Overview: Planning with the Status and Tracking
System 
Use
You execute planning with the Status and Tracking System in order to structure the planning process. The following advantages result from using the Status and Tracking System:
· Possibility of iterative alignment of planning results within a subplan with the definition of different planning sessions
· Clear assignment of subtasks to the persons responsible within a planning session
· Executing planning taking account of clear deadlines
· Regular planning workflow on the basis of a status administration system.
Prerequisites
You have completed Customizing the Status and Tracking System for at least one combination of subplan and planning session. For more information, see Customizing the Status and Tracking System.
Functions
The Status and Tracking System is used as an environment in which to both carry out planning and monitor the planning process. You start a planning session by using the Send Start E-mail function, either in Customizing of the Status and Tracking System or in the planning coordinator’s overview monitor, to prompt the system to send an e-mail to all employees who are taking part in the planning session. If you choose the second option, the system automatically starts a job in the background to send the e-mail and executes this immediately. The system uses the notification texts for this e-mail. These contain a link for the direct start of the assigned data entry in the Web browser.
Authorizations
Different initial screens are displayed for the person responsible and the planning coordinator according to the specific task area or area of responsibility.
The person responsible first sees the overview page for his or her areas of responsibility. This is only displayed as a table at this point. You can jump to the corresponding detail pages from here using the Detail link. However, if the person responsible is only assigned to one area of responsibility, either directly or as a substitute, the corresponding detail page is displayed immediately (see below).
The planning coordinator sees the overview page first. Two views are available: The default hierarchical view and the table view that the planning coordinator can change to. By using the Detail link, the planning coordinator can jump to the corresponding detail screen from either of these views.
Overview Page
Table View
For each area of responsibility, the following information is displayed in the form of a table:
- Current status
-
Lock status (
locked/
not locked) - Person responsible
- Current processor (bottom-up planning session)
-
Status of the completion
date (
critical/ 
not critical) - Completion time
-
Comments column, from where
you can jump to the comments page (
comments available/ 
not
available) - Detail column.
In the table view you can also filter to the following fields:
- Area of responsibility
- Current status
-
Lock status ( locked/ not locked)
- Person responsible
- Current processor (with a bottom-up planning session)
-
Status of the completion
date ( critical/ not critical)
- Completion time.
Hierarchical View
As well as the table view, the following symbols can be used:
Aggregated Status Not
Approved (with
bottom-up planning sessions), or Aggregated Status Not Completed and
Released (with top-down planning sessions). This means that at least one node beneath the node
in question has not yet been given the status Approved (bottom-up
planning session) or Completed and Released (top-down planning
session).
Aggregated Status Not
Approved and Comment(s) Beneath Current Node. In
addition to the information given above, comments have been maintained for at
least one of the nodes arranged beneath the node in
question.
Aggregated Status
Approved (with bottom-up planning sessions), or
Aggregated Status Completed and Released (with top-down planning
sessions). This means that all nodes beneath the node in question have the
status Approved.
Aggregated Status
Approved and Comment(s) (with bottom-up planning
sessions), or Aggregated Status Completed and Released (with top-down
planning sessions). In addition to the information given above, comments have
been maintained for at least one of the nodes arranged beneath the node in
question.
Detail Page
In the top left-hand area of the screen you see:
- Navigation link My Area of Responsibility.
Arranged underneath this are:
- Subplan
- Planning session
- Selected area of responsibility
- Current status of selected area of responsibility with lock status, lonk to status history, and buttons for status change
- Due date and time (critical/ not critical)
- Person responsible with system user and contact data
- Current processor with system user and contact data (with bottom-up planning sessions)
- Send E-Mail to person responsible
- Additional information for the respective planning session, if maintained See Maintaining Text with Additional Information.
You will find a number of additional buttons below:
- Log Off
- Open Planning: Opens the planning application maintained for the selected area of responsibility.
- Open Report: Opens the control report maintained for the selected area of responsibility.
- Maintain Comments: Jumps to the comments page for the selected area of responsibility.
In the bottom part of the screen a hierarchically structured table is displayed. The information is structured in the same way here as in the hierarchical view of the overview page. However it only refers to the lower-level areas of responsibility. By expanding the hierarchy nodes you can display overview information on those areas of responsibiltiy that are arranged lower down in the hierarchy. You can navigate from here to the leaves of the subhierarchy.
If you the appropriate settings have been made in Customizing, the buttons for a cascading status switch appear under this table.
Comment Page
Comments can be entered for all areas of responsibility. You can also forward these comments to the areas of responsibility that lie directly below. There is a checkbox under the input field for comments for this purpose.
See also:
Executing Planning with the Status and Tracking System
Authorization Objects in the STS