This article gives an overview of the basics of working with scenarios in Meisterplan.

• Selecting a Scenario
• Implementing Planning Alternatives with Scenarios
• Data in the Plan of Record and in the Scenario
• Scenario Comparison
• Scenario Consolidation
• Ownership and Administration
• Edit Rights
• Working with Scenarios

In this video we give you an overview of the possibilities that scenarios in Meisterplan offer you:

Selecting a Scenario

The scenario menu is displayed next to the Portfolio menu in the header of the Portfolio Designer, Project List, Goals, Roadmap and Reports view. It shows the active scenario or Plan of Record when no scenario is active.

Open the menu to select one of the five most recently used scenarios. When a scenario is active, the Plan of Record will also be available for ending the scenario mode. Additionally, you may open a list of all scenarios by clicking View All Scenarios.

In the Portfolio Designer and Goals view, you can open the Scenario Manager by selecting Manage Scenarios.

If you are not allowed to edit data in the active scenario or plan of record, an eye icon will be displayed in the scenario menu.

Implementing Planning Alternatives with Scenarios

• Use scenarios to create different plannings based on the plan of record or another scenario.
• At the point of creation, a scenario is a full copy of the plan of record or another scenario.
• While you are working with a scenario, you can graphically compare it to the plan of record or any other scenario.

Data in the Plan of Record and in the Scenario

• All project fields except for the start and finish date (e.g. name or custom project fields) are global. Changing these fields in the plan of record or any scenario will also change them everywhere else. The same applies to the name and project phase of milestones.
• The scenario stores movement of projects on the timeline, project breaks, changes of rank, changes of duration, program membership as well as any changes made to milestones, dependencies, financial events and role and resource allocations, including creating or deleting them. Changes made to this data in the plan of record do not affect any scenario. Changes made to this data in a scenario do not affect the plan of record or any other scenario.
• The Must-Have and Cut-Off line positions as well as role capacity changes are also individually for the plan of record and each scenario.
• Projects, milestones, dependencies, financial events as well as role and resource allocations may be deleted from a scenario or created in a scenario without affecting the plan of record.
• Likewise, projects, milestones, dependencies, financial events as well as role and resource allocations may be deleted from the plan of record or created in the plan of record without affecting any scenario.
• Please note that the Date Range cannot be saved for individual scenarios.

Scenario Comparison

• You can graphically compare the active scenario to the plan of record or to any other scenario.
• The scenario comparison may be activated in the scenario manager. Once you have activated it, you have access to the scenario comparison menu in the header, where you can select from the last compared scenarios and the Plan of Record, open the scenario manager via Manage Scenarios or end the scenario comparison.
• Projects existing both in the active scenario and in the compared scenario or plan of record will be displayed with a light gray shadow above the project bar, indicating the project position in the compared scenario or plan of record. For selected projects, milestones and dependencies will also be displayed. Just as with the active scenario, milestones with violated dependencies in the compared scenario or plan of record will always be displayed on their respective project shadow.
• Projects that only exist in the active scenario will be centered vertically to indicate that they don't exist in the compared scenario or plan of record.

Scenario Consolidation

• For projects existing both in the active scenario and in the plan of record or compared scenario, you may apply all scenario dependent project data from the plan of record or compared scenario via the Apply Project from Plan of Record or Apply Project from Compared Scenario option of the project context menu.
• You may also submit changes made in the active scenario to the plan of record or compared scenario via the Submit Project to Plan of Record or Submit Project to Compared Scenario options of the project context menu.
• Just as with any changes, these options require editing rights for the active scenario, the plan of record or the compared scenario, depending on where the change is supposed take effect.
• All of the following project data will be overwritten in the target scenario or plan of record:
• Start, Finish
• Milestones
• Milestone dependencies (if associated milestones exist in the plan of record or target scenario)
• Financial events
• Role and resource allocations
• Rank
• Program (if the program doesn't exist in the plan of record or target scenario, it will be created there).

Ownership and Administration

• All users can see, open and compare all scenarios, but can only edit the scenarios to which they have been granted edit rights.
• You can also define whether each user group has permission to configure scenarios. Find more details in the Manage User Groups article.

Edit Rights

• All scenarios are visible to all users. Users with editing rights may also edit scenarios.
• Without editing rights, a padlock icon will be displayed in the scenario menu.
• Editing rights may be assigned in the scenario properties when creating the scenario and by users with the According to Configured Scenario Rights and the All Scenarios right.
• To replace the Plan of Record with a scenario, you need to have the Replace Plan of Record with Scenario right.
• Freezing a scenario removes all editing rights, making it unchangeable until editing rights are reassigned.

Working with Scenarios

• You may define and open scenarios as well as select a scenario or the plan of record to compare with the active scenario in the scenario manager.
• Once you have opened a scenario, it will be available for selection in the scenario menu in the header. You may also end the scenario mode here by selecting Plan of Record or open the scenario manager by selecting Manage Scenarios.
• While the scenario comparison is active, the scenario comparison menu will be available in the header. Here you can select a new comparison scenario, open the Scenario Manager or end the scenario comparison.