Project Demand

This article explores the features of the Project Demand page in the Projects area.

Overview

The Demand page shows “supply versus demand” color analysis and provides What-If analysis of changes to the timing of demand on individual projects.

For projects with unsatisfied demand (shortfall), the What-If analysis answers the question “How do changes in demand timing affect the availability of resources for this project?”.

The Demand page also summarizes four different value types for projects by period.

• Demand (default)
• Shortfall
• Allocation
• Allocation %

To understand these values, see Assignment and Allocations Overview.

[Note: The fields (columns) shown on this page are defined by an administrator in the Administration>Views>Project List>Project Demand Analysis view.]

What If Result

Data shift what-if cases can be performed into empty time periods on the left and right of the current data range. If the selected project has demand in the first and last periods, no what-if can be performed.

In the case of Hawaii with the date range shown, demand can be shifted 1 period to the left (earlier) and 6 periods to the right (later). The result will be 8 rows, with shift amounts going from -1 to + 6 (including 0)

The result appears in the bottom panel of the page. Each row shows the result of a 1 period shift in demand.

The number and direction of shift is shown in the Shift column at the far left.

In the screen shot example, a delay of 4 periods gets to 75% allocation and a delay of 6 periods gets to 84% from an initial allocation of 68%.

Note: This what-if feature only shows the impact of the move on the selected project. It does NOT show the impact on lower priority projects or on higher priority projects if Allocate Committed First is checked.

Note: If Allocate Committed First is checked, a committed resource assignment on a low priority project can get allocation before an uncommitted assignment of that resource on a high priority project.

Project Demand Page Controls

Left to right, these controls are:

What If button – Show changes in resource availability for all possible changes in demand timing
Optimization drop down – Choose allocation calculation options
Clear All Filters – Clears all column filters
Calculate Allocations – Recalculate color analysis if you change assignment data
Data Type drop down – Summarize by project and display the selected data type
Export – Export the Demand page grid to a CSV file
Page Legend – Shows the meaning of period data colors.

Color threshold defaults are:

Yellow = 90 – 95% of the needed demand is allocated
Orange = 70 – 90% of the needed demand is allocated
Red = Less than 70% of the needed demand is allocated
(Note: The thresholds are set in Administration > Server Settings)

Optimization

Optimization in ResourceFirst refers to the calculation method used to show resource supply-demand analysis colors.

No data is changed with any of the optimization options. Rather, the allocation calculation can produce a different result producing in turn different shortfall warning colors.

The optimization dropdown button controls the calculation method.

• Allocate Committed First

On (checked), assignments with committed Effort State values are allocated before assignments with no value or an uncommitted value.

Off (unchecked), the Effort State field is ignored.

• Use Availability for Skill Assignments

On (checked), unused capacity of resources who meet assignment requirements is “allocated” to satisfy demand shortfall for analysis purposes only.
This does not apply to resource assignments with shortfall.

Off (unchecked), all demand on skill assignments is considered shortfall, and allocation % of demand is zero.

For more on the Allocation Algorithm, see Assignments and Allocations Overview.
(See the Optimization Options article for a full description of the ResourceFirst optimization method.)

How To

What If (Schedule = Demand Timing)

Step 1: Select anywhere on a project row EXCEPT the project name cell.

[Note: In ResourceFirst version 8.x and earlier, a click on the project name cell drills down to the individual project workspace Demand page.]

Step 2: Click the What If button.

The allocation possible for every one period shift earlier and later of demand on the selected project is displayed in the what-if pane at the bottom of the page.