The Excel add-in and planning views

Planners work in IBP through two interfaces. The SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel is the classic one: a ribbon tab in Excel that reads and writes key figures and master data in the IBP back end. The web interface offers Planner Workspaces, a configurable browser workspace that combines web planning views, alerts and simulations. SAP adds features to both in its regular releases. Testers need to be fluent in both because defects often appear in only one.

What a planning view is

A planning view is a grid defined by settings: the planning area and version (or scenario), the time horizon and buckets, the planning level (which attributes form the rows), the key figures, the layout and the filters. Templates, provided with SAP's best-practice content or built by the project, give planners a standard starting point; favorites save a user's own settings. Data is never stored in the workbook: every refresh reads the back end.

Step by step: Jonas builds a capacity view

1. On the SAP IBP ribbon, connect to the IBP system and choose New View; pick the Contoso supply template or start without one.
2. Time settings: monthly buckets, three months back and twelve forward.
3. Planning level: product family and location; filter on locations 1710 and 1720.
4. Key figures: consensus demand, supply plan, capacity usage, capacity supply.
5. Version: baseline. Layout: key figures as rows, months as columns.
6. Add a filter on product family "Alternators", then save the settings as a favorite.
7. Change a value and choose Simulate to recalculate without saving; choose Save Data only when the result is right.
8. Use Refresh to discard unsaved changes and reread the database.

Ribbon functions testers use most

Planning notes, alerts and reason codes

Planning notes let a planner attach a comment to a key figure value, for example "Great Lakes tender, +300 in May". Notes work in both the add-in and the web apps. Custom alerts flag exceptions such as capacity over 100% or forecast error above a threshold. Contoso uses notes as audit evidence in S&OP: every manual override above 10% must carry a note.

Testing a planning view

A planning view test has three parts. First, the settings: does the template show the agreed key figures, level and horizon? Second, the values: on a controlled data set, do the cells match expected values, including totals at higher levels? Third, the behavior: does an edit at the agreed level disaggregate as designed, does Simulate show the same result that Save Data persists, and do alerts fire at the right threshold? Contoso writes one test per template, using data Wei's team prepared for three products and two locations, so the expected values fit on one sheet.

• Same data, both UIs: open the same version in the add-in and in Planner Workspaces and compare a total.
• Locks and permissions: a supply planner should not be able to change consensus demand; check that the cell is read-only for that role.
• Concurrency: two planners editing different products in the same view should both be able to save.
• Clean-up: delete test scenarios at the end of each cycle so they do not appear in S&OP.

Keep the evidence light but reproducible: the favorite or template name, the version or scenario, the filter, a screenshot or offline copy of the grid before and after the change, and the expected values from the data sheet. With those five items, anyone can rerun the test after the next IBP release.