This paper describes a system for the systematic construction and evaluation of planning strategies. It is based on a proper
formal account of refinement planning and allows to decouple plan-deficiency detection, refinement computation, and search
control. In adopting this methodology, planning strategies can be explicitly described and easily deployed in various system
configurations.
We introduce novel domain-independent planning strategies that are applicable to a wide range of planning capabilities and
methods. These so-called HotSpot strategies are guided by information about current plan defects and solution options. The results of a first empirical performance
evaluation are presented in the context of hybrid planning.