About the Demand Plan Process App

The Demand Plan process app enables SBM users to submit plan proposals, which follow a life cycle from concept approval to plan completion. Plans can be submitted from the Demand Plan tab in the SBM User Workspace, from Serena Request Center, or from Serena Demand Center.

The Demand Plan process app is required for using Serena Demand Center.

The Demand Plan process is organized into three phases:

Tip: Use the Planning Dashboard multi-view report SBM User Workspace to view plans in each of these stages.

Concept Phase

Participants:
  • Plan submitter
  • Plan analysts
  • Concept approvers

Primary Work Area: SBM User Workspace

When a plan proposal is submitted, one or more owners are specified for the plan, along with a start date and plan duration.

The plan proposal is then assigned to a plan analyst, who is responsible for determining the viability of the plan from a business and financial perspective. The plan analyst can submit the proposal for approval, reject it, or defer it.

If the proposed plan is deemed viable, the plan analyst sends it to one or more concept approvers. At this point, the plan owner, budget, and plan portfolio are set. If approved, the proposal moves into the planning phase.

Planning Phase

Participants:
  • Plan owner
  • Demand analysts
  • Plan reviewers

Primary Work Area: Serena Demand Center

Once a plan is approved, it becomes available in Serena Demand Center. The plan owner can then analyze individual demand items, add them to the plan, or reject them. Demand analysts can share the tasks of scoring items on business criteria unique to your organization and estimating tasks to determine the work effort and cost. The plan owner is responsible for adding demand items to plans, however.

Once demand items are added to plans, they can be allocated to resource teams. If your demand item application is configured correctly, large demand items can be split into one or more smaller items.

Note: Demand items that are being analyzed or are assigned to a plan that is not yet approved are "paused" in the SBM User Workspace and cannot be transitioned or closed until the plan has been approved. For details, refer to About Demand Item Pausing.

After planning is completed on demand items in a plan, the plan can be submitted to reviewers for approvals or directly to the "in-flight," or execution, phase.

Once a plan is in flight, it moves to the monitoring phase.

Monitoring Phase

Participants:
  • Plan owner
  • Plan reviewers
  • Other stakeholders, such as concept reviewers and plan managers

Primary Work Area: SBM User Workspace or Serena Demand Center

During this phase, demand items remain "unpaused" and periodic reviews of the plan occur based on the review frequency set for the plan in the SBM User Workspace. The plan owner remains responsible for the plan at this point, and can update the plan item with work notes and review status as needed.

When the project is completed, the plan is sent to a final review, and the demand plan is closed as completed.

About Demand Item Pausing

Pausing prevents demand items from being worked on before they are approved as part of a plan. Paused demand items cannot be transitioned or closed by users or by automated processes, such as Web services or SBM AppScripts, but they can be updated so that pertinent information can be captured.

Demand items are automatically "paused" by Serena Demand Manager when they are:

Demand items are automatically "unpaused" when:
  • Planning is complete for the demand items, and they are moved to an approved plan.
  • They are rejected during analysis.
  • The plan they are assigned to gets cancelled.

Once demand items are "unpaused," work can begin. Users can view planning status in each demand item if the Demand Widget has been added to custom state forms in your demand item applications.

Tip: To help users monitor the status of paused items, add the Pause Status system field to the process apps that feed demand views. You can then create reports and notifications that inform users about paused items.