Action plans are a workflow management tool. The Opportunity Administrator defines one or more default action plans that are available to Opportunity Managers. The managers create new projects, choosing from the default action plans and modifying them, if necessary, for the unique situation.
Concepts for action plans
■ Action plans - Pre-defined tasks that take place in a certain order and in a specific time frame. Action plans are made up of stages. Stages contain tasks, notes, and email notifications.
□ Stage - A major milestone in the project. A stage may include tasks, notes, and email notifications. Project status and win probability can be updated automatically at each stage completion, or manually at any time.
■ Task - A minor milestone in the project. Users open tasks, update them with comments, and mark them completed. Completing tasks advances the action plan as long as all notes are completed for the task.
■ Notes - Notices to internal staff that are predefined when creating an action plan. Notes have no time line designation and must be marked complete to advance the action plan.
■ Email notification - Email messages are sent to the designated owners at the start of a stage, so if you want Process Manager to send an email message when stage 2 is complete, then put the email notification at the beginning of stage 3.
Action plans advance by:
■ The completion of all tasks and notes within a stage.
■ Manual intervention to change the action plan or to bypass one or more tasks/stages.
An action plan stage that lacks at least one task or one note does not advance to the next stage. Therefore, you should attach at least one task or one note to each stage so that the action plan continues to advance. This design means that the action plan defines “best practice” and enables users to work within that best practice for the needs of the prospect.