Deprecated features in Latest Goal Management

[VanessaLi]

Background

SAP SuccessFactors plans to make the latest version of goal management opt out in the 1H 2024 release followed by a universal push around the March 31st 2025 release. For more details visit this link: https://groups.community.sap.com/t5/product-and-customer-updates/plans-underway-to-make-latest-versi...

As part of our broader effort to redesign the goal experience, SAP SuccessFactors has also made the decision to retire some features that were available in legacy goal management. 

List of deprecated features

• Implementing and Managing Goal Management - Supported and Unsupported Feature
• Implementing and Managing Goal Management - Alternatives to Deprecated Legacy Features

Feature	Reason for deprecation	Replacement	Availability of Replacement
Group goals	Similar feature exists	Team goals. The feature allows you to create team goals and have the option to choose to assign it to yourself or not, which as a result surfaces that assigned goal on your own performance goal plan. Customers that were using group goals may use Team Goals to support the same business process. There are some new RBPs introduced for Team Goals, please learn about those here.	Already available
Mass Assign via the goal plan through CSV file	Low feature usage	Import Performance Goals in Admin Center	Already available
Import or export goals directly from a goal plan	Low feature usage	Import Performance Goals in Admin Center	Already available
Add goals using the SMART Goal Wizard	Replaced by a different feature	Creating goals with Generative AI.  This will offer an AI-driven approach to creating goals that meet all the facets of “SMART’ goals.	1H 2024
Layout configuration of the goal plan, including custom Learning Activities	Does not conform to new UX design pattern	There are no replacements for this feature.	Not applicable
Automatic goal numbering	Does not conform to new UX design pattern	There are no replacements for this feature.	Not applicable
Indenting goals	Does not conform to new UX design pattern	There are no replacements for this feature.	Not applicable
Moving goals up and down the goal plan	Does not conform to new UX design pattern	There are no replacements for this feature.	Not applicable
Tasks or targets of subgoals	Similar feature exists	Milestones. This feature allows users to breakdown the goal into achievement milestones, which are timeboxed and can define actual/target values for each milestone. If you use Tasks, you can still use Milestones as a replacement since we support the same fields.	Already available
Spell check	Similar feature exists	Browser’s spell check.	Not applicable
Summary section of goals on the goal plan	Low feature usage	There are no replacements for this feature.	Not applicable
Navigating from goal plan to Goal Alignment Spotlight	Low feature usage	There are no replacements for this feature.	Not applicable
Field types: bool; checkbox; link	Low feature usage	bool: no replacements. checkbox: no replacements link: custom text/textarea fields	Not applicable
Add to Outlook	Low feature usage	There are no replacements for this feature.	Not applicable

Please leave a comment if you have any questions!

[Greg_Gatin]

Hello,

Is the "Save as New" option when editing goals deprecated in Latest Goal Management?

I do not see an option to "save as new" when editing an existing goal.

Thank you

Greg

[VanessaLi]

@Greg_Gatin Save as New is included in the Copy Goal function, where you can choose the copy from the same template, same goal.

[HazelHernandez]

Hi,

We haven't enabled the Latest Goal Management. Can you please clarify "Import or export goals directly from a goal plan"? Does this mean Import Goal will not be available in the latest version? We are using this functionality to import goals into goal plans.

Thank you.

[Julia_Gaskell]

Hi,

We use the Beta Import feature a lot to assign goals to staff via .csv file. Will the Import feature in the latest Goal Plan fully replace this functionality, allowing us to assign specific goals to specific users?

Thanks,

Julia

[VanessaLi]

 @HazelHernandez Import goals is still supported in Admin Centre. But will not be supported through end user's goal plan.

[VanessaLi]

@Julia_Gaskell Yes, the import will fully replace Beta Goal Import, including the assign goals functionality.

[Tumbeshwari]

Hi @VanessaLi ,

Can't we fetch the Goal details with the help of OData API any more?

[MayurP]

Hi @VanessaLi ,

Will Goal alignment chart option be available? if yes, how to get into the goal alignment chart?

If it's deprecating then, do we have any alternative for the same?

Thanks,

Mayur

[VanessaLi]

@MayurP GAC is planned for 1H 2024, please refer to our roadmap explorer for our plans. https://roadmaps.sap.com/board?PRODUCT=089E017A62AB1EDA94C15F5EDB3320E1&range=CURRENT-LAST#Q2%202024 

[VanessaLi]

@Tumbeshwari  Yes for odata v2, but it is recommended to use odata v4 for Latest goals, and that is not public yet, we are yet to public those APIs, the timeline is not defined yet.

[imangelareyes]

Hello @VanessaLi ,

In our current goal plan, both the Task field and Milestone field are present. Given that the Task field is no longer supported and we are already utilizing the Milestone field, does this imply that we can no longer replace the Task table?

Thanks,

Angela

[VanessaLi]

@imangelareyes Correct, only one table is supported in Latest Goals, this is to reduce page overload for a better user experience. The Task table data will not be displayed on the UI, however you may still be able to retrieve it in Reporting. The suggestion is to migrate the Tasks data to Milestone table.

[Julia_Gaskell]

Hello Vanessa,

We use a table for tasks on our goals. We have tens of thousands of active goals that link to live performance forms. Are you saying that the tasks will no longer be visible either in the goal plan or in the PM forms in the latest goal management?

You suggested  in a previous comment that to get around this we run a report to export all the goal and task data - I assume in Adhoc reports?

Then we create the milestone fields to replicate the task fields (if possible) and import the data?

Will this work for active goal plans and live PM forms or will we have to create new goal plans and link them to the live PM forms?

This is a major issue for us.

Thanks for your help,

Julia

[VanessaLi]

@Julia_Gaskell the tasks will still be visible on a Form (but there will be no option to edit them in the edit dialogue because the edit dialogue is a replication of the Goals edit dialogue) but not on the goal plan. I suggest to migrate Tasks to Milestones using Import Performance Goals tool by exporting them first adhoc reporting first. This will work for active (and already converted) goal plans.

[Julia_Gaskell]

@VanessaLiThanks for the quick response. Just to confirm that this is what you are recommending, bearing in mind that we have not upgraded yet:

1. Create a report in Adhoc reports to 'export' all existing active goals and associated tasks. (tens of thousands of lines in the report)
2. In the active goal plan templates, add a Milestone and in it replicate the task fields (if it is possible to replicate them). Permission the milestone fields to be visible/editable as needed
3. Somehow change the Adhoc report to be able to be imported using the new fields with the old data (assuming the data can be mapped easily)
4. How do we then transfer the existing data in the report to these milestone fields in the system? If I do a goal import it will duplicate all the outputs for the users. Do I somehow need to delete all goals and then re-import them, or is there a way to just overwrite existing goals with the milestones and no tasks?

Thanks for your help on this. I imagine that other customers would benefit from a step by step guide for this, as we cannot afford to lose the active goal data. Until December last year, Tasks were an acceptable solution.

Best,

Julia

[VanessaLi]

@Julia_Gaskell For #4, you would need to remove the data records in Tasks, and duplicate the records under the field Milestones, in the csv file. In the csv file for the upload, there should be a column that specifies what type of record it is, and have that fill in MILESTONE.

Have professional services help out if necessary: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PERFORMANCE_AND_GOALS/4a24e48b5c384b18a81f6b661305021e/...

Column Description Example

^TYPE	Identifies the item that the ACTION will be taken on. Valid options are: OBJECTIVE, TASK, MILESTONE, TARGET, METRICLOOKUP, OBJCOMMENT. Values are case sensitive.	OBJECTIVE_GROUPV2 and OBJECTIVE_TEAM
ACTION	The action to take on the item identified in ^TYPE. Valid options are: ADD, UPDATE, DELETE, ASSIGN, SHARE, UNSHARE, UNASSIGN. Values are case sensitive. SHARE is used to add co-owners of team goals, and ASSIGN is used to assign team goals to the Goal Plan of someone in the team.	ADD

[Julia_Gaskell]

@VanessaLi  Thanks again for the prompt response.

I am interested to to know if you have had customers do this already and know for sure that it works?

So you are saying that I can do the upload using the UPDATE option on the goals, the DELETE option on the Tasks and the ADD option on the Milestones. I wonder how easy this will be to create the file for tens of thousands of lines.

I guess I will have to 'play' with it in my Test instance, but this is a huge task.

Best,

Julia

[Sam_Passman]

Hey Julia!

Let me try and clarify, as I think some things are are getting confused in translation.   What Vanessa is saying is not inaccurate, however what you do and don't need I think is getting muddied...

1. In 1H 2024 (May) there will be an "Opt-Out" Universal Push of the new goals.    This means that for your current in progress Goal Plans, you will in fact have the option of choosing to "Opt-out" of the upgrade, once it is pushed.  This is specific for the May release.
2. In other words, in May you can choose to revert to the legacy version for your "in progress" goal plans for your users, and there will be ZERO impact to your current users that have active goals plans with sub goals created.   They can continue to interact with the goals in the goal plan as though the push never happened.
3. In November of 2024 however, there will in fact be a universal push of the latest Goal Plan to customers.  At that point, all existing legacy goal plans will become read only (as Vanessa describes).  Goals from the legacy read only Goal Plan CAN in fact be used for the end of the year Performance Process (including all the subgoal table data), without any issues, with the exception that users will not be able to add or edit goals to their 2024 Goal Plans after the new release at the end of November (neither directly in the Goal Plan nor from the Performance Form).
4. Bottom line, if your users are able to get all goal updates in for 2024 by end of November, and you don't need them to edit goals in December, then you can certainly do nothing for the 2024 Goal Plans, other than choosing to remain on legacy goals in May.  Then you just need to use a new goal plan template (either from scratch or converted) for you 2025 Goal Plan roll out!

I hope this clarifies things.  Vanessa' instructions are 100% accurate if you want to move users to the new Goal Plan layout NOW, or if employees still MUST be able to edit goals in December.

[Julia_Gaskell]

Hi @Sam_Passman ,

Thanks for the clarification, it's really helpful. Just a couple more follow up questions if I may:

In your point 3 above, I understand that after the universal push, our legacy goal plans will become read-only. I believe we have the option to convert our legacy (live) goal plans to the new version after the push. Am I correct in saying that if we do this conversion will they become editable again, but the Tasks fields will be invisible, so will have to be replaced with Milestones before the push?

Unfortunately there is never a good time for us to migrate, as staff could still be adding or editing 2024 goals into December or even early next year, and the 2025 PM forms (and associated goal plans) will start to be launched for new starters from this August onward.

Given our situation, do you have a recommendation on how to proceed so as not to trouble our users? I wonder if many other customers are facing similar challenges with this push?

Thanks in advance,

Julia

[VanessaLi]

@Julia_Gaskell yes, you may convert live goal plans after the push, they will become editable again. You can choose to replace Tasks with Milestones before the push, or immediately after the push, it doesn't really matter only Milestones will be visible in the new version, so as long as you import data into Milestones field they will be visible (read-only), then editable (after convert). 

We understand that there is no good time to migrate, different customers have different cycles, however we do need to universal push the new experience to all customers at some point.

The recommendation is to 

• continue in Legacy goals with Tasks field
• optional: start new template for next year (but only use Milestones field)
• wait for Universal push (or you could self-upgrade at any point)
• after upgrade, convert live goal plan template
• move Tasks to Milestones field using Import tool
• optional: convert new template for next year if you already created one in Legacy Goals, or alternatively start a new template completely in Latest Goals

[Julia_Gaskell]

@VanessaLi  and @Sam_Passman ,

Thanks again to both of you for your time and your replies.

We have now done some more testing and research on our side. Here are our findings:

1. One of the fields in the table in our Tasks is 'completed' (a bool checkbox field). This is a standard field but is turns out that it is not reportable (confirmed in a support ticket). This means that for this field, in thousands of live goals, we cannot export this field, to then later import it to a Milestones field for use in the Latest Goal Mgt.
2. According to the documentation, for Milestones and the Latest Goal Mgt, the 'completed' field, checkboxes and bool fields are all unsupported anyway. So even if we could export the contents of this existing 'completed' field, we should not import it to the Milestones anyway.

So it is not possible for us to transfer all the information in our goal plans from tasks to milestones, as suggested.

As mentioned before, our 2024 forms have been live since mid-2023, as we roll up the forms for the new starters in the second part of 2023, into a 2024 form.

Users will still need to edit their 2024 goals and tasks into February 2025, as the deadline for completion is end Feb. 2025.

I will go ahead and create new forms for 2025 with milestones instead of tasks: No problem (except that we can no longer use the completed field). But for the 2024 forms I do not see a way to get them to work with the Latest Goal Mgt, in a way that would be seamless for the users, and allow the users to make edits up until Feb 2025. Users are already using the completed field as part of our performance system, and I cannot change this part-way through a performance cycle.

I will now continue to pursue this issue via my SAP CSP as well.

Thanks,

Julia

[jihoseo]

Hi @VanessaLi ,

What does it mean to leave the legacy GM templates and create new GM Templates after the release?

Does it mean that we still can view/fetch/update the previously created goals in the legacy GM templates via SF Goal Management UI and the API calls, and we just have to use the latest GM for the newly created goals?

If this is the case, it looks like we can just leave the goals that are already created, and set character limitations on the goals that are created after the release. 

However, if it is not, we have found at least 5000+ goals that exceeds the character limits for either the name or description field.

What I know now is,

1. name field should not exceed 500 chars

2. desc field should not exceed 2000 chars

3. metric field should not exceed 1000 chars

Are there any custom/standard fields that we can use without character limits? We are willing to create a new template with fields that does not have character limits, and migrate all the data to the new template. 

Thank you,

Jiho Seo

[VanessaLi]

@jihoseo it means once upgraded, all existing templates will become read only and you will no longer be able to edit them. If you want to continue editing the goals on those templates, you must convert the templates, which will then be subjected to the length rules so that the exceeded length will be truncated. All text/textarea fields will be subjected to the length rule, as explained here: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PERFORMANCE_AND_GOALS/4a24e48b5c384b18a81f6b661305021e/... 

Even if you create a new template, it will respect the more length rules. This is the rule for any template in the Latest goals experience, regardless of whether it's new or existing. More information about the conversion process and what it allows are explained here:

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PERFORMANCE_AND_GOALS/4a24e48b5c384b18a81f6b661305021e/... 

[jihoseo]

@VanessaLi 

Hello,

Thanks for your information.

Can you confirm that when it becomes read only, we can still fetch all the data without the character limits by api calls or in reports?

Thank you,

Jiho Seo

[VanessaLi]

@jihoseo yes you can still retrieve it via API or Reporting, please refer to the Notes section in the help doc guide I provided: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PERFORMANCE_AND_GOALS/4a24e48b5c384b18a81f6b661305021e/... 

[alvarolopez]

Hello!

@VanessaLi 

Is it possible to hide the development goals tab for certain group of employees in the latest goal management version? 

Thank you

[VanessaLi]

@alvarolopez you can control that with RBP. If at least one goal plan template is available to the user, then the Tab appears for them.