Tracking.
  3. Expand All Levels Expand.png.
  4. Click the “Hamburger” button Hamburger Menu.png and click Show Sprints.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Backlog.png

You can then assign your backlog items to Sprints.

Click on multiple Sprints to show how the data is filtered by Sprint. Click the same Sprint to return all the Backlog items to the list.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Backlog filtered by sprint.png

Click On the Integration button Connected System.png.

OnePlan Integrates with the more popular Agile management tools.

In this popup dialog box, you can see as a user you can also use other popular Agile Management tools.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Backlog Connected Systems.png

Boards

You can also manage your work in a Board view.

Click on the Work Plan drop down select Board and then select the Work by Status view.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Board.png

Here is an example of a board view that allows managers to manage their work using Kanban. Note the Constraints per status column allowing managers to use WIP (Work In Progress) methods. Constraints per Column.png

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Board Constraintss.png

These Boards are easily configurable, you can create different views. 

Change the view to Work by Priority.

You will notice in this view we have broken up the Kanban data by Priority.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Board by Priority.png

Or you can easily change the board configuration on the fly.

Change the Column to Health Status and Lanes to None.

Other Work

In the Work Plan, not only can you build your schedule and/or manage your backlog, but you can also manage other work associated with this such as Risks, Issues, Changes, or any other Work Type you need to manage.

Click on the Work Type drop-down and show the other Work Types Risks, Issues, Changes, and Key Decisions in drop-down. Switch to List if you want to show these Work Types.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Board Change View.png

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Board View Updated.png

Resource Plan: Booking the Right People

Now let’s look at the resources needed for this plan.

Click on the Resource Plan Tab.

In this module, you can see a list of people, equipment, or any type of resource needed to complete this plan. You can also assign generic resources as a requirement for a resource manager to fulfill.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Resource Plan.png

In this configuration, we have 3 different types of resource plans. The first type is Committed, this type is what we will use to agree with the resource/functional managers.

Click on the Committed drop-down and show the other Resource Types.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Resource Plan Types.png

We can also track what was originally committed to what is currently scheduled to what is being done.

Click on the Filters.png drop-down and change Compare To to Committed < Scheduled.

Trial Guide - Resource Plan - Compare To.png

Now you can compare the original Committed Plan to what is now in the Scheduled Plan to see the variance in what you agreed to and what is now being executed.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Resource Plan Compare.png

Now let's switch the view back to looking at resource capacity.

Click on the drop-down Filters.png and change Compare To to Capacity.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Back to Capacity.png

Adding Resource Bookings is easy in OnePlan. As a Plan Manager, you can manually enter resource bookings.

Stay on the Committed type and click the Add Bookings Add Bookings.png button. Search a name, select a date range, and put 20% allocation as an example. Then click Cancel.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Resource Plan Add Booking.png

You can then edit the time-phased bookings just like a spreadsheet.

Click on a cell and show how you can change the hours.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Resource Plan Edit Booking.png

Or if you already built a Work Plan you can import the Work Plan resource assignments to populate the Resource Plan. This can be set up to auto-import as well, but we set this up to allow users to pick.

Click on the Import button Import.png.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Resource Plan Import.png

Once you have your resource plan built out, you can view resource allocations by Hours, Percentages, or FTEs

Click Hours:

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Resource Plan Hours.png

Then %:

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Resource Plan Percent.png

And then FTE:

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Resource Plan FTE.png

Switch back to Hours.

On the left of the resource name, you can see which resources are Committed to the plan Green Check.png and which resources are still Proposed Proposed.png or need a Resource/Functional Manager to fulfill the request. OnePlan has a Negotiation feature that can manage the workflow of this approval or you can leave it open for a Plan Manager to manually approve the booking. In this configuration, a Plan Manager can change a Proposed to Committed.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Resource Plan Proposed to Commit.png

If you're unsure of who to assign, OnePlan can help you identify the best match-based resource based on skills and availability.

Select the Project Manager check box to highlight that row and click on the Candidates List button Candidates List.png.

Note you can find available resources by searching the resource center. You can search by any type of resource metadata or ask OnePlan to find the Best Match.

In the Candidates list below click on the Best Match option in the Find Resources drop-down.

Now you can see a list of resources sorted by Availability, their Role, and Department. You can configure the resource metadata in OnePlan.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Resource Plan Candidates List.png

Once you find the resource with the right skills and availability you can select them and click on Replace Resource button.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Resource Plan Replace Resource.png

As a Plan Manager, I now know I have the best resource with the best availability assigned to my Plan.

Financial Plan: Keeping Track of Costs

As a Plan Manager, you may need to manage the Financials for this plan.

Click on the Financials Tab and select the Budget Cost Type.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Overview.png

In OnePlan, the Plan Manager can manage cost by Cost Categories. These Cost Categories can be configured to map to your business's financial structure. Maybe your General Ledger or something like that.

In this demo, we have broken out Cost Categories by Labor then by Role, and then other costs such as Materials, Travel, Contracts, Software, and Others.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Cost Categories.png

OnePlan also supports multiple Cost Types.

Click on the Cost Type drop-down to show other cost types. 

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Cost Types.png

You can also manage your financials by different date ranges. For example, I might want to manage the budget by Quarters or by Years.

Click on Dates and click Quarters and click Apply.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Select Quarter.png

Now you are looking at my financial data by Quarters.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Quarter.png

Click on Dates and click Months and click Apply.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Months.png

You can create any type of Cost Type you would like to manage. In this demo, we are managing the original approved Budget, the new Forecast, Actuals and what are the Benefits we can expect from this Plan.

You can compare these cost types to see how you are tracking.

Change Compare To: to Budget < Forecast.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Select Compare To.png

In this view, you are now looking at the original Budget compared to what is now being forecasted. Notice the heat map on the variances.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Compare To.png

Change Compare To: to None.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Compare to None.png

You also may want to group my Financials to see it in different pivots. For example, maybe I want to manage CapEx (Capital cost) and OpEx (Operational cost)

Click the Group By button Group By.png and click Group by Expense Type.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Group By.png

Now I view and manage my Financial Plan by OpEx and CapEx.

Click the Group By button Group By.png and click Group by No Group.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan No Group.png

Entering Financial data is easy in OnePlan. The Financial Plan is like a spreadsheet, you can easily type the dollar amounts in the cells.

Click on a Cell and type a number.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Edit Grid.png

Or you can import your Resource Plan and have it populate the budget or forecast from the resources already allocated to this Plan.

Click the Import button Import.png.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Financial Plan Import.png

So, as you can see, viewing and managing your Financial Plan is easy using OnePlan.

Insights: AI-Powered Reporting

OnePlan's AI provides actionable Insights, alerting you to any non-compliance or potential issues. So, once you think you have your plan ready, you can go to Insights and see if there is anything that is out of compliance or could be a problem or just warnings that there might be better ways to manage the plan.

Click the Reporting Tab and click Insights.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Access Insights.png

This page will give you an overall compliance score in the upper right, and you can also see what else might be a problem or needs attention.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Insights.png

Visualizer: Understanding Plan Dependencies

OnePlan Visualizer helps managers better understand how their plan is impacting the business.

Click the Reporting Tab and click Visualize.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Visualize.png

Visualizing Dependencies

The Dependencies view shows you which Plans are depending on this specific plan or what Plans this Plan is depending on. You can also see what the current status is by changing the color by to Status.

Change Color By to Status.

Now you can see which Plans might be off track or at risk that your plan is dependent on.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Visualize by Status.png

Analyzing Plan associations with the rest of the business

To ensure your plan has alignment with broader organizational goals is essential.

Click the Runway Tab Runway.png and Zoom OutZoom Out.png.

Here, you can visualize how your Plan correlates with key Objectives, Key Results, and how it impacts output like Products, Applications, Capabilities, etc.

Also note the Status color to better understand what elements in the business might be at risk and what is impacting them.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Visualize Runway.png

Status Report: Regular Plan Updates

OnePlan allows organizations to standardize and automate status reporting for consistency and trends across all types of initiatives across the organizations.

Click the Reporting Tab and click Status Report.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Access Status Report.png

The Status Report is completely editable. You can start to change status report values and enter in narrative as you see fit.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Edit Status Report.png

When you are ready you can click Submit to submit the report for review and approval.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Submit Status Report.png

Click on the Report: Date and select another report date.

Here you can see all the reports that you have submitted over time, which being captured for trend analysis and it lets AI learn more about the Plan.

Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Status Report History.png

When ready, you can export the report to PDF, or Word, or just email the status report to your manager.

Click the Export button and show the different options.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Export Status Report.png

Dashboard: Visual Data Insights

OnePlan's dashboard offers visual overviews of various aspects of your plan.

Click the Reporting Tab and click Dashboards.

Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Dashboard.png

Navigate through and explore the various tabs of this plan's reporting dashboard:

  • Plan Summary
    Trial Guide - Manage a Plan - Plan Summary.png
  • Financial Summary
    Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Financial Summary.png
  • Resource Plan Summary
    Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Resource Plan Summary.png
  • Health Trend
    Trial Guide - Manag a Plan - Health Trend.png

Conclusion

With OnePlan, managing and tracking your plan becomes a seamless experience. From high-level plan details to work plan to resource and financials, everything you need is right at your fingertips.

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