How Trees are Defined

The PeopleSoft eCompensation Manager Desktop application is providing a Tree Builder Utility that uses application classes to derive the organizational basis for the tree. To build a tree that is maintained in the Tree Manager application within PeopleTools, these components must be in place:

An applicable tree structure definition.

This structure defines the type of content the tree contains and has references to a supporting record, page, and component where that content can be accessed.
A page and component where the node content can be viewed or maintained.
A record that can associate the node references (the keys) with the actual content items.

The two primary hierarchies that we recommend are supervisor and position. This requires a new tree structure with new supporting elements. A supervisor-based tree uses the supervisor ID on the Job record to determine who works for whom. The supervisor ID on the Job record captures only a reporting employee ID, but not the full job specification. The system attempts to resolve a manager's multiple jobs using alternate matching criteria.

These rules apply to both supervisor-based trees and position-based trees:

All employees must belong to the same business unit.
The employee's department must match the manager's department.
The manager's department does not have to match the department of their manager.
An employee can only be on a tree once unless they are a manager.
A manager can only appear once on a branch.

The system uses a series of programs written to a standard interface to build the various hierarchies and navigational methods that are tied to the trees. Each program encapsulates the fixed supporting elements needed to expand a specific hierarchy's data model into a tree. The selection of a hierarchy method is a setup item on the Tree Builder Run Control page.

Once you create a tree using PeopleTools, do not change the tree structure. If you change the structure, you will not be able to use the existing run control or tree name to build additional trees. The system skips the steps used to build the new tree and displays a message if you change the structure and the tree has already been built.

Important:

The PeopleSoft eCompensation Manager Desktop application can support the use of department trees. However, using department-based trees has some unexpected results that you should be aware of. For example, the manager of a department will also be listed with his or her own direct reports in a department-based tree structure. This causes issues when proposals are submitted and the higher level manager cannot enter proposals for the manager in the submitted node. Although the use of department-based tress is available, it is our recommendation that you use the supervisor or position based trees to administer compensation cycles.

Also, please note that any department tree used must accurately reflect the actual direct hierarchy that defines which departments should appear in the Direct Reports and Indirect Reports sections on the Allocate Compensation Page and Manage Cycle Transactions Page. Specifically, department nodes must not skip levels on the tree.

See Building Trees.

The Tree Builder Application Engine then instantiates the applicable class, whose primary function is the building of the tree. Since the indirect hierarchies specified by PeopleSoft HCM data models are not validated or enforced, the Tree Builder makes an attempt to navigate the hierarchy top-down and record the reporting relationships in the tree. Anyone (or any group) who lacks an appropriate relational linkage, or whose linkage is ambiguous, non-resolvable, or inactive, is omitted from the tree.

In this scenario the Tree Builder only provides assistance in turning a hierarchy into a tree. You must manually maintain and validate all subsequent tree maintenance within the PeopleTools Tree Manager application. The tree-building activity, if used, is entirely unrelated to and separate from the compensation cycle.

Note:

Trees that have been created using Tree Builder should not be modified in such a way that the Tree Manager's structure is altered. These actions may cause unexpected results during the Cycle Build process. It is our recommendation that you create new trees and attach them to the compensation cycle.