Getting Started with Resource Management

This getting started article will help Project Managers and/or Resource Pool Managers to track resources’ capacity and availability using the Resource Management application. The user must have Enterprise license and application permission for Resource Management and Project Management.

Overview

Resource planning in TeamDynamix helps predict and understand future needs. Resource planning is primarily practiced as part of a project portfolio management (PPM) implementation, but resource planning can also be applied to IT service management (ITSM).

An organization may have a step in their Portfolio Planning workflow where they set a project's resource estimates. In a subsequent step, the organization then looks at all project requests in the Capacity Planner to identify when those projects could occur. Based on this information, the project request is shifted forward or backward to a start date where resources won't be overallocated.

Features

• Resource pools – A group of users typically classified by functional area and assigned to a manager.
• Capacity Planner – An application to view future resource demands.
• Workspaces – Part of the Projects/Workspaces application that can be used to reserve time for non-project work.

Where to Find This

This feature appears in the TDAdmin and TDNext interfaces.

TDAdmin is where we define Users on Functional Roles and Resource Pools. Within TDNext, is the list of applications and areas to navigate to

Navigate to the configuration, permission, and application(s) following these paths:

• TDAdmin
  • Users & Roles > Functional Roles
  • Users & Roles > Resource Pools
  • Users & Roles > Users
• TDNext
  • Downloads > Windows capacity planner
  • Portfolio Planning
  • Projects > Workspaces
  • Resource Management

Where to Start

To begin with resource planning, there are two key steps that need to be taken:

1. Building a resource pool – This needs to be configured so when you are tracking capacity against resources, they are bucketed together in a pool for a Resource pool manager. Typically you would set up a pool to mimic a group within your IT department.
   To learn more about creating resource pools, review the Getting Started with Resource Pools article.
    
2. Creating a Workspace – this helps with estimating & tracking non-project and miscellaneous daily time. Using a workspace helps the capacity of a resource seem more tangible.
   To learn more about creating Workspaces, review the Getting Started with Workspaces article.

About the Resource Request Approval Process

There are two basic types of resource requests – requests sourced from a project manager, and requests sourced from a resource pool manager.

Note: A resource request’s schedule does not have a minimum required number of hours.

Requests from Project Managers

The request and approval process is triggered by:

1. A TeamDynamix user is a member of a resource pool which requires approval by the resource pool manager, and
2. A project manager who is not the resource pool manager attempts to add this user to their project.

OR

A project manager who is not the resource pool manager attempts to increase the existing schedule on the project for this user.

The resource pool manager of the resource will be notified that they have a resource request from the project manager.

Notes:

• If the project manager is also the user's resource pool manager, no resource request will be generated.
• Requesting a schedule decrease will not generate a resource request.
• Any project with the "managed by plan" setting enabled will not send resource requests.  A resource manager looking to adjust a resource's allocations on these projects will need to work directly with the project manager to modify the resource's task assignments and allocations. Additionally, a project manager adjusting the tasks themselves will not send out resource requests.

Requests from Resource Pool Managers

The request process starts when:

1. A TeamDynamix user is a member of a resource pool with a resource pool manager. AND
2. The resource pool member is on a project which is set to allow resource pool managers to request schedule changes. These changes must be approved by the project manager.
   AND
3. The resource pool manager of the resource pool member saves a schedule change for the member. This is done in TDNext in the Resource Management application > Manage Allocations page, on a project that has been configured as specified in the step above.

OR

The resource pool manager of the resource pool member attempts to add the user to a project that has been configured as specified in step 2 above. This is done in TDNext in the Resource Management application > Manage Allocations page.

At this point, the project manager will be notified that the user's resource pool manager requested a schedule change.

Note: If the resource pool manager is also the project manager, no resource request will be generated.

Editing a Resource Request

Resource requests may be edited if they are pending, but not approved or rejected.

For resource requests sourced from a project manager, the project manager may edit their outstanding resource requests:

1. In TDNext, navigate to the Resource Management application from the Application Menu (tile icon – upper left)
2. Once in the application, go to Resource Requests > Requests Search

For resource requests sourced from a resource pool manager, the resource pool manager may edit their outstanding resource requests:

1. In TDNext, navigate to the Resource Management application from the Application Menu (tile icon – upper left)
2. Open the request and make your changes to the schedule. Be sure to review the details on the request itself for hours and adjust accordingly. Save your changes by clicking on the Action menu followed by Save.

Substituting a Resource

For resource requests sourced from a project manager, the resource pool manager may offer alternative resources to be substituted for the originally requested resource. Resource requests sourced from a resource pool manager do not allow resource substitutions.

The Alternative Resources section of a resource request will display users who meet all of the following criteria:

• Is active.
• A member of one of the resource pools which is managed by the resource pool manager.
• Have the originally requested resource's primary functional role as one of their functional roles. This means that alternatives which have the originally requested functional role as their primary or secondary roles will be suggested.

To substitute a resource:

1. In TDNext, navigate to Resource Management application
2. Go to Resource Requests > open the request in question and scroll down to Alternative Resources
   1. This is only going to show for your pool’s available resources.
3. Click Substitute Resource.
   1. When you click Substitute Resource to substitute that resource for the requested resource. This action will not approve or reject the request.

Approving a Resource Request

Resource requests are searched for and approved in the Resource Management application. They can be approved as follows:

• For resource requests sourced from a project manager, the resource pool manager may approve or reject resource requests.
• For resource requests sourced from a resource pool manager, the project manager may approve or reject resource requests.
• A user with the security role permission Can approve/reject pending resource requests even if the user is not the approver of the resource request can always approve resource requests here.

To approve a resource request:

1. In TDNext, navigate to Applications > Resource Management
2. Go to Resource Requests > Awaiting my Approval
3. Action > Approve

Accounting for Ticket Assignments in Resource Allocation

Instead of using individual tickets to create schedules for non-project work, managers can utilize Workspaces to manage schedules for their resources. Tickets can also be attached to these Workspaces so that the Workspace can accrue actuals for scheduled vs actual comparisons.

For more information on how to set up Workspaces and Resource Management, you can view the Workspaces and Resource Management KB article. 

Gotchas & Pitfalls

The following issues may affect how quickly you can implement this module:

• The more functional roles you’d like to define, the longer this implementation will take.
• The more you want to back into existing resource requirements on a project-by-project basis, the longer this implementation will take.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. My project is in flight and I need a role, but I'm not sure who the person will be yet. What should I do?

A. There are several approaches to this scenario. TeamDynamix has functional roles that are used to assign roles to tasks, but those roles are used for project requests – not active projects. One option is to create People records for each role and assign these Role people records to your project. Then, when you identify who will take these roles, add them to the project's resources and remove the role record. When you remove the role record, you'll be asked who to reassign the role's work to. Reassign the work to the person taking on that role.

 

Q. I'm in the early stages of planning and I don't know much work will be needed. What should I do?

A. TeamDynamix supports the idea of requesting hours by month for each person, even if you do not yet have a detailed plan that shows how that time will be used. This is the Manage by Project option on a project. You can request people's time, and then refine those requests as you start to build out a plan. You do, however, need some general understanding of how much work might be needed. If it's too difficult to estimate, you may need a pre-project i.e., a project that's your phase 1 project that helps you to plan the subsequent phases.

 

Q. What must I have to practice resource planning?

A. You need good project scope management for resource planning. If you can't control your project's scope, all resource planning – which is downstream of scope management because resources scale proportionally to scope – will fail. You may also need a general agreement to try to reduce the number of simultaneous projects. Ideally, resource planning provides better data to justify not taking on new projects until older projects can be successfully completed.

 

Q. Project requests require start and end dates, but I don't know when the work's going to happen. How do I use these fields?

A. It is common for scheduling the request for implementation to be ones of the steps in portfolio planning. It is sometimes the final step. In this step, the actual start and end dates are set, and the resource estimates are shifted forward or backward to match the changes in start and end dates. Prior to this step, the start and end dates for project requests must still be set, but if there isn’t a specific date, it's fine to select an arbitrary date in the future and plan assuming that arbitrary date is the start date. For example, January 1 or July 1. The scheduling step will then update the start and end date to the actual start and end.

 

Q. What should I do if I need to assign work to functional roles but the project's already active (i.e., it's no longer a project request)?

A. TeamDynamix only uses functional roles in portfolio planning. However, TeamDynamix now has a Resource Placeholder role available.  For more information about this role, please click to see this article about Resource Placeholders.