Review how the Progressing Engine and resource assignment types are used to support a series of use case scenarios

Business Outcome: Key project milestones can be tracked and reported on.

1. Enter Status = Yes allows actual dates and percent complete to be entered manually. Direct data entry of progress will not be overwritten. This is also used to handle exceptions for Progress as Planned work items.
2. Progress as Planned will automatically update progress of milestones based on the schedule date. It will also update progress of work items when Enter Status is No.
3. Note that the Time Now has moved forward after progressing.
4. Critical path can be used to drive durations and dates for dependent milestones and work items (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Project Stage/ Milestone Date Tracking Only

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Business Outcome: Actual resource hours spent on projects are captured and costed for financial reporting/recharging.

1. WBS only contains time reporting “activity types/codes” with no forward planning of project dates or resources.
2. Resources must be authorized in order to be able to report time.
3. Progressing Engine integrates approved timesheet hours and determines actual dates and actual hours.
4. Percent Complete at each time integrated work item will display at 100% as there are no other remaining effort (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Actual Time Tracking Only for Cost Capture/Recharge

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Business Outcome: Key project milestones and actual resource hours spent on projects are captured and costed for financial reporting/recharging.

1. WBS is planned out with dates and durations for each stage/phase and key milestones.
2. Resources timesheet hours are recorded against time reporting “buckets” and integrated as actual dates and actual hours.
3. Key project milestones are managed in the schedule alongside the time reporting buckets.
4. Key milestones can be set to progress as planned or managed manually (Figure 4).

Other consideration:

• Resources must be authorized (and can be at any level of the WBS) to report time.

Figure 4: Project Milestone Date and Actual Time Tracking

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Business Outcome:Forward resource demand is forecasted at the role and named resource levels, driving capacity planning without resource time tracking.

1. WBS supports the forward planning of resource demand through requirements and named resource assignments through reserves.
2. Progress of work is automatically updated as planned.
3. Manual status is used to handle exceptions to the plan or for work items not intended to be progressed as plan (Figure 5).

Other considerations:

• All progressing options are set to expire effort so that unused effort is not rescheduled.
• This use case can be combined with monthly financial load and progressing of projects to capture expired demand.

Figure 5: Resource Demand and Assignment Tracking Only (no time reporting)

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Business Outcome: Forward resource demand is forecasted at the role and named resource levels, key project milestones and actual resource hours spent on projects are captured and costed for driving capacity planning and financial reporting/recharging.

1. WBS supports both forward planning of resource demand through requirements and named resource assignment through allocations.
2. Resources' timesheet hours are recorded against time reporting “buckets” and integrated as actual dates and actual hours.
3. Key project milestones are managed in the schedule alongside the time reporting buckets.
4. Progress as Planned is recommended for work items that will not have time entries. 
5. Options to set all progressing options to expire effort so that unused effort is not re-scheduled (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Use Case 5 - High-Level Schedule, Resource Planning and Time Tracking

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Business Outcome: Forward resource demand is forecasted at the role and named resource level, key project milestones and actual resource hours spent on projects are captured and costed for driving capacity planning, tracking of consumption for budgeted hours, and financial reporting/recharging.

1. WBS supports forward planning of resource demand through requirements and named resource allocations, with planned/budgeted amount of effort allocated.
2. Time reporting captures actual hours. Remaining allocated hours are calculated based on actuals and any contributor estimate.
3. Key project milestones are managed in the schedule alongside the time reporting buckets.
4. Progress as Planned is recommended for work items that will not have time entries. 
5. Options to set progressing options to not expire effort so that unused effort is re-scheduled (Figure 7).

Figure 7:  Use Case 6 - High-Level Schedule, Resource Budget Management and Time Tracking

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Business Outcome: Forward resource demand is forecasted at the role and named resource levels driving capacity planning. Full visibility into the day by day utilization of resources. Project actual hours are captured for costing/recharging.

1. WBS is at a high level, with sufficient detail to drive the profiling of resource demand, through requirements.
2. Supports a matrix organization, whereby Project Managers secure resources by submitting requirements.
3. Resource Managers fill requirements as approved  reserves – soft booking.
4. Project Managers assign  resources to approved work items (allocations) without the need for additional approval by the Resource Managers (Figure 8). 
5. Time reporting captures actual hours. Remaining allocated hours are calculated based on actuals and any contributor estimate.
6. Progress as Planned is recommended for work items that will not have time entries.
7. Options to set progressing options to not expire effort so that unused effort is re-scheduled.
8. When unused effort is rescheduled, the total effort for the project remain the same.
9. When unused effort is reschedule, the schedule  finish date may change if the remaining effort cannot be completed within the planned duration or if work is completed ahead of the schedule (Figure 9).

Figure 8: Use Case 7 - Mature Rolling Wave, Activity Level Planning, and Tracking

Figure 9: Use Case 7 - Mature Rolling Wave, Activity Level Planning, and Tracking

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