Planning in a Scenario
This article describes methods for planning a scenario in preparation for evaluation and decision.
Overview
Once a scenario is created, planning is exactly the same as for normal current projects. In the simplest case where the source project is an empty shell without project attributes or assignments, you might define project characteristics in project fields and add labor and financial assignments as appropriate.
All normal ResoureFirst features for portfolio and resource planning work identically on scenarios.
The basic features for creating the scenario plan are:
Add Assignment (on Labor & Financial Assignment pages)
Edit field and period data values
Add (Project) to Scenario
Add (Assignment) to Scenario
Note: A source project can be modified in any way except Delete after it has been added to a scenario. You CAN prevent changes to labor and financial assignments by checking the Lock Forecast field on the source project.
Currently there is no way to prevent edits to project fields on the Project Data and Project Info pages.
Public Scenario Fields in Views
There are accessible (public) system fields that are associated with scenarios and with the objects contained in scenarios, projects and assignments.
The names for these fields are configurable in Administration > Column Headings.
Public scenario fields Scenario Name, Scenario Status, Scenario Version, and Original PID are visible as project fields; Original AID is visible as an assignment field.
An organization making use of the scenario feature should configure sample public scenario views for the Project Data page and for the labor and financial Assignment pages. Users can create their own personal views and partition administrators can create scenario views for their partition.
Example Scenario Views
Add Assignment
The standard Add Assignment dialog (Skill, Resource, or Financial) can be used to add new assignments to scenario projects.
The only unique thing is that you must select the scenario project, not the source project, in the assignment dialog.
The scenario projects are distinguished by the initial characters from the scenario name prefixed to the Project Key value (if any) at the right of the project drop down list.
Edit field and period data values
Fields on scenario project rows and on project assignments are edited normally on the Project Data, Project Info, and Assignment pages
Add (selected project) to Scenario
1. Go to the Project Data page.
2. Click the selection checkbox at the left of one or more projects to be added.
3. Click the Baselines & Scenarios icon in the upper left toolbar icon group
4. Click Add to Scenario
5. Select the scenario to which the projects are to be added
6. Set the Include Children and Include Assignments checkboxes as appropriate
7. Click the Apply button
The projects appear at the bottom of the page with scenario highlighting if the Project Data page is in the standard sort order.
If the Project Data page is in a custom sort order, the projects appear where they belong according to the sort specification.
Add (selected assignment) to Scenario
If you add an assignment to a scenario and the assignment’s project is NOT in the scenario, the project is added to the scenario by itself (no children, no other assignments).
If you select an assignment that has already been added to the target scenario, no assignment will be added but you will get the success message anyway.
A current forecast assignment can be added to any scenario that does not already contain it.
Steps for Add Assignments to Scenario
1. Go to any assignment page.
2. Click the selection checkbox at the left of one or more assignments to be added.
3. Click the Baselines & Scenarios icon in the upper left toolbar icon group
4. Click Add to Scenario
5. Select the scenario to which the assignments are to be added
6. Click the Add button
The assignments are added to the scenario (with their project). Each new assignment has the database ID of its source assignment in column Original AID.
