Target Audience
Customers using Goals/Group Goals in legacy version of Goals Management who need to continue using the same existing goal plan template in the latest version of Goal Management (Reimagined Goals UI), as oppose to uploading/creating a new template for a new goal cycle to start fresh.
Why now?
You may have seen article: https://groups.community.sap.com/t5/product-and-customer-updates/plans-underway-to-make-latest-versi... that we have plans to Universal Push a majority of customers to latest version of Goal Management around the March 31st 2025 (with some exceptions, please see the FAQ blog for who is excluded from this upgrade). Therefore it will eventually become inevitable that you have to review how this upgrade impacts to existing templates. We highly recommend you plan your upgrade before we universal push to reduce disruption of your goal cycle to a minimum.
Why we prevented Group Goals from converting
The reason we prevent Group goals from converting to a Latest template is due to the data model changes it would need to go through in order to convert it into Team Goals. Source group goals traditionally appeared on the manager's goal plan, whereas source team goals did not. That conversion change would result in an additional Team goal created on goal plan (which was previously the source group goal), which impacts the integration with Performance Form and the ratings it may already have due to this extra goal.
Disclaimer
We always recommend starting a new template when upgrade to latest version of Goal Management.
Most customers create new goal plans every year. A customer wanting to roll out latest version of Goals Management in the middle of the year has to be dealt with caution.
Please understand that reimagined goals is NOT just a user interface upgrade. It introduces new functionality and new ways of working (integration to CPM, OKR, etc). It is not, and was never intended to be a flip of the switch upgrade. Customers with very simple configurations will have very small impacts, however customers with more complex processes will certainly need to be more thoughtful when they move to the new version.
Read on if you still want to use the same goal plan template in the latest version of Goal Management.
Scenarios and Best Practices
Scenario 1:
You are using a 2023 goal plan template right now and want to upgrade to latest version of Goal Management in 2024 year using a different goal plan template.
Best Practice:
This should be the easiest scenario.
- Finish off the 2023 goal cycle in legacy goals
- Upgrade to latest version of goals
- Create a new template for 2024 goal plan
- Done!
Scenario 2:
You are using a 2023 goal plan template right now and want to upgrade to latest version of Goal Management in the middle of this goal cycle year using the same goal plan template. You don't have group goals created in that old template.
Best Practice:
Scenario 3:
You are using a 2023 goal plan template right now and want to upgrade to latest version of Goal Management in the middle of this goal cycle year using the same goal plan template. You have group goals created in that old template.
Best Practice:
- Read about the overview of latest version here: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PERFORMANCE_AND_GOALS/4a24e48b5c384b18a81f6b661305021e/... make sure you are well aware of its reduced scope, limitations and changes to goal plan templates
- Proceed to upgrade to latest version of goals
- You CANNOT convert templates containing Group Goals in them, this is not supported due to its complications and disruptions it will cause to ongoing Performance Forms.
- You MUST create a new template after you upgrade to latest version of Goal Management, hence taking us back to Scenario 1.
Scenario 4:
You have overlapping cycles – the 2023 goal plan will be left open for 2-3 months whilst the reviews happen (often via a Performance Form) and final changes are made, and the 2024 goal plan is already opened for the new year.
Best Practice:
- Continue with the old cycle, the 2023 goal plan in legacy goals and finish that off
- At the same time, go ahead with creating a new goal cycle 2024 goal plan still in legacy goals (but don’t create group goals for the new cycle yet, you can create Team Goals though, this is to prepare for the future template conversion)
- After old cycle is completed, now upgrade to latest version of goals
- Convert existing 2024 goal plan (this should work due to no group goals being present), read more about how to convert here: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_PERFORMANCE_AND_GOALS/4a24e48b5c384b18a81f6b661305021e/...
- At this point the old 2023 goal plan would have finished and will be in read only mode once you are upgraded to latest version of goal management, so you don't need to keep maintaining and changing the data in it. Continuing using new 2024 goal plan in latest goals, and integration with Performance Forms will also stay intact
Scenario 5:
You are using a 2023 goal plan template right now and want to upgrade to latest version of Goal Management in the middle of this goal cycle year using the same goal plan template. You have group goals created in that old template, but you still want to find a way to continue using the group goals you already created.
Best Practice:
- Before or after you upgrade to Latest Goal Management, first export those group goals into an Excel csv file or through Reporting to save as a backup copy, making a note of which goal IDs are master/source goals, and which goal IDs are assigned/child group goals. This is used for later.
- Now remove/delete those group goals using the Import Performance Goals tool in Admin Centre
- Immediately convert your 2023 goal plan (without group goals now)
- Import the backup csv file into the converted goal plan using the admin tool Import Performance Goals
- Here you need to first identify the master/source group goals you made a note of earlier and import those using Action ADD.
- Now you need to use Action ASSIGN to assign them as child Team Goals into the newly converted goal plan
- Now you should have successfully transferred the group goals from the Legacy version into team goals in the Latest version. Note: this avoids the user having to manually create the same goals again, but a new template would be all existing integrations (e.g with Performance Forms) would be lost.
Leave a comment to any questions and I will get back to you as soon as possible!
