Merge Multiple Plan Type Hierarchies into a Single Area

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This article explains how to combine associated plan types from multiple plan type hierarchies into one area.

As an example for this article, I will create an Area that shows a combination of Objectives and Key Results and their associated Projects, all within a single Area. A view like this allows you to visualize how Projects are driving your Key Results and helping you reach your main Objectives, all in one streamlined view.

There are endless combinations of Plan Types you can put together to support different kinds of planning, like Capability planning, Value Stream management, and so much more. You are not limited to the base Plan Type hierarchy, and have a great deal of flexibility in how you can use OnePlan Areas and Plan Types.

  1. Create a new Area. In the Left Navigation, click Setup > New. Then fill out the General tab of the Area Editor. See Create and Manage Areas for more information.
    img-e834dbd6e21c98ffd56ea81ffe864401.png

  2. Go to the Plan Types tab.

  3. Now we can build out our combined hierarchy. The hierarchy needs to be built from the top down. So, I will first select the top-level parent Plan Type. Click Add Type > Existing Plan Type. The Add Plan Type form will open. Select the top-level Plan Type, which is Objective in this example, and click Add.
    img-1425dc01d5e8d42d54a1ea1c626856a2.png

  4. Now we add in the second layer of the hierarchy. Next to the parent Plan Type (Objective), click Add Child > Add Associated Plan Type. The Add Child Type form will open. Select the child Plan Type, which is Key Result in this example, and click Add.

    img-1070b89d56f614012a9f6bc47ebf5665.png

    Note that the Parent Relation field auto-populates with "Parent." This is because Objectives and Key Results already have a parent-child relationship defined in the main Plan Type hierarchy configuration.
    img-241130c08f422922df63e1a4d0458f62.png

  5. Finally, we need to add the last layer of the hierarchy. Next to the parent Plan Type (Key Result), click the Add Child > Add Associated Plan Type. The Add Child Type form will open. Select the child Plan Type, which is Project in this example.
    img-40d03256eafd4316cf475bb0a2cfa30a.png

    Note that the Parent Relation field is blank. This is because Key Results and Projects do not have a pre-established hierarchical relationship. We need to define this relationship.
    img-7ad32a0e479e1cb4e4412839bd8c6b2f.png

  6. Click into the Parent Relation field for Project. Select the lookup field you want to use to connect Key Results with Projects. In this example, I will select Associated Key Results because I want to associate Projects in this view with their corresponding Key Results.

    img-c748cd843983ff9e4ec9139ce8a4cb95.png

    Note

    In the image above, you see that there are two options in the Parent Relation field for Project. This is because there are two lookup fields available. Lookup fields are a user-friendly method to create relationships between Plan Types in your environment. Associated Key Results is a lookup field that defines the relationship between Key Results and other Plan Types, and in this example, will link Key Results to Projects in the hierarchy. The Associated Projects lookup field defines the relationship between Projects to other Plan Types, and in this example, would link Projects to other Projects in the hierarchy (which is not the relationship we want to display here).

  7. Click Save. 

Caveats

There are a couple of caveats to keep in mind as you are creating combined hierarchies with the Hierarchy Builder:

  • You can only use a Plan Type once per Area. You will see the following error if you try to add a Plan Type more than once:

    You_can_only_add_a_plan_type_once_to_an_area_error.png

  • You cannot rearrange the hierarchy once it is built. If you need to rearrange the hierarchy, you need to delete it and start over.

  • To delete a Plan Type from the hierarchy, you must delete all children of that Plan Type before you can delete it. If you try to delete a Plan Type that has children, you will see the following error:

    You_cannot_delete_a_type_that_has_children_error.png

  • Unrelated Plan Types need to have lookup fields configured to create associations between the Plan Types. Lookup fields are a user-friendly method to create relationships between plan types in your environment. For example, a plan can have a lookup to the program-type plan(s) to which it's associated. Or a feature-type plan can have a lookup to the epic-type plan(s) to which it's associated. See How do I configure lookup fields? for instructions.

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