Getting Started for Resource Managers
This article serves as a Getting Started directory for resource/functional managers, once they’ve viewed the basic prerequisite content.
Resource Managers
Resource managers (i.e., functional managers) can use ResourceFirst to add and maintain resources, and should ideally be the owner of the resource labor forecast. After all, resource managers have the broadest view of a resource’s upcoming workload.
The project manager is mostly concerned about his or her project. Resources themselves understand their current workload, but perhaps not what’s coming down the pike. For this reason, project managers should work in conjunction with resource managers when planning the skills and capabilities needed on their projects.
This guide will show resource managers how to maintain the resource pool, create and update the effort forecast on assignments, address shortfall, view utilization, and more.
Adding and Deleting Resources
To add or maintain resources on the Resource Data page, see Adding and Maintaining Resources. Ideally, resources should not be deleted in ResourceFirst; they should be inactivated. However, if you wish to delete a resources, see the article Deleting Resources.
Viewing/Editing Resource Capacity
Resource Capacity represents a person’s maximum capacity to do work in a given time period (by default 1 FTE, means one full-time equivalent during the time period). To view or maintain capacity, see the article Managing Capacity.
Assigning Resources and Skills
The (Labor) Assignments page contains assignments of resources and/or skills to projects.
Demand and Capacity: Resource or Skill assignments (Labor assignments) contain the effort demand forecast; they are the source of labor (people) Demand on projects. This is applied against resource Capacity in ResourceFirst analytics.
Allocation and Shortfall: The amount of demand that a resource can satisfy on the assignment, given their available capacity, is treated by the system as Allocated. The amount of the demand on the assignment that is cannot be satisfied is treated by the system as Shortfall.
Color Analysis: The system uses various colors to show the level of shortfall (generally, yellow means slight, orange is moderate, and red is severe). The exact color thresholds are configurable by your administrator.
The best place to start when learning about assignments in ResourceFirst is the Assignments and Allocations Overview article, which also contains a directory to other articles about adding, editing, and copying assignments and using the various options on the Assignments page.
Viewing Resource Utilization
Resource Utilization is simply total demand for a resource divided by their capacity in each time period. To view resource utilization, see the article Viewing Resource Utilization.
Note that the resource Utilization page is for named resources only, and does not look at skill assignments (i.e., assignments of skills/roles to projects for which a named resource had yet to be selected). To see utilization by skill, look at the Assignment Roll-up report in the PMO area and use Required Skill as the roll-up grouping. See Roll-up Reports for more on this page.
Finding Candidates for Skill Needs or Resource Replacements
For skill assignments that have to be filled with named resources, or to replace the resource on an assignment with another resource, you can use the Candidates feature to find suitable candidates. To learn how to do this, see the article Candidates to Replace Demand.
Addressing Resource Overload
If assignment have shortfall (i.e., there is not enough available capacity from the assigned resource to satisfy the needed demand), you have several ways of addressing the shortfall. You can reduce the demand. You can give the assignment to another resource. You can shift the assignment to a time when the resource will be available.
If a resource is assigned to a project, and for whatever reason they are unable to continue the assigned work, you can convert their demand back into a skill assignment so you can then search for another resource or fill the skill need later. You can convert all demand to a skill assignment, or you can just convert the shortfall to the skill (e.g., the portion of the work they are unable to do). To convert all or part of a resource’s assignment back to a skill assignment, see the article Convert Demand to Skill.
Responding to Resource Assignment Requests
In ResourceFirst, you have the option to use Requests, which a project manager can use to request resources from resource manager(s). While ideally the project manager works directly with resource managers, and the resource managers enter assignments as appropriate, there are situations where it is more practical for the project manager to submit requests for resources, which would then be reviewed/approved by resource managers.
To learn how Requests work in ResourceFirst, see Using Resource Requests.
Review/Approve Timesheets
Actual effort in Resource First can be entered either directly by resource managers (see Entering and Modifying Labor Actuals) or entered by the resources via Timesheets.
To learn about entering, reviewing, and approving timesheets, as well as managing compliance, see the Time Tracking section, where you can view a short video and see the related articles.
Understanding Labor Rates
ResourceFirst offers a variety of options for managing labor rates. While this is set up in administration, it is useful for resource managers to understand the options the system offers. See the article Understanding Labor Rates for details.
