xP&A HXM Workforce Planning - Add a new Version

In the first step, it is necessary to add a new member to the Version dimension. In order to do so, you need to enter the Version Management section.

1. In the SAP Analytics Cloud Menu, navigate to the Stories section.

2. Select Canvas in order to create a new canvas story.

   

3. Click on the table icon in order to create a story with a table object in it.

   

4. Select the SAP__HR_BPL_IM_WORKFORCE data model as your data source.

   A new dialogue pops up. Select the option Existing Model and click on Select other model…

   

   You can find the data model by searching for the technical name via the search function.

   

5. Click on the table and open the Version Management section.

   

After clicking on the Version Management icon, a new section on the right-hand side expands, where all public and private versions are visible. In this step, you will add a new public version to the data model.

1. Duplicate an existing version.

   • Choose a version and click on the copy icon next to it. In this example, you will create a copy of the version public.Aggregated_Plan.

   

2. Define the version properties.

   • Choose a valid name for your new version. In this example we will call it Baseline.
   • Ensure to choose Planning as your version category.
   • Choose one of the options provided for your copy operation. In this example, we will copy all data from the public.Aggregated_Plan version to the new version.
   
   • Click on OK to create the copy.

Now that you created the new version, you need to publish it as it is initially created as a private version.

1. Click on the Publish icon next to your new version.

   

2. Select the option Publish As.

   

3. Specify the version properties.

   • Specify the version name once more. In this example, we will stick to the name Baseline.
   • Specify the version category once more. Ensure to select Planning.
   • Click on the Publish button when done.
   

4. Close your story.

   • You may now close your story.
   • There is no need to save it as it only served as an entry point for the version management section.

Now that you created your new version, you can make a couple of adjustments which are relevant for the planning activities. This includes changing the plan horizon or the reference period for instance.

1. In the SAP Analytics Cloud Menu, navigate to the Files section.

2. Search for the SAP__HR_BPL_IM_WORKFORCE data model and open it.

   

3. Click on the dimension Version.

   

4. Adjust the version properties.

   • As your new version Baseline was created based on a copy of the version Aggregated_Plan, all properties were copied.
   • In case you want to adjust some of the properties, you can do it here.
   

   The below table offers an overview on the different properties and their impact.

   Column	Explanation
   ID	Not editable. Displays the ID of the version member.
   Description	Not editable. Represents the description of the version member.
   Category	Not editable. Defines the category of the version member.
   Start Period of Planning	Mandatory field. Defines the start period of the plan horizon in a YYYYMM format.¹
   End Period of Planning	Mandatory field. Defines the end period of the plan horizon in a YYYYMM format.¹
   Reference Period for Seeding	Mandatory field. Defines the reference period for the built-in seeding functionality in a YYYYMM format.²
   Is Version Visible?	Mandatory field. Indicates, whether the version is loaded by the planning applications or not.³
   Planning Direction	Mandatory field. Shows whether this Plan Level is applied to the aggregated or detailed planning scenario.⁴
   Plan Level	Mandatory field. Defines the Plan Level which will be applied in the initialization process of the planning applications.⁵

   ¹The properties Start Period of Planning and End Period of Planning define the plan horizon for your planning activities.

   • The plan horizon must always cover a multiple of 12 periods. This means, you can define your plan horizon over a range of 12, 24, 36 etc. periods.
   • The start and the end period must always be entered in a YYYYMM format.

   ²The property Reference Period for Seeding defines the reference period which is used for the built-in seeding functionality of the application SAP__HR_BPL_IM_WFP_CENTRAL_ASSUMPTIONS.

   • Only one period can be selected as reference period.
   • The reference period must always be entered in a YYYYMM format.
   • If for instance your define your reference period as 202212 and make use of the pre-seeding functionality provided by the application SAP__HR_BPL_IM_WFP_CENTRAL_ASSUMPTIONS, your plan version would be pre-populated with the values from the period 202212. Those values are copied over to the periods of your defined plan horizon, which in this example ranges from period 1 of the plan year 2023 to period 12 of the plan year 2023 (defined by the properties Start Period of Planning and End Period of Planning).

   ³The property Is Version Visible indicates whether a version can be initialized by the planning applications or not.

   • The value x indicates that the version must be initialized.
   • If this field is left blank, the version will be ignored in the initialization process.

   ⁴The property Planning Direction shows whether the version is used for the aggregated or the detailed planning scenario.

   • Allowed entries for the Planning Direction column are only the values Aggregated or Detailed.
   • Other keywords will not be recognized by the planning applications.

   ⁵The property Plan Level defines the default Plan Level of the version.

   • Each version can only have one Plan Level. The Plan Level must not be changed during the whole planning process. If the Plan Level is changed during the planning process, issues such as duplicated numbers may occur.
   • The Plan Level specified in this column defines the table structure in the planning applications. Find out more about the term Plan Level and its role in the context of this content package in step 1 of the tutorial xP&A HXM Workforce Planning - Add a new Plan Level.
   • Allowed entries for the column Plan Level are only the members maintained in the Plan_Level dimension, which per default are PL1, PL2, PL3, PL4 and PL5.

5. Save your changes in case you have done any.

Lastly, you need to make some final adjustments in order for the applications to initialize all objects with the new version.

In order to do so, there are three possible ways. You can check them out by switching the tabs in this step.

Lastly, you need to make the new version available for the filter widgets inside the reporting stories.

1. Head back to the Files section in the SAP Analytics Cloud Menu and look for the reporting story SAP__HR_BPL_IM_WFP_REPORTING.

   Open the story in edit mode.

   

2. Edit the input control for the filter widgets under the Progress Overview story tab.

   Click on one of the filter widgets, expand the menu via the ... icon and click on Edit Input Control.

   

3. Click on the Values bar under the Input Values section.

   

4. Add the version Baseline to the selection and click on OK when done.

   

5. Repeat this exercise for both of the widgets.

Congratulations! You have now successfully created a new version and embedded it into the planning applications and stories!

Interested in more xP&A topics and related business content packages? Visit our community page Extended Planning & Analysis Business Content.