Capability usage

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Beyond timesheeting: work management adoption pathway

2. Design and set up

3. Capability usage

4. Reports and outputs

Audience	PMO, project manager
Objective	These steps enable project managers to quickly get started with planning, executing, and tracking projects in Portfolios.

Project planning and scheduling process steps

Step	Description
Define project/work breakdown structure	Define the project by building out the work breakdown structure to form the basis of the project schedule. For a simple project schedule, we recommend planning two levels deep at most. The project schedule consists of any elements in the work breakdown structure (WBS) that exist below the project level in the hierarchy, such as phases and tasks. Tip: Never plan to more detail than you are willing to manage.
Edit WBS with dates, durations, and relationships
Add project milestones	A milestone is a significant event or point in time of a project, strategic plan, or outcome plan. Milestones help users define key future dates before schedules are set. It’s important to note that a milestone task has no duration, and resources cannot be assigned to a work milestone. By creating milestones, users can define key dates and deadlines before detailing out phases of projects. Users responsible for creating a project plan should use the Plan screen to create a milestone for each major step of the project. Most project templates provide suggested milestones, but more can be created when needed. The important thing to remember is to set the appropriate cell in the Milestone Flag column to Yes on the Plan. After a milestone is set, you can schedule the milestone from the Schedule Start column, Schedule Finish column, or Constraint Type column.
Plan resource requirements	Plan which resource types will work on tasks and activities and populate the project schedule with an accurate and realistic role-based forecast in the form of resource requirements.
Baseline schedule	Take a baseline of the project schedule to capture a snapshot of the project's schedule as it proceeds into execution. This schedule baseline provides a record of the planned work phases, tasks, milestone dates, and durations as of the end of the planning phase to track any variances as the work progresses. Project managers should use baselines to compare current schedule information with an earlier version of the schedule. Such comparisons help project managers perform the following tasks: Identify variances in the schedules Measure the success of a work item's schedule in an ongoing manner Determine if an original schedule was accurate enough

Assign role-based requirements to work

Step	Description
Understanding requirements	Long-term, role-based resource demand forecasting is achieved through the use of requirements. Requirements allow project and resource managers to define demand for work without the need to specify a named resource. Requirements are typically assigned to a high-level project plan, such as project phases or stages. Requirements are non-named organizational resources used for resource demand management. Requirements cannot report time. Requirements can be assigned to any level of the WBS, shift with schedule changes, and impact resource utilization. Demand is defined on the schedule for each work item and expressed in terms of Org-Res roles. Demand can be balanced against capacity to determine the ability of the organization to deliver work.
In the resource demand management process, work planning and scheduling creates demand for resources. The Org-Res defines the demand as requirements, which in this use case is expressed as the resource role and organizational planning level (OPL), or the "what and where" needed to deliver the work.
Identify resource demand	Identify and quantify all incoming demand placed against all resource types in teams to maintain a balanced and efficient level of utilization among resources. To quantify resource demand, project managers use requirements to request resource effort that is needed to complete a project.
Assign role-based resource requirements	Add resources based on role, department, or other relevant classifications.
Evaluate resource utilization	Compare and balance resource availability against resource requirements to determine current resource utilization.
Manage resource utilization	Quantify and balance resource utilization in the context of effort and budget capacity to determine the ability of the organization to deliver work. Ensure the workload for resources remains balanced, neither over- or underutilized. Using techniques such as eliminating resource overload, a resource manager can balance a project's resource demand against resource capacity to make informed decisions about resource utilization. This ensures an accurate view into the organization's ability to deliver work and manage resource effort and costs efficiently. Resource managers can also balance resource utilization and manage resource assignments from the Resource Staffing screen.

Execution and tracking process steps

Step	Description
Do work	Resources carry out the work that has been assigned to them.
Capture data on the progress of work	As work progresses, resources' actual time spent on work is tracked, project managers update milestones and other dates as needed, and the Progressing Engine integrates actual time reported records with all the planning records in the database. Resources' time can be captured in the following ways: Resources manually enter their time spent through timesheets Time is calculated automatically using Agile costing
Review progress of work	Track and monitor the progress being made on work using tools such as baselines to compare the current status with the planned progress. For example, project managers can monitor the scheduled and actual dates and track the variance against initial expectations, such as an initial baseline, to obtain a full understanding of the project progress. Then, they can take a new baseline to compare against a baseline taken at the start of the project. This helps project managers have a clear understanding of how a project is progressing in relation to the original baseline and identify where dates have slipped or been brought forward. Any variance from the original project baseline may have financial implications or require the proactive reassignment of resources in order to prevent any negative impact on the project.
Plan/re-plan remaining scheduled work	Manage the schedule for the remaining scheduled work, adjusting dates and durations if necessary.
Manage exceptions and report on project status and progress	Ensure the project status and work details are correct and current, evaluating and re-prioritizing any items that aren't going to plan. Project managers can review or update the status of work on the Plan screen. Also, project stakeholders can view a summary of work status information on the WRK14 – Project (and Portfolio) Highlight Report, which is a FastTrack analytic.