Plan Automations - Overview

Plan Automations in OnePlan allow you to define plan-level automated behavior that helps enforce consistency, reduce manual effort, and support governance as plans move through their lifecycle.

With Plan Automations, you can configure rules that automatically respond when something about a plan changes—such as a field update, a process step change, or a specific date being reached—so plans behave predictably without requiring constant manual intervention.

What you will understand
After reading this article, you will understand:

• What Plan Automations are
• When and why they are used
• How Plan Automations support scalable plan management
• How automation scope affects plan behavior

Prerequisites

Before working with Plan Automations, you should be familiar with core plan concepts, including:

• Plan types and hierarchies
• Plan ownership and permissions
• Plan lifecycle and governance

Plan Automations build on these foundational concepts and are most effective once standard plan structures are already in place.

Audience

This article is intended for:

• Power users and advanced plan owners
• Portfolio, program, or PMO leaders responsible for standardizing plan behavior
• OnePlan administrators
• Teams preparing to scale plan usage across portfolios

This article is conceptual and does not replace step-by-step configuration instructions.

Conceptual Overview

Plan Automations allow you to define rules that automatically perform actions when specific plan-level events occur.

Instead of relying on manual updates as plans move through lifecycle stages or governance processes, Plan Automations ensure those changes happen consistently and reliably, regardless of who manages the plan.

At a high level, Plan Automations help answer questions such as:

• How can we enforce consistent plan behavior across teams?
• How can we reduce repetitive manual plan updates?
• How can plan governance scale as the number of plans grows?

Key Components of a Plan Automation

Every Plan Automation is built using the same set of core components:

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  Triggers
  Events that start an automation, such as when a plan is created, a field changes, a process step changes, or a date passes.

•  

  Filters
  Optional rules that further refine when the automation should run.

•  

  Actions
  Automated updates or operations performed on the plan when the trigger conditions are met.

•  

  Scope
  Defines which plans the automation applies to.

Together, these components control when, where, and how automated behavior occurs.

Understanding Automation Scope

Automation scope determines which plans an automation applies to.

In OnePlan, scope is not something you manually choose.
Instead, scope is automatically determined by where the automation is created.

There are two possible scopes for Plan Automations:

All Plans Scope

Automations created from a Portfolio Area apply to multiple plans.

• The scope is set to All Plans
• The automation can apply to all plans of one or more selected plan types
• Plan types are required so OnePlan knows which plans the automation should evaluate

This scope is commonly used for:

• Portfolio-wide governance
• Standardized lifecycle behavior
• Cross-plan consistency

This Plan Scope

Automations created from within an individual plan apply only to that plan.

• The scope is set to This Plan
• The automation affects only the current plan
• Plan types are not required

This scope is commonly used for:

• Plan-specific automation needs
• Targeted plan behavior
• Situations where broader portfolio rules are not required

Key Concept
Automation scope is determined by where you start the automation, not by configuration choices later in the process.

How Plan Automations Fit Into OnePlan

Plan Automations operate at the plan level, meaning they apply across the plan and its associated modules.

They are commonly used alongside:

• Plan types and hierarchies
• Governance and standardization efforts
• Portfolio-level planning and reporting

Plan Automations are typically introduced after plan structures, permissions, and workflows are established, as organizations move toward greater scale and consistency.

Note
Plan Automations are different from Work Plan Automations, which operate at the task or work item level.
Choosing the correct automation type depends on whether you are automating plan behavior or work execution.

Common Scenarios

You might use Plan Automations to:

• Automatically update plan fields as lifecycle stages change
• Enforce standard behaviors across plans and plan types
• Trigger approvals or notifications at key governance points
• Reduce repetitive manual plan maintenance
• Support enterprise governance and standards

Where to Go Next

To continue learning about Plan Automations, review the following articles:

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  Plan Automations Interface Overview
  Learn how to navigate the Plan Automations interface.

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  Plan Automation Configuration Overview
  Learn how triggers, filters, actions, and scope come together when building an automation.