Design and set up

Resource management adoption pathway

2. Design and set up

Audience	Planview administrator, PMO, resource manager, project manager
Objective	These steps enable administrators to design and set up Portfolios to support forward-looking demand planning using role-based requirements, as well as authorize named resources to report time to projects for costing and recharging purposes.

Review and evaluate the Org-Res structure

Step	Description
Understand the dependency between the Resource Primary Structure and the Org-Res structure	The Organizational Resource (Org-Res) structure is used to plan and estimate effort for work using role-based requirements before assigning named individuals. This enables high-level resource planning before knowing exactly who will do the work. The Org-Res structure is automatically created using the resources that exist in the Resource Primary Structure or Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS), which uses hierarchal levels to represent the way in resources are organized in a company. Resources in the Resource Primary Structure represent the organization's capacity. The dependency of the Org-Res on the Resource Primary Structure ensures that demand cannot be created for a resource if the resource does not exist to fill it.
Review and evaluate the Org-Res structure	The purpose of the Org-Res structure is to enable project and resource managers to express resource demand in terms of what type of resource they need and where they are located in the organization. To enable this, the Org-Res should be defined by: Resource attribute (job role) Resource breakdown structure (RBS) level Consider the following when evaluating or defining the Org-Res: What – the type of resource you need. These roles should be generic, standardized roles across the organization. For example, software developer vs. Sr. JavaScript developer. Additional criteria such as skills and seniority should be added as resource attributes rather than built into the job title. This allows managers to select from a pool of resources, then narrow their selection criteria using resource attributes. This also simplifies the resource management process by preventing the creation of too many "pools" of capacity. Where – the level of the organization you select the resource from. For example, department or team. This level is also referred to as the RBS level or organizational planning level (OPL). When selecting the Org-Res level, it's important to consider the implications of the level you select on the responsibility and ownership of the project manager or resource manager. It's helpful to ask "What is the most detailed organizational level that the managers could reasonably, consistently know when requesting a resource?" Typically, this the team or department level.
Modify the Org-Res structure Primary Requirement/Capacity Planning (if needed)	To change the Primary Requirement/Capacity Planning Structure of Org-Res to Resource Roles (Obs20), navigate to the Administration menu > Architecture > Primary Structures > Administer Organizational Resources.
Review, evaluate, and update resource roles (if needed)	To review and define resource roles used to generate the Org-Res structure, navigate to the Administration menu > Attributes and Column Sets > Manage Attributes > Edit Resource Roles.
Hierarchical levels in the Resource Primary Structure represent how resources are organized in an enterprise. The Org-Res organizational planning level (OPL) identifies where in the organizational hierarchy the resource is located. Resources must always be created at the leaf level node in the resource structure. Portfolios employs hierarchical structures to sort and organize data within the database. The Resource Primary structure is used to manage resource information. The Org-Res is dependent on the Resource Primary Structure. Resource attributes are managed by an alternate resource structure.
The Org-Res RBS level (Department Application Development) and resource role (Test Analyst) are displayed in the Resource View screen.

Manage resource attributes

Understanding resource attributes

A resource is primarily defined by its place within the organizational structure and the hours it works per week. Resource attributes appear in reports, tiles, and column sets, Resource attributes are important because they help project and resource managers quickly search for and find resources (named or unnamed) that meet the criteria needed to perform the work.

The following resource attributes can have a direct impact on resource management, resource rates, and resource capacity:

OrgRes: this value is used for long range resource demand in the form of requirements. This value is derived from the intersection between the resource structure and a resource attribute (usually the resource role).
Resource role: this value is often used as a combination to derive the OrgRes value above. It can also be used as an attribute to determine resource rate.
Providing organization: when assigned to resources, can be used as part of the resource costing rules via the rating engine, and the grouping of resource capacity.
Vendor: this value can be used as part of the resource rating rules

Further attributes and dates can be added to fine-tune resource capacity availability:

Calendar: highlights 100% of the hours the resource is available to the organization
Rates: used to cost work and capacity effort
Effective dates: option to define to reflect active resource capacity
Other attributes: other characteristics a resource can be identified with, such as skills or seniority

Update resource attributes

Resource attributes can be updated by an administrator or any user with read/write access to the resource item and permission to access the Resources menu, such as a resource manager.

On the Resource View screen, view and update attributes for a resource.

Create a rate set for resource roles

Step	Description
Understanding rates	Rates provide a mechanism to determine the cost of capacity (resources) and the cost to deliver planned and actual work (effort). Different rate sets can be used to determine the cost to deliver work and “run” the organization. Rates are always defined as a per hour financial value. Rates can be defined at an organizational level (Providing Organization or Cost Center), or at a named resource level. Attribute rating allows rates to be applied to resource roles and named resources based on resource attributes, such as resource role, location, cost center, etc. The Planview Rating Engine pulls from resource information to calculate rates. A single Rate Set, Rate Card, and Rate Lookup must be defined to use resource costing.
Create a Rate Set, Rate Card and Lookup based on the resource role attribute	Rates can be defined in a rate card for resource roles by resource attributes. One or two attributes can be defined for a rate set and is applied to all cards in the set. For this use case, it is recommended to define the resource hourly rates by role, or department, or both.The system will automatically apply a rate based on the resource attributes if there is the appropriate matching Lookup in the rate card.
Rates can be applied to resource roles using attributes, such as role, location, or both.
Create vendor contract rates	In Portfolios, it is possible to create a set of rates defined by a contract if they are a vendor resource.

Review and assign grants

Grants are required for resource management because project and resource managers must have the appropriate permissions to update resource attributes, assign resources to work, and approve time entries.

Database grants provide visibility into the resource primary structure, and can be read-only (view) or read-write (update). Grants are inherited down the structure; a user granted to a parent node in the structure can see all child nodes below the granted level.

A resource grant must be at the resource level or one level above to receive notifications in My Planview. Higher level grants will only see Resource Dashboard-based notifications.

Resource Primary Structure Grants.png — Grants are inherited down the Resource Primary Structure

Review and update standard activities

Step	Description
Understanding standard activities	Standard activities provide resource and project managers visibility into the non-availability of resources, as well as the true capacity of the organization to deliver work. This enables the organization to understand if it can meet its current demand based on the current available headcount. The overall working time or availability of a resource is based on the calendar with which the resource is associated. Standard activities can be created by resource managers to indicate when resources will not be available for project work. Standard activities typically include non-project work and planned absences, as well as organizational overhead activities. Organizations define their own list of standard activities to reflect their required level of granularity needed to track non-project work.
Review and update standard activities	Define standard activities types to represent the non-availability of resources at your organization. If standard activities have already been defined for your organization, review the current list of standard activities to ensure it represents your organization's required granularity of planning and tracking of non-project work.
Standard activities provide resource and project managers visibility into the non-availability of resources, as well as the true capacity of the organization to deliver work.

Step

Description

Understanding standard activities

Standard activities provide resource and project managers visibility into the non-availability of resources, as well as the true capacity of the organization to deliver work. This enables the organization to understand if it can meet its current demand based on the current available headcount. The overall working time or availability of a resource is based on the calendar with which the resource is associated. Standard activities can be created by resource managers to indicate when resources will not be available for project work. Standard activities typically include non-project work and planned absences, as well as organizational overhead activities.

Organizations define their own list of standard activities to reflect their required level of granularity needed to track non-project work.

Review and update standard activities

Define standard activities types to represent the non-availability of resources at your organization.

If standard activities have already been defined for your organization, review the current list of standard activities to ensure it represents your organization's required granularity of planning and tracking of non-project work.

Conceptual Standard Activities.png — Standard activities provide resource and project managers visibility into the non-availability of resources, as well as the true capacity of the organization to deliver work.

Authorize resources to report time

Step	Description
Understanding authorizations	To progress the plan using timesheet data, named resources must be authorized to report time. Authorizations allow a named resource to enter time against any level of a project. Unlike requirements, authorizations do not give any visibility of demand, nor do they deplete capacity. In this use case, resource timesheet hours are recorded against time reporting “buckets” or high-level projects or phases, then integrated as actual dates and hours. This allows organizations to track time against work for costing – including CapEx/OpEx tracking – and recharging purposes.
Configure timesheet to record resource hours	Set up the timesheet system to track and record the number of hours spent by resources on projects, ensuring it aligns with the project’s work breakdown structure (WBS) for accurate reporting.
Set up appropriate time reporting "buckets"	Define categories or buckets within the project to group timesheet entries by work activities or specific project tasks, ensuring accurate time tracking for costing or recharging purposes.
Integrate with Progressing Engine to convert approved timesheet hours into: Actual dates Actual hours	Link the timesheet system with the Progressing Engine to automatically update project milestones and timelines based on the actual time reported by resources by converting the recorded timesheet hours into actual work hours. This provides accurate data on resource effort spent and allows for financial reporting or recharging against project budgets.
Authorize resources	Authorize resources at the appropriate level of the WBS (work breakdown structure) before they can report time, ensuring that only approved work and resources are tracked for time reporting and costing.

Create and manage resource portfolios

Review resource portfolios

A resource portfolio is a group of resources within Portfolios. Resource managers will typically include the group of resources they manage in a resource portfolio, or a group they want to see. In the Resource Portfolio View, managers can

To view a resource portfolio, navigate to the Resources Menu > See All Resource Portfolios.

Create or update a resource portfolio

Create a resource portfolio and give it a descriptive name to easily identify the content of the group.

To keep the resource portfolios manageable, it is recommended not to include more than 100 resources, or the number of resources you could manage in one day.

To edit a resource portfolio, navigate to the Resource Portfolio Definition.

Note: only the creator of a resource portfolio can edit that portfolio. Managers can only include resources that they have either read-only or read/write permissions to in portfolios they create. For example, if they don't have any permissions to people in other departments, they cannot create a portfolio that includes those people.

Optimize column sets, tiles, and screens for resource management

Output	Description
Column sets	Through the administration menu settings, administrators can set default column sets to support resource portfolio views.
Column sets, ribbon tiles, and views within Portfolios can be customized to provide quick access to key resource information. Column sets support different resource portfolio views for resource management.
Ribbon tiles	Administrators can add ribbon tiles to support resource portfolio views, such as: RES03 Supply and Demand: provides an organizational view of resource capacity versus demand. Demand is based on requirements, reserves, and allocations in project schedules, and data can be pivoted by different resource dimensions. This analytic allows you to identify teams or resources that are under- or over-utilized, and improve project delivery estimations based on available capacity. RES04 Effort Analysis: this report provides a resource portfolio summary that details all scheduled or planned effort for each resource in the portfolio. Resource Management: this tile displays the PowerBI Resource Management Dashboard and provides insight into the overall demand and capacity at an organizational level, including visualizations of overall resource utilization, demand versus capacity, and roles with the highest and lowest utilization. Capacity: this tile supports the identification and management of underutilized and overloaded resources. Timesheets for Approval: this tile provides of list view of resources that need timesheet approval. The Resource Management Dashboard tile displays data from resource portfolio column sets using Power BI visualizations.
Screens	The following screens provide quick access to resource information for project and resource managers: Resource View screen: view and update resource information and attributes Authorizations screen: view projects a resource is authorized to report time to Resource Portfolio View: view and filter resources by work, role, utilization %, etc. Resource Portfolio View > Group by: group by resource location, capacity, etc. Staffing screen: view resource utilization and manage resource assignments