Differentiation and Connection Between Planning Profiles and Wor (SAP Library

Differentiation and Connection Between Planning Profiles and Worklists

Both Planning Profiles and worklists offer the possibility to make a user-specific selection from the overall quantity of planning objects available in SEM-BPS. Both means have different goals, but with a sensible combination they can lead to a considerable reduction in the administrative effort:

Planning profile:
You use this to define a subset of planning areas, levels, packages, functions and parameter groups, which you can assign to one or several users. The objects contained in the profile are available for the assigned users during planning, while all other objects are invisible.

Worklist:
You use this to define a value range for one or several characteristics, which you assign to one user only. The values contained in the value range are available during planning for the assigned user for the corresponding characteristic.

Therefore, planning profiles contribute to a simpler orientation in the planning environment, while worklists allocate an individual dataspace to the user within which he/she can plan.

Regarding the second of the named aspects (definition of a dataspace), there is a partial overlapping between the planning profile and the worklist, since through a selection of characteristic values, which you make in the context of a planning level or planning package, you also specify the dataspace within which can be planned. For this reason there are two alternative possibilities from the data administration view, to make a user-specific restriction of the dataspace:

Individual planning profile:
You create an individual planning profile for every user, in which the planning area and the planning level are contained which are necessary for the execution of a certain planning task. In addition, you also create an individual planning package for every user, which contains the user-specific selection of characteristic values. Finally, you assign an individual planning profile to every user, in order to make the settings contained in it effective.
Combined use of planning profiles and worklists:
You create a standard planning profile for all users, who are involved in a certain planning task, and add the planning area and levels to it. In addition, you create a variable with the replacement type "User-specific values" for the characteristic, whose values describe the responsibility of different users (for example planning for various regions by different employees). Now you assign the respective affected value ranges to the variable per user, and add the variables as selection of the affected characteristic in the planning level. Finally, you assign the common planning profile to all users.

The administrative effort for both scenarios for n users is as follows:

Activity	Scenario 1 Creating/changing objects	Scenario 2 Creating/changing objects
Setting up planning (for example for cost center planning)	n Profile n Package 0 Variable 0 Variable values	1 Profile 0 Package (Ad hoc package) 1 Variable n Variable values
Adding characteristic value	1 Package	1 Variable value
Adding characteristic and assigning values	1 Level n Package 0 Variable values	1 Level 0 Package (Ad hoc package) n Variable values
Adding package	n Profile	1 Profile
Adding planning layout	n Profile	1 Profile

The comparison shows:

When setting up planning for a certain planning topic as well as adding (or removing) planning objects (packages, functions, layouts), the administrative effort in scenario 2 (combined use of profiles and worklists) is considerably less then in scenario 1 (individual planning profiles).
The administrative effort for such activities increases in scenario 1 exactly the same or twice as quickly as the number of users, while in scenario 2 the effort grows just as quickly, but is partly close to nothing.
In the remaining administrative activities the same number of objects are to be changed in both scenarios.
An advantage for scenario 1 only results in one single situation: When you use worklists in which a variable contains values for several characteristics, then adding a new characteristic to the variable would result in the loss of all (!) user-specific values of this variable. However, you can avoid this problem by creating a new variable for the new characteristic.

All in all, there are considerable savings in the administrative effort when you decide in favor of the combined use of planning profiles and worklists.