Configuring the Goal Plan Global Settings

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to configure the global settings, text replacement process and soft warnings in the goal plan template

Global Settings

Once, we have started to set up the Goal Plan template via Manage Templates, the next step will be exporting the template via Provisioning and configure the template using an XML editor.

When opening the XML template, there is a first section that controls global settings used in the Goal Plan. All the elements and attributes of the XML from the beginning of the file through the <text-replacement>. These settings impact the entire goal plan and cannot be configured from Manage Templates.

Code Snippet
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE obj-plan-template PUBLIC "-//SuccessFactors, Inc.//DTD Objective Template 4.0//EN" "objective-template_4_0.dtd">
<obj-plan-template spellchk="true" new-obj-share-status-public="true" instructions-viewdefault="on" alerts-viewdefault="off"
cascade-parent-viewdefault="off" cascade-child-viewdefault="off" pager-max-objs-per-page="4" pager-max-page-links="9"
pager-max-children-per-parent"0" display-alignment-format="names" more-details-child-format="goal-plan" share-confirm="true"
unshare-confirm="true" allow-group-goal="true" goal-tree-link="true" expand-collapse-categories="false" use-text-for-privacy="true" cws-people-role="true" max-weight-per-obj="25.0" min-weight-per-obj="5.0" overwrite-target-populations="false" swap-goal-link="false" learning-activity-deep-link="false" show-total-goalscore="false" show-goal-id="false">
   <obj-plan-id>5</obj-plan-id>
   <obj-plan-type>Business</obj-plan-type>
   <obj-plan-name>Goal Plan</obj-plan-name>
   <obj-plan-desc><![CDATA[1]]></obj-plan-desc>
   <obj-plan-lastmodified>10/05/22 1:56 PM</obj-plan-lastmodified>
   <obj-plan-start>01/01/2022</obj-plan-start>
   <obj-plan-due>12/31/2022</obj-plan-due>
   <obj-plan-numbering>
     <obj-plan-number-format><![CDATA[#.]]></obj-plan-number-format>
   </obj-plan-numbering>
<add-wizard mode="smart goal">
</add-wizard>
<text-replacement for="Instructions">
     <text><![CDATA[ Use this worksheet to create or edit goals. To quickly create a new goal, click the Create New Goal button, or browse the Employee Hierarchy section to find an existing goal to add to your plan.]]></text>
</text-replacement>

Attributes of a Goal Plan Template

The attributes that determine some of the behaviors in the Goal Plan template are specified within the <obj-plan-template> tag. Some examples are the minimum and maximum number of goals that should exist in the Goal Plan, the visibility of the new goals created or the total weight from the sum of all the goal weights that should be allowed.

The code below is an example of the XML code including attributes for the Goal Plan template. If an attribute is not listed in the XML, it is not be available or enforced in the instance. For example, if the min-weight attribute is not specified, then a minimum weight is not defined for this particular goal plan.

Screenshot of an XML code with attributes for the Goal Plan template.

The following table includes a list of some of the Attributes of a Goal Plan Template. Items marked with an asterisk (*) are the default values.

Attributes of a Goal Plan Template

OptionValid ValuesDescription
new-obj-share-status-publictrueWith this value, new goals are created as shared or public goals.
false*With this value, goals are created as unshared or private goals.
allow-group-goaltrueFor performance goals only: This value enables the option to create and assign Team Goals in the goal plan. See Team Goals in the Latest Goal Management for more information.
false*With this value, team goals are disabled.
max-goals<number>This value sets the maximum number of goals that should appear in a goal plan.
min-goals<number>This value sets the minimum number of goals that should appear in a goal plan.
min-weight<number>This value sets the minimum % of the sum of goal weights that should appear in a goal plan
max-weight<number>This value sets the maximum % of the sum of goal weights that should appear in a goal plan
min-weight-per-obj<number>This value enforces a minimum % of individual goal weight in a goal plan
max-weight-per-obj<number>This value enforces a maximum % of individual goal weight in a goal plan
show-total-goalscoretrue*You can calculate the total score of a goal plan or just a category by using this attribute. This feature is related to the calculated fields but is specific to displaying total scores.

Note

More information regarding the available attributes and those that are supported in Latest Goal Management can be found in this link: Attributes of a Goal Plan Template

Goal Plan Counts and Weights

Minimums and maximums can be set for weights and for counts, as follows:

  • The sum of all goal weights in the goal plan

  • The supported weight value for an individual goal

  • The number of goals on an entire goal plan

If a goal or plan is not meeting the conditions set, a soft warning will appear on the goal plan. This soft warning is not strictly enforced; there is nothing stopping the user from exceeding the configured limits, except for the individual goal weights, which are always enforced in the goal plan.

The hard stop for the sum of all goal weights and the total number of goals occurs when the goals are populated to the performance form. Until that point the goal plan is still considered a working plan, so these restrictions are not enforced and they are just informative.

Weights and counts cannot be set in Manage Templates, and must be configured in the XML.

Note

When configuring counts and/or weights, keep the following in mind:

It is not required that both a minimum and a maximum are configured. For example, if no maximum is required, do not include that attribute in the XML.

Goal Plan Counts

In order to display the goal plan counts, a minimum or a maximum plan count must be set. The attributes to control the count for the entire goal plan are found under the main <obj-plan-template> element:

  • max-goals
  • min-goals

If the customer wants the entire goal plan to have at least 5 goals, but no more than 10 goals, the XML code appears as in the figure shown below.

The minimum and maximum goal plan counts are highlighted under the main <obj-plan-template> element in XML code format.

Goal Plan Weights

In order to display the goal plan weight, a minimum or maximum plan weight must be set. The attributes to control the weight for the entire goal plan are min-weight and max-weight and are found under the main <obj-plan-template> element. Decimals are supported, as long as the weight field definition also supports decimals.

If the customer wants a goal plan to have a minimum weight of 40% and a maximum weight of 100%, the XML code appears as in the figure below:

The minimum and maximum goal plan weights are highlighted under the main <obj-plan-template> element in XML code format.

Item Weights

The attributes to control the weight for individual goals are found under the main <obj-plan-template> element:

  • min-weight-per-obj
  • max-weight-per-obj

If a customer wants each goal to have minimum weight of 5% and a maximum weight of 20%, the XML code appears as in the figure below.

The minimum and maximum item weights are highlighted under the main <obj-plan-template> element in XML code format.

Explore the Goal Plan Template

Task 1: Explore the Goal Plan Template

Business Example

You are a consultant asked to configure a goal plan template for a customer. You will start configuring and identifying the elements and attributes, using the Extended Goal Plan template available in your instance, converted in the previous exercise.

Learn how to start configuring a Goal Plan template and check the general settings, categories and fields sections from Manage Templates.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Initiate the goal plan template configuration from Manage Templates to rename your Goal plan and explore (but not making any changes yet) the General Settings, Edit Categories and Edit Fields areas.

    1. Log in to the instance and navigate to Manage Templates using Action Search.

    2. Locate and open your Extended Goal Plan template.

    3. In the Name field, enter [Your initials] [Year] Goal Plan, and choose Save.

    4. Choose General Settings and explore this area.

    5. Choose Edit Categories and explore the nested categories.

    6. Choose Edit Fields and explore the nested fields.

  2. Export the goal plan XML template.

    1. In Provisioning, navigate to Import/Update/Export Objective Plan Template

      Depending on your settings this may be called Import/Update/Export Goal Plan Template.

    2. Locate the goal plan template, and select the Export icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

    3. A File Download dialogue box appears. Choose Save.

    4. A Save As dialogue box appears. Create a new folder on your desktop, and choose Save.

Task 2: Identify Goal Plan XML elements and attributes

Steps

  1. Refer to the Implementing and Managing Goal Management guide, available in the SAP Help Portal and the DTD file objective-template_4_0.dtd to identify the following elements and attributes of the XML data model:

    • The attributes used to define the minimum and maximum number of goals per goal plan.
    • The attributes used to define the minimum and maximum weight per goal plan.
    • The element that corresponds to the goal plan ID.
    • The elements that correspond to start and due dates.
    • The element used to control different categories on a plan.
    • The element used to configure field definitions.
    • The attribute that controls the name of a field seen by an end user on a goal plan.
    • The element used to configure field permissions.
    • All elements include start-and end-tags. What is the purpose of the following code? <category-name lang="de_DE">Finanzen</category-name>

    Note

    You can access the guide here: Implementing and Managing Goal Management.

Configure General and Global Settings in the Goal Plan

Business Example

In this exercise, you configure general settings in the instance and global settings in XML.

Learn how to configure general and global settings in the Goal Plan, from Manage Templates and XML.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Edit the following settings of your Goal Plan template from the instance: Set the Start/End dates.

    1. Log into the instance and use the Action Search to navigate to Manage Templates → Goal Plan tab.

    2. From the Manage Templates list, select [Your initials] [Year] Goal Plan goal plan template that you started exploring in the previous exercise.

    3. Choose General Settings.

    4. Change the End Date to 12/31/20xx (this calendar year).

    5. Change the Start Date to 01/01/20xx (this calendar year).

    6. Choose Save.

  2. Complete the following requirements of your Goal Plan template from the XML:

    • The goal plan should be able to use Team Goals.

    • The new goals created should have public visibility.

    • The total number of goals to create for the entire plan should be between 5 and 10

    • The sum of weights for the entire plan should be between 80% and 100%

    • Each goal should have a weight between 10% and 30%

    1. In Provisioning, select your company’s Instance and choose Import/Update/Export Objective Plan Template.

    2. Find your Goal Plan XML template and choose Export icon to export the latest version.

      Ensure that, when exporting the XML template, you place it in the same folder as the DTD file objective-template_4_0.dtd to ensure proper validation.

    3. Open the XML template with your XML Editor, and make the following edits in the <obj-plan-template>. Make changes as needed or verify the existing settings are correct:

      Example

      • The goal plan should be able to use Team Goals. allow-group-goal="true" .

      • The new goals created should have public visibility.new-obj-share-status-public="true" .

      • Set the maximum number of goals for the entire plan to 10. max-goals="10".

      • Set the minimum number of goals for the entire plan to 5. min-goals="5".

      • Set the maximum weight for the entire plan 100%. max-weight="100"

      • Set the minimum weight for the entire plan to 80%. min-weight="80".

      • Set the maximum weight per each goal to 30%. max-weight-per-obj="30"

      • Set the minimum weight per each goal to 10%. min-weight-per-obj="10"

    4. Validate the XML, and save-as a new version.

    5. Navigate back to Provisioning, and select Import/Export/Update Objective Plan Update to import the new version of your Goal Plan XML template.

  3. Verify your changes in the Goal Plan and create a personal goal.

    1. Access Goals from the Home menu, or alternatively, select Manage My Goals from the Quick Actions available in your Home Page.

    2. Select Create Goal.

    3. In the Goal Creation Options, select Create from Scratch.

    4. Add the following details:

      • Goal Name: Achieve a rate of 90% for customer renewals.
      • Category: Customer.
      • Metric: Contract renewal rate.

      • Note

        For the Weight field, try to set a value over 30% or below 10%. Verify this is not possible now due to the limits set in XML for the weights per objective.
      • Weight: 15%.
      • Status: On Track.

    5. Select Save. On the confirmation dialog, select Close.

    6. Verify there's an "i" icon beside the total number of goals (see the Summary section). Select the icon, and verify there are two messages It’s recommended that you create at least 5 goals. and The recommended minimum total goal weight is 80% (Current: 15%), based on the XML configuration completed previously.

Goal Plan Template Switches

Switches are used to enable or disable features in a goal plan template. The switches need to be defined, if being used, in the Goal Plan template XML and set value as on. The example below would allow to have a value of the percentage fields (%) over 100.

Code Snippet
123
<switches>
              <switch for="percentage-value-over-100" value="on"/>
             </switches>

Other switches that can be used in Latest Goal Management are:

  • <switch for="cascader-role" value="on"/>: This switch is used to define specific permissions for this type of role. The cascader role applies to the user performing the action to cascade a goal to others. For example, you could determine that a specific goal plan field is not editable when the user cascades a goal.
  • <switch for="turnoff-add-personal-goal-button" value="on"/>: This switch is used to turn off the Create from Scratch option in the Goal Creation options, and enforce users to create goals using different options, like copy a goal from another goal plan, use a goal library or create a goal using Generative AI.

The following switches are implied in Latest Goal Management, and they don't need to be defined in the XML anymore.

  • <switch for="continuouspm-integration" value="on"/>: This switch was used in GMv12 to enable the integration between Goal Management and Continuous Performance Management. In Latest Goal Management, this integration is automatic and does not depend on this switch anymore.
  • <switch for="threaded-feedback" value="on"/>: This switch was used in GMv12 to display the comments field in the edit goal window (if value="off") or in the Goal Plan main screen (if value="on"). In Latest Goal Management, the comments are always displayed in the main screen (ON).

Text Replacement

In some situations, an organization may want to change the label of a goal plan category or the instructional text. To use the text replacement feature for the goal plan template, you can use any of these elements:

Note

Other attributes for text-replacement that are found in the DTD definitions and not on the list, are only applicable to the legacy GMv12 version.
XML AttributeDescription
categoryCategory label
InstructionsThe goal plan instruction section (on top of the goal plan page, above the summary section). The goal plan template instructions can be easily changed from Manage Templates

Control of Text Replacement

Text replacement is controlled by the <text-replacement> element, which appears directly after the <obj-plan-numbering> end tag. The data string can include HTML tags. If the customer wants instructions to appear at the top of the goal plan, the XML code must appear as in figure Text Replacement Instructions with the appropriate language and links modified:

Unlike the other text replacement options, the instructions can be added from either Manage Templates or XML

The General Settings section, with name and instructions, is displayed on the Extended Goal Plan tab.

Screenshot of XML code for Text Replacement Instructions.

HTML Tags

HTML tags can be added to these instructions if desired. For example, if the customer wants a link to an outside web page added to the instructions, the code must appear as in figure Text Replacement Web Page with the appropriate language and links modified:

HTML tags added to existing instructions are highlighted.

Change of Language

Text replacement can be used to change the language for instructions (or any of the other items listed on the previous slides) into different languages, for customers that have multiple language packs installed. An example of this feature is illustrated in figure Text Replacement Language:

Text replacement language is highlighted.

Replace Text in the Instance

Business Example

You have been requested to change text as it appears in the instance.

Replace Text in the Instance

Learn how to use text-replacement in the Goal Plan.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Steps

  1. Add an instructional text to your Goal Plan from the instance, using Instructions to your users, available from General Settings.

    1. Log in to the instance and use the Action Search to navigate to Manage Templates → Goal Plan.

    2. From the list in Manage Templates, select the goal plan template you have been working on the previous exercises.

    3. Choose General Settings.

    4. In the Instructions to your users field, remove the existing instructions, and add instead the following instructional text that should appear on the Goal Plan:

      Welcome to your Goal Plan!
      Use this page to create your own goals, review the goals assigned from your manager, and discuss and track the progress before the next Performance Review.

      While this field seems like an introduction to the goal plan, it actually generates a "text replacement" field in the XML file. This generated code can then be duplicated to create other types of text replacement.

    5. Choose Save.

  2. Change text in the XML.

    1. Login to Provisioning, and navigate to Import/Update/Export Objective Plan Template to export the latest version of your Goal Plan template.

    2. Locate your template, and click the export icon.

      We recommend that you save the DTD and XML files in the same folder.

    3. Find the following code under <text-replacement for="Instructions">that was generated from the instructional text created in step 1d:

      Code Snippet
      1
      <text><![CDATA[<b>Welcome to your Goal Plan!</b><div><b><br></b></div><div>Use this page to create your own goals, review the goals assigned from your manager, and discuss and track the progress before the next Performance Review. </div>]]></text>

    4. Remove the following line <text lang="en_US"><![CDATA[ ]]></text>

    5. Below the text replacement for Instructions (find the closing tag </text-replacement>), add the following code to change "Category" to "Goal Classification".

      Code Snippet
      1234
      <text-replacement for="category">
             <text><![CDATA[Goal Classification]]></text>
             </text-replacement>

      Note

      Text-replacement items are case sensitive and the DTD is not consistent in its use of capitalization. The text-replacement for category is not capitalized whereas the text-replacement for Instructions is.

    6. Validate and save-as a new version.

  3. Import the updated Goal Plan XML template.

    1. Log into Provisioning, and navigate to Import/Update/Export Objective Plan Template

    2. Update your existing Goal Plan template including your changes.

      Remember: Importing a goal plan with the same ID will overwrite an existing goal plan. importing with a different ID will create a new goal plan.

  4. Test your changes.

    1. Log into your instance and, in the Home page, select the quick action Manage My Goals.

    2. Expand the Introduction section to verify your changes on the instructions displayed for the end users.

    3. Choose Create Goal, and select Create from Scratch. Verify as an end user, the Category field has changed to Goal Classification.

    4. Select Cancel and choose Discard on the confirmation dialog, to navigate back to your goal plan.

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