Experiment planning and execution workflow at ASDEX Upgrade

We present the current workflow from experiment proposals to the actual execution and evaluation of discharges at the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. Requests for experiments are solicited from both within the IPP and from external collaborators in the yearly call-for-proposals, checked for feasibility and compliance with the project's research goals and collected in a proposal database. During the campaign shot requests are derived from the proposals and in weekly operation meetings the requests are mapped to a schedule (shot list). Before the execution of discharges a complete set of configuration data needs to be assembled. After the execution follows the analysis (including the evaluation of the discharge as to its usefulness for the underlying proposal) and logging of the attained parameters in a physics logbook. The paper describes processes, software tools, and information management showing how they ultimately lead to an improved scientific productivity.