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Work Resourcing Options: About Resource Assignment Types

Question Answer
Hello, which assignment does not affect activity start/end dates? This is a very interesting question. Specifically, from an Assignment Types perspective:

REQUIREMENTS represent a high level estimate of resource effort for some (often high) level of work.  Requirements don't have their own dates - they rely on the dates of the work.
RESERVES are a soft booking of a named resource to some level of work. They block off a general time frame for work that can be independently scheduled.  When the RESERVE is created they will match the dates of the work. If the work moves, there are choices around moving the RESERVES.
ALLOCATIONS represent the 'work being done'.  Since they ARE the work - they ultimately control the dates in the schedule.  Once a task has allocations, the task's dates are set by the earliest start and latest finish of all of the associated allocations. 
AUTHORIZATIONS are simply permission to book time to some task within some time frame.  Authorizations have no direct impact on the work dates.

To expand a little more regarding ALLOCATIONS, when Profiling Allocated effort, the activity start/finish dates will be defined by the 'profile for allocated people to do work'. Therefore, when updating Allocated effort profiles or dates, this may move the activity start/end dates if the updates are outside the range of the original activity start/end dates. In addition, there are a variety of scenarios that may impact the activity start/ finish dates. For example;

- System Automation and Related Settings - In brief, work cannot be planned in the past. Furthermore, relative to the Assignment Type and the 'automation' settings and functionality, dates may change. There is always logic to how the settings / rules are applied. Understanding the settings/rules helps makes sense of the behaviours. We will be discussing this further in the upcoming sessions.

In addition, a number of other factors may impact the activity start/ end dates. For example;

- Planning and 'scheduling', with consideration of relationships and constraints.

- Preferences - the Date and Duration General Prefenence has the following options:
* Recalculate duration when entering finish date
OR
*Keep duration constant when entering finish date

Once again, understanding the settings/rules helps makes sense of the behaviours. I will add this topic to the backlog for consideration for future Learning Series sessions. There is always logic to how the settings are applied. We will be discussing this further in the upcoming sessions.
on the standard activity - can you block a proportion of a day or a % of someones time? I.e. someone works on support 0.5 of a day every week,. or 20% of their time? This is a very interesting question. Specifically, from an Assignment Types perspective, REQUIREMENTS represent a high level estimate of resource effort for some (often high) level of work.  Requirements don't have their own dates - they rely on the
is there a concept of a line manager/resource manager approving the soft booking which automatically sets the booking to a hard booking automatically? Yes. Resource Planning and Management options are very versitile. A business may have a variety of different use cases and ways of working and there is a lot of flexibility in this area. One line of business may permit a Work Manager to only create role based demand (Requirements). The Requirements will be visible to the Resource/Line Managers, who will assign a named person. Another line of business may permit a Work Manager to directly Reserve or Allocate a named person in a Requested State. This will also be visible to the Resource/Line Managers, who will 'approve' the 'requested' assignment. There are other use case combinations which may vary across and within Business Units and Departments. A combination of configuration /set up options and process provide a huge amount of versitility.You will find some example use cases in the presentation slide deck. 
Hello, which assignment does not affect activity start/end dates? This is a very interesting question. Specifically, from an Assignment Types perspective:

REQUIREMENTS represent a high level estimate of resource effort for some (often high) level of work.  Requirements don't have their own dates - they rely on the dates of the work.
RESERVES are a soft booking of a named resource to some level of work. They block off a general time frame for work that can be independently scheduled.  When the RESERVE is created they will match the dates of the work. If the work moves, there are choices around moving the RESERVES.
ALLOCATIONS represent the 'work being done'.  Since they ARE the work - they ultimately control the dates in the schedule.  Once a task has allocations, the task's dates are set by the earliest start and latest finish of all of the associated allocations. 
AUTHORIZATIONS are simply permission to book time to some task within some time frame.  Authorizations have no direct impact on the work dates.

To expand a little more regarding ALLOCATIONS, when Profiling Allocated effort, the activity start/finish dates will be defined by the 'profile for allocated people to do work'. Therefore, when updating Allocated effort profiles or dates, this may move the activity start/end dates if the updates are outside the range of the original activity start/end dates. In addition, there are a variety of scenarios that may impact the activity start/ finish dates. For example;

- System Automation and Related Settings - In brief, work cannot be planned in the past. Furthermore, relative to the Assignment Type and the 'automation' settings and functionality, dates may change. There is always logic to how the settings / rules are applied. Understanding the settings/rules helps makes sense of the behaviours. We will be discussing this further in the upcoming sessions.

In addition, a number of other factors may impact the activity start/ end dates. For example;

- Planning and 'scheduling', with consideration of relationships and constraints.

- Preferences - the Date and Duration General Prefenence has the following options:
* Recalculate duration when entering finish date
OR
*Keep duration constant when entering finish date

Once again, understanding the settings/rules helps makes sense of the behaviours. I will add this topic to the backlog for consideration for future Learning Series sessions. There is always logic to how the settings are applied. We will be discussing this further in the upcoming sessions.