What's New in Strategic Planning and Enterprise Agile Planning in the Brazil Release

[Vaishnavi Lathk]

Hi everyone!

If you work with demands, portfolios, goals or agile teams, the Brazil release has a lot for you. I went through the release notes (updated October 8, 2026) and pulled out 18 features across Strategic Planning, Demand Management, Portfolio and Program Planning, Goals and Targets, and Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP).

For each one I've kept it practical: what it does, who it helps, and which switches an admin needs to know about.

A few things stood out to me. Demands can now be partitioned by department or business unit. Programs get their own plans with zero setup. Targets can calculate their own status. And Scrum and Kanban teams can finally sit side by side on the same release train. Details below.

Field	Detail
Release	Brazil
Source	Cumulative release notes, updated October 8, 2026
Audience	Administrators, portfolio managers, demand managers, team leads, planners
Product areas	Strategic Planning, Demand Management, Portfolio and Program Planning, Goals and Targets, Enterprise Agile Planning

 

Demand Management

Demand Management gets a nice round of upgrades. You get better control over who sees which demands, a friendlier assessment experience, resource planning before a demand becomes a project, and a new way to raise demands from Employee Slate.

Enterprise-wide deployment (EWD) for demands

You can split demand data by anything that makes sense for your organization, such as department or business unit, using EWD partitioning on the Demand table and related entities. Each demand gets tagged with a matching partition, and people only see the demands, list views, search results and dashboards for the partitions their role allows.

• Demand experiences: define how a type of demand works, including its form view, modules and dynamic attributes. Menu items and functions can be shown or hidden per demand type.
• Demand partitions: control which data different users can see.
• Demand partitions dashboard: a dedicated dashboard for each demand partition.

Smart assessments for demands

Smart assessments kick in when a demand moves to screening. The sn_align_ws.enable_smart_assessments system property switches them on. Once it's enabled, they apply to new demands and to any demand that hasn't reached screening yet.

The form is simpler to fill in and supports text-based questions. You'll find each assessment on its demand, and there's a Smart Assessments module in the main menu that lists every assessment assigned to you across demands.

Resource profiling for demands

You can plan who works on a demand from the Resources tab in Next Experience for Demand Management. The resource board shows assignments next to capacity, so you can check that people are actually available before you turn a demand into a project.

• Create, copy, move, split, end or reassign assignments directly from the grid.
• Group by primary group, role or skill.
• Use the allocation heatmap to spot over-allocated and available resources.
• Use the Resource Finder for fit-scored, ranked recommendations with rationale for unassigned work.

Copy and customize the demand summarization skill

Make a copy of the base demand summarization skill and shape it to your process with your own input fields, related entities and prompt. Only one version can be active at a time, so when you activate a copy, the one that was active before (the base skill or an earlier copy) switches off automatically.

Work with demands in Employee Slate

You can create and follow demands without leaving the conversation-first Employee Slate workspace. Just describe the demand in a conversation and it finds matching catalog items and fills in fields from your message.

Then keep an eye on status, activity and progress with the new My Demands widget or the standard Requests widget.

Prerequisite: demands appear in Employee Slate only when both the Project Workspace and Employee Slate Core apps are installed.

Worth knowing: smart assessments don't switch themselves on. You need to enable the sn_align_ws.enable_smart_assessments property first. And if you plan to use demand partitions, decide up front which groups should see which demands, since roles decide what people see.

Portfolio and program planning

If you've ever bounced between menus just to check a risk or find a program plan, you'll like this section. The common thread is less clicking around and clearer visibility.

RIDAC inside the portfolio plan

You can now open portfolio risks, issues, decisions, actions and requested changes (RIDAC) right from the portfolio plan, on a dedicated RIDAC page. You no longer need to go to the separate RIDAC menu. The page shows items that match the plan's criteria or belong to the plan's planning items.

Portfolio managers can also show or hide this page. That way you share only what your stakeholders need to see and keep the rest private.

Programs: a better experience out of the box

Every program now gets its own planning views with no setup. Open the new Programs menu, pick a program, and you'll find Prioritization, Roadmap, Kanban and Financials views.

• New programs get a plan right away. Existing programs get one through an automatic one-time backfill, 500 at a time, newest first.
• Users with the sn_align_core.ap_read_only role can read the plan. Users with the sn_align_core.apw_userrole can manage items. Program managers automatically own their plans.
• A program plan shows only that program's planning items.
• The Financials tab uses your fiscal calendar. If the fiscal calendar doesn't cover the program dates, it falls back to the Gregorian calendar and tells you why.
• For these program plans, making the portfolio plan public and scenario planning are hidden.

Email when a scenario is approved

When a scenario is approved, the scenario approver and the portfolio owner get an email. While the approval is in progress, the portfolio plan is read-only so nobody changes it by accident.

Worth knowing: the program plan backfill handles 500 programs at a time, newest first. If you have a lot of programs, don't be surprised if older ones take a little while to get their plan.

Goals and targets

Three practical improvements here: targets that need to hold steady, numbers you can actually tell apart, and a status that fills itself in.

Targets that need to stay steady

Some targets aren't about growth. They need to hold at a level in every check-in period. Three new target types cover that:

• Maintain above: each period should be at or above the target.
• Maintain below: each period should be at or below the target.
• Maintain constant: each period should stay within a tolerance band around the target. The default band is ±5%.

Progress is the share of periods that met the condition. For example, a Maintain above target of 75 with quarterly actuals of 78, 72, 80 and 76 shows 75% progress, because one of the four quarters fell short.

Each period's planned target starts at the final target value, or 0 if there isn't one, and you can edit it per period. If you change the start date, end date or final target value, the breakdowns and planned values adjust on their own and the actuals you've already entered are kept. The Target value distribution field is hidden for these types. Administrators can change the default band with the sn_gf.maintain_constant_tolerance_percent system property.

Unique numbers for goals and targets

Two teams can name a goal the same thing. The new Number field tells them apart. Goals use the OBJ prefix and targets use KR, for example OBJ0004512 and KR0009871. The number shows up on forms, list views, board views and exports.

Existing records that use the old GOAL and TRGT prefixes can be switched over.

An administrator can run the scheduled job GF - Override Goal and Target Number fields with customized prefixes. It changes the prefix to OBJ or KR and keeps the numeric part.

Automatic status for targets

When you enter an actual value for a target period, the system works out the status for you and sets it to Green, Yellow or Red. It uses this formula:

\text{Achievement \%} = \frac{\text{Actual} - \text{Start}}{\text{Planned target} - \text{Start}} \times 100

The default thresholds are:

Status	Achievement
Green	90% or more
Yellow	75% to 89%
Red	Below 75%

Target owners can override the calculated status whenever they like. If the actual value is updated after an override, the system recalculates the status.

Administrators can change the percentages with the sn_gfa.target.auto_status.thresholds system property. Setting that property to false turns the feature off and brings back manual status selection.

Worth knowing: the scheduled job that renames GOAL and TRGT numbers to OBJ and KR changes existing records. If you use those numbers in reports, exports or other tools, check them before an administrator runs the job.

Enterprise Agile Planning

The theme here is flexibility. Teams can work the way they really work, whether that's Kanban, plain Scrum, or sprints on their own dates.

Kanban teams next to Scrum teams

You can run Scrum and Kanban teams under the same Agile Release Train (ART). When you add a team to an ART, pick its planning methodology. For an existing team, set the Planning methodology field.

Kanban teams plan from the team backlog. Sprint controls are hidden, planning intervals skip them, and the Home page shows the Kanban Team dashboard. Both kinds of team appear side by side on the ART planning board.

Scrum configuration

Use the new Scrum Configuration for teams that run sprints without a Planning Interval above them. It has a single team level of type Agile Team and allows the Epic and Story work item types. Story is the default and is mapped to the new Scrum Sprint planning calendar. The Epic methodology field is set to Scrum. As with the other default configurations, it stays inactive until you activate it.

Each team on its own sprint calendar

Turn on Allow unique cadence for each team on an EAP configuration to let every team set its own iteration dates.

• With planning calendars at more than one team level, each top-level team gets its own calendar.
• With a single level of iterations, such as Sprints only, the iterations carry their own start and end dates instead of following a calendar entry.
• Teams you add after turning this on get a unique calendar. Teams that already exist keep using the configuration's default calendar.

Spillover and New scope on iterations

Two new read-only fields on the Enterprise agile iteration [sn_apw_advanced_eap_iteration] record show how a sprint's scope moved while it ran. Both are calculated when you complete the iteration, and you can select a value to open the stories behind it.

Field	What it adds up
Spillover	Story points of committed stories that are no longer in the iteration when it completes
New scope	Story points of stories added after the iteration started

Worth knowing: Spillover and New scope are calculated when you complete the iteration, so don't look for them while the sprint is still running

Cheat sheet for admins

Everything an administrator can switch, tune or run for these features, in one place.

Feature	Setting, role or job	What it does
Smart assessments for demands	sn_align_ws.enable_smart_assessments	Turns smart assessments on for new demands and demands not yet in screening
Maintain constant targets	sn_gf.maintain_constant_tolerance_percent	Changes the default ±5% tolerance band
Automatic target status	sn_gfa.target.auto_status.thresholds	Adjusts the Green, Yellow and Red percentages; set to false to turn the feature off
Goal and target numbers	GF - Override Goal and Target Number fields with customized prefixes (scheduled job)	Changes GOAL and TRGT prefixes to OBJ and KR and keeps the numeric part
Program plans, read access	sn_align_core.ap_read_only (role)	Lets users read program plans
Program plans, manage items	sn_align_core.apw_user (role)	Lets users manage items in program plans
Scrum Configuration	Activate the configuration	Stays inactive until an administrator activates it
Unique team calendars	Allow unique cadence for each team (EAP configuration option)	Gives each team its own iteration dates
Employee Slate demands	Project Workspace and Employee Slate Core apps	Both must be installed for demands to appear

 

Questions you'll probably get asked

Can I change a target status the system calculated?

Yes. Target owners can override it at any time. If the actual value is updated afterward, the status is recalculated.

Can more than one demand summarization skill be active?

No. Only one version is active at a time. Activating a copy turns off the one that was active before.

Will my existing programs get a plan?

Yes. A one-time backfill creates plans for existing programs automatically, 500 at a time, newest first.

Does turning on unique team calendars change my current teams?

No. Teams that already exist keep the default calendar. Only teams added after you select the option get their own.

Why don't I see demands in Employee Slate?

Check that both Project Workspace and Employee Slate Core are installed. Demands only appear when both are present.

Why is the Financials tab showing a Gregorian calendar?

The fiscal calendar doesn't cover the program's dates, so the system falls back to Gregorian and shows a message explaining that.

Thanks You,

Vaishnavi Lathkar