| Action Plans | |
|---|
B. Creating Action Plans:
x1. Create Action Plan Header
x2. Adding Additional Information
x3. Creating Nested
Action Plans:
xxx(i) Action Plan
Hierarchy
xxx(ii) Strategy Map
and Organisation Chart Hierarchy
x4. Add Tasks to Action
Plan
C. Action Plan Reporting: The Action Plan List and
Summary Report
D. Action Plan work flow:
E. Action Plan editing:
Figure 1: An example of action plan graphs in a customised dashboard. Clicking on the graphic drills down to the action plan summary report that will also allow action plan editing (depending on access level).
Ultimately, action plans relate to either:
Action plans have no quantifiable contribution to an organisation's vision though they can be reported in a similar fashion to performance targets and are integral to all models of performance management.
Action plans comprise three parts in the Escendency system:
Note: an action plan is meaningless without one or more tasks attached to it or without being related to one or more action plans that in turn comprise one of more tasks.
Users with relevant privileges can view the status of an
action plan either from their customised dashboard (figure 1) or when they are
flagged with the 
icon
against the appropriate part of the system (for example, Corporate
Performance Overview report, strategy
maps and Organisation Charts). Clicking
on the dashboard graphic will display the Action Plan Summary
Report and clicking on the flag icon will display an action
plan list report.
Clicking on the Action plan tool option will bring up a list of action plans (figure 2.1) in the system (in new systems this list will be empty).
Clicking on the 'Add' button in the Action Plan List will bring up the 'Create Action Plan' window (figure 2.2).
Figure 2: Create Action Plan header window.
Create Action Plan fields:
Clicking the Save Header button creates the initial action plan and allows additional information to now be entered (figure 3).
2. Adding Additional Information
Figure 3: Additional Information during set of an action plan after header is saved.
Related Items is a powerful action plan reporting tool (see 4. Action Plan Hierarchy below for examples and explanations) that allows great flexibility in how action planning is reported and accessed throughout the system. It's main strength is in creating nested action plans.
Clicking on the 'Related Items' displays a list of check boxed maps of the
User, Organisation chart, Strategy maps, Performance Targets, Perspecitves and
other Action plans in the system. The new action plan can be attached to any
of the items checked (figure 4). Where those items occur throughout the system
they will be flagged with a
icon (see an example from the Scorecard Perspectives report by clicking here
or from the Strategy Map report by clicking here).
Clicking on the action plan flag will open up either the Action Plan Summary
Report (figure 10) or the action plan edit window depending
on where it occurs within the system.
Figure 4: 'Performance Targets' selected from the Additional Information window
Once the required system items (selected from user's, organisation posts, strategy map items, performance targets (figure 4 above), and / or action plans) have been selected the changes will be reflected in the Additional Information window (figure 5).
Figure 5: Action plan with linked various performance management system components including another action plan.
The Additional Information comments section contains system generated comments but will also take user generated comments by expanding the 'Comments' + icon and clicking on the 'Add Comments' icon (figure 6).
Figure 6: Steps to create comments in Additional Information action plan section and showing two system comments previously created automatically.
Links to related documents on the internet or the organisation's intranet can be added by expanding 'Related Documents' section and adding document titles and URLs using a similar interface to that for adding comments.
3. Creating Nested Action Plans:
Using the Related Items option to link action plans (figure 5 above) lower order actions can be linked up to action plan headers that group all subordinate actons (nesting).
The advantage of this is in both the displaying of action plans on the dashboard and in consolidating related actions in the action plan summary report (see figure 10 below).
For example, an action entitled Action 13: Regional Climate Change Action Plans might consist of several sub-regional action plans. In turn, each sub-regional action plan might consist of several sub-regional specific actions. Each of these actions at any level may have tasks associated with them.
A dashboard display of Action 13 could then display all the tasks from all the action plans related to it. Clicking on the display would then access the action plan summary report that would allow complete drill down through all the related plans and all their tasks.
(ii) Strategy Map and Organisation Chart Hierarchy
An alternative or addition to the above approach is to use the related items > strategy map item and related items > organisational items option it is recommended that system administrators cascade up the action plans by attaching them not just to the relevant measurable strategy map item or organisation post but to that item's parent and that parent's parent and so on until it is attached to the very top of the strategy map and the organisation chart.
By doing this with all the action plans, when in either
the strategy map or the organisation chart, clicking on the
icon will give a list report of all the actions at that node each of which can
be drilled down to the relevant summary report. Clicking the flag icon at the
very top of the startegy map or organisation chart would then display a list
of all the action plans in the system.
Once all the required additional information is added, specific tasks that the organisation identifies as necessary to complete the action plan can be added from the 'Add Task' button (figure 7).
Figure 7: Example Add Task window.
All new tasks require the selection of both a responsible, and approver post (picked from a list of posts set up by the organisation - see organisation help for more information on setting up posts), and a target start and completion date.
Entering a start or end date that sits outside the boundary of the action plan prompts, when saving the action plan item, for the user to either:
Note: At this stage of setting up the action plan task the task is not accepted (i.e. 
) or approved (i.e. 
)- this status can only be changed by the responsible users when the task start date is reached and they are flagged in their control panel task tab to accept responsibility.
Once the task has been assigned, clicking the 'Add' button brings back the Additional Information window where more tasks can be added. The new task now appears in the Action Plan Task window (figure 8).
Figure 8: Action Plan Task listed in Additional Information window.
To edit or delete an existing Action Plan Task, if not already visible, display the edit / delete menu by clicking on the 'Show Menu' at the top of the display window (figure 9). The edit task window is the same as the create task window. All those fields used in creating the task are also editable.
Figure 9: Displaying the edit and delete options for the Action Plan Task list.
C. Action Plan Reporting: The Action Plan Summary and List Report
Action plan summary reports are accessed either by clicking
on the dashboard action plan graphic (figure 1) or by clicking on the action
plan list report flag
icon and then drilling down from each list item. This icon will appear under
the following conditions:
| Location of |
Source |
| Control panel RHS | User owns action plan or responsible for action plan tasks |
| Strategy map | Related items in action plan header (fig. 5): strategy map |
| Organisation chart | Related items in action plan header (fig. 5): organisation |
| Performance target report | Related items in action plan header (fig. 5): performance target |
| Group report | Related items in action plan header (fig. 5): performance target |
| Scorecard perspective report | Related items in action plan header (fig. 5): perspectives |
The action plan list report accessed from the flag icon is just that, a list of action plans related to a specific location in the system but customised depending on the type of relation (figure 10.1).
Figure 10.1: Action plan list report
accessed from the icon
from the top right hand side a user's control panel. Clicking on each report
title in the list will access that plan's summary report (figure 10.2).
The summary report (figure 10.2) is divided into four main sections: Plan summary, Related plans, Plan tasks, and Comments. Related plans are those that were related in their own action plan header to the current plan. clicking on them will drill down to their own summary report that may or may not have its own related plan (there is no limit to the number of levels of nested plans the system will hold). Clicking on plan tasks will produce the task edit field too. Clicking on the blue Edit Action Plan link (top LHS) will allow the user to edit the action plan (as shown from Figure 2 onwards).
Figure 10.2: An example of an action plan summary report
When an action plan post-holder logs on to their control
panel their login name is flagged ()
and their Task tab will display any new action plan acceptance task and any
action plan target that they own that is now due for review or completion (figure
11).
Additionally, it is recommendend that users customise their dashboard so that the action plan/s related to them are displayed. The action plan report and editing can be accessed by clicking on the graphic.
Figure 11: Action Plan owner's task tab showing one task to accept and one to complete- note the action plan flag next to user's logon ID.
Clicking on the Action Plan Acceptance Task link brings the user to the Accept / Reject Task window (figure 12).
Figure 12: Accept / Reject Task window.
Clicking 'Reject Task' will flag the creator of the action plan. They will get a rejected tag on their control panel task tab and they will have to reassign responsibility.
To complete an action plan task click on the link. The 'Complete Task' window is similar to the 'Accept Task' window (figure 12) except that the 'Task Completion Reason' field is required (for more information on handling tasks, see Task tab help). Clicking 'Accept Task' will remove the accept task from the user's control panel task tab. The 'Approve Task completion window' is identical to the task completion window accept in name.
The system will automatically update the Action Plan in both cases.
Figure 13: Complete Action Plan Task window.
Action plan title (figure 10.1) and summary reports (figure 10.2) can be viewed
wherever the icon is
displayed in the performance management system.
Clicking on an action plan in the list displays the action plan summary report. Clicking on the 'Edit Action Plan' on the action plan summary report displays the action plan edit window (figure 2). Clicking on a title of an action plan task brings up the action plan task summary report (figure 14).
Figure 14: Action plan task summary report.
Action plans and action plan tasks can be edited at any time by their owner, or a user with Adminstrator rights. Access to a particular plan and its associated tasks are from the Action Plan module list (figure 1), or the Action Plan control panel tab (if user has this displayed and is responsible for one or more action plans), or from the Task tab if action plan task/s are due.
The edit actions and interfaces are identical to the action plan creation dialog windows already discussed in Creating an Action Plan (1-3) above.
The status icons in the Action Plan module and Action Plan tab follow the Escendency icon and colour coding standards. Not all of the icons that could be displayed for this module are necessarily illustrated in the examples above. For additional explanation of these and other symbols used in the Escendency system, see icon coding and drill down icons in the control panel help.
