Adding and Maintaining Resources
This article describes the features of the pages in the Resource Area: Data, Capacity, Utilization, and Skill Matrix.
Note: The pages that are visible are determined by administrator configuration based on user rights.
Overview
Resource Data
The Resource Data page in Grid mode shows a row for every resource included in the current data load. On this page you can add, inactivate, or delete resources, and edit resource attributes (if you have the appropriate right level).
Page Toolbar
The Page toolbar icons to the right of the Grid/Detail mode icons:
From left to right, the icons represent:
- Add resource
- Delete selected resource(s)
- Reload page data
- Export page data
- Import page data
Resource Data Fields (Attributes)
The View you select on the Resource Data page determines which resource fields appear on the page. In addition to system views created by an administrator, you can create your own personal views. See the article User Defined Views for details on creating and editing personal views.
Some important resource data fields are:
Resource– The name of the resource.
Resource OBS– The full path of the resource OBS node of which the resource is a member.
Primary Skill – The primary skill of the resource.
[This field should always be populated; values in this field enable resource supply-demand analytics of ResourceFirst.]
Key– To enable time-tracking and some Home page functionality for the resource, enter the user login ID in this field.
RActive– The current state of the resource in the system. By default inactive resources are not loaded. The Data Load Parameters field filter set to “Y, N” will load inactive resources as well as active.
Date Hired– The hire date for the resource.
Date Terminated– The date the resource was terminated (or will be). If active employee, this field will be blank.
User Defined Fields– Additional fields may be configured for customer specific purposes. Common examples are Resource Type (employee, contractor, temporary), Employee Number, Cost Center, and Manager.
Grid Mode vs. Detail Mode
The first two icons in the Page Toolbar toggle between Grid Mode and Detail Mode.
Detail mode shows a list of all resources in the left pane; two pages are available in the right pane, Labor assignment page and Utilization page.
Labor
Utilization
For more on using Detail mode, see the Grid vs. Detail mode section in the article ResourceFirst User Interface.
How To
Add Resource
Step 1: On the Resource Data page, click the + sign to activate the Add Resource Dialog.
Step 2: Select a Resource Organization Breakdown Structure (OBS) node from the drop down list.
For information on creating and updating the Resource OBS, please refer to Administering the OBS.
Step 3: Enter Resource Name, e.g., Williams, Cynthia, and click the Add button (or Add & Close, if you have no more resources to add).
[NOTE: We recommend “Last Name, First Name” format for sorting and consistency reasons.]
The new resource is saved to the database and visible on the Resource Data page.
Step 4: Save your changes using the Save button 
at upper right of the page.
Edit Resource
Step 1: Click on the cell you want to edit, e.g., change Primary Skill.
The cell is put into entry mode appropriate for the data required for the field (e.g., text, list, or date).
Each edited cell has a red mark at the upper left of the cell to indicate a change.
In addition, a smaller red mark will appear at the end of the row, indicating that something on the row has changed. These red marks mean the data hasn’t been saved yet. The marks disappear after a Save on the page.
Type Entry List Date
Modified Field Date Hired:
Step 2: Save your changes using the Save button at the upper right of the page.
Deactivate Resource
When you uncheck the RActive flag of a resource, a dialog requesting instructions for how to deal with future demand appears:
Delete Resource
WARNING: We recommend making items inactive instead of deleting them. Delete removes all history and related data such as Assignments with their Actuals and Baselines. It also removes all forecast assignments for the resource.
There ARE valid reasons for deleting records. Records can/should be deleted if a mistake is made creating them or if test or training records are no longer needed.
Note: Deleted records are marked as deleted, not actually deleted. They can be recovered by PDWare support upon request from an authorized database administrator.
Step 1: Select one or more rows and click the trash can icon at the upper left of the page.
Step 2: Then respond to the delete warning message. (REMINDER: This will also delete all historical and forecast information for the resource.)
Step 3: Save your changes using the Save button at upper right.
Managing Skills of a Resource
Primary Skill is a system field available on the Resource Data page. Resources can have secondary skills which are used in searching for candidates to satisfy Requests or unsatisfied Skill demand.
Primary Skill
Enter/modify the Primary Skill field on the Resource Data page. If the new primary skill does not exist for the Resource in the Skill Matrix (see below), it will automatically be added to the matrix with the highest proficiency rating.
Skill Matrix Page
The Skill Matrix page shows resources on rows and Skills on columns. A proficiency abbreviation indicates that the resource has that skill at that proficiency.
To edit the Skill Matrix, click in the appropriate skill cell for a resource and select a proficiency from the drop-down list (configurable in Admin>Resource Lists>Proficiencies). Then click Save.
Capacity Page
Resource capacity is the full-time equivalent amount of a resource dedicated to project work expressed as an FTE or as hours per period.
The FTE method is constant regardless of period granularity; 1 FTE is 1 in year, quarter, month, or week granularity. The hours method varies with granularity; 40 hours per week will become 160 hours in some months and 184 hours in others.
[Note: For the sake of simplicity and consistency, we STRONGLY recommend that you NOT adjust capacity to account for overhead.
If you set capacity at .7 or .8 FTE, you have to remember that a full-time assignment to a project must also be .7 or .8.
Furthermore, overhead rates may be radically different in different organizations making a nightmare of supply demand analysis.]
Resource attributes including capacity can be entered manually or imported from a corporate HR system by a ResourceFirst interface. The most common method for larger organizations is by HR interface.
To modify capacity, just enter the appropriate values on the Resource Capacity page.
[Note: At the request of some customers, it is possible to set capacity less than zero. Please do not do this unless you have a well-developed use case.]
You can use drag-fill and copy-paste in the period data grid on the Capacity page. See the article Data Entry in ResourceFirst.
Don’t forget to click Save in the upper right.
Note: When a resource is terminated, remember to zero their capacity beyond the Date Terminated to ensure ongoing correct historical reporting.
Cost of Capacity
Select Cost in the data value type drop-down at the right of the Page toolbar.
Note that currency can be shown with country appropriate symbols; currency can also be displayed with an administration configured default currency symbol.
Utilization Page
The Resource>Utilization page displays utilization percent by default. The data value type drop-down also displays Demand, Capacity, and Variance.
Utilization percent is the sum of all explicit resource assignment demand divided by the person’s total capacity in each time period.
Variance is calculated as Capacity minus Demand. Excess demand is negative; unused capacity is positive.
For example, if a person is a half-time employee (capacity = .5) and total demand in a period is 1 (FTE), the utilization in that period is 200%.
Note: Resource Utilization does not include skill assignment demand.
Step 1: Access the Utilization page by selecting the Utilization menu item in the Resource Area Page Menu.
Color Legend and Filter
The Legend icon (key icon) next to the Select a Filter control displays an information/filter menu showing the thresholds for calculating colors and other indicators on the page.
The color thresholds are set by the administrator for all users.
Red indicates over-allocated.
Dark blue indicates under-allocated.
No color indicates the sweet spot between under- and over-utilization.- & A white ampersand indicates no demand and no capacity for that period
An orange number sign (#) indicates demand is greater than zero but capacity is zero (demand # [not equal] zero).
Color Filter Use Case
As a resource manager, you want to correct all time periods where the total demand for a resource exceeds capacity.
Step 1: You set a filter on Red color.
Step 2: You activate the Resource>Data Detail mode page. The resource list is filtered on Red color; every resource listed has one or more periods with Red over-allocation.
Step 3: You correct the over-allocation by using the Candidate Resources feature to find a resource with the Required Skill and unused capacity to satisfy the shortfall.
Step 4: If there isn’t enough unused capacity to satisfy shortfall demand, you convert shortfall to a skill assignment.
At the end of the process you have no resources with explicit over-allocation.
