The Plan holds the project's phases, tasks, subtasks and milestones. Its Main table view lists them grouped by phase, so you can scan owners, status and dates quickly. The same tasks drive the Gantt, the Budget view, My work on Home and the project cards.
Before you start
Good to have
- The project's start and end dates set
- For SAP Activate projects, the six phases already in the plan (they are created with the project)
- Your existing plan as MS Project XML, CSV or Excel, if you want to import it
How to add a task
- Open the Plan
Select Plan in the project menu. The page is "Project plan". Make sure Main table is selected.
- Start a task
Select New task.
- Describe it
Type the Task name and an optional Description. Choose the Parent task (or Top level), the Workstream (such as FI or Data migration, or None), the Task type (Phase, Task, Subtask or Milestone) and the Status.
- Schedule and assign it
Set the Start date, End date, Priority and Assignee. Tick Mark as milestone for a key date. A milestone also gets a Milestone type, such as Go-live, Phase gate or UAT sign-off. Go-lives appear on the portfolio.
- Effort and cost
Optionally add estimated and actual effort in days, and estimated and actual cost.
- Save
Select Create task. To change it later, select its row and use Save changes.
How to import a plan
- Open the import
Select the arrow next to New task, then Import a plan.
- Choose the file
Pick an .xml, .csv or .xlsx file. The dialog detects the columns: Task name, Outline level, Start date, End date, Progress, Assignee, Workstream, Milestone and Milestone type, and shows the first 5 rows.
- Decide about old tasks
Tick Clear existing tasks before import only if you want to replace the whole plan.
- Import
Select Import tasks.
Filtering, exporting and the summary
- Search tasks by name or assignee, pick a date range, and filter by Assignee, Status, Phase and Workstream. The bar says how many tasks are shown.
- The strip above the table counts Total, Completed (with a percentage), In progress, Blocked, Delayed and Milestones.
- Each phase group shows a status bar and the date range of its tasks. Use the arrow on a task to show or hide its subtasks.
- Export downloads the plan as an Excel file, including each task's Workstream and, for milestones, its Milestone Type. The icon next to it, Open in new window, opens the plan in a separate window.
Good to know
- Phases (SAP Activate): Discover, Prepare, Explore, Realize, Deploy and Run. Tasks with no phase are grouped under "No phase".
- The Assignee is free text. Type the person's name or email exactly as it appears on their profile or the project team, so the task shows in their My work.
- MS Project .mpp files cannot be read. In MS Project, save the plan as XML or CSV first.
- Changes made on another device appear on their own. The plan also refreshes when you return to the window.
- If you lose your connection, the plan shows the copy this device last saw, with a note saying so.
- If you cannot edit tasks, the task form opens read only.
Who can do this
Admins, project managers, functional leads and technical leads can add and edit tasks. Only admins and project managers can delete tasks and import a plan. Everyone on the project can view the plan.