Planning in a Scenario

This article describes methods for planning in a scenario after it has been created.

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 asset, labor and financial assignments as appropriate.

All normal ResourceFirst features for portfolio, resource, and financial planning work identically on scenarios.

It is possible to display current plan only or display one or more scenarios with or without the current plan.

The basic features for planning in a scenario are:

Edit project fields (attributes) in a scenario project

Add/Edit Assignment (on Asset, Labor & Financial Assignment pages) to a scenario project

Delete assignment period values

Add (existing Project) to Scenario

Add (existing Assignment) to Scenario

Note: A source project can be modified in any way after it has been added to a scenario.
You CAN prevent changes to source assignments by checking the Lock Forecast field on the source project.

Currently there is no way to prevent edits to source project fields.

Note: If you delete a source project, all associated scenario projects are deleted with all their assignments.

Scenario Fields in Views

System fields associated with scenarios can be displayed in grid views for projects and assignments.
[The names for these fields are configurable by administrators in Administration>System>Fields.]

Scenario Name
Scenario Status
Scenario Version
Original PID (Project ID)
Original AID (Assignment ID)

An organization making use of the scenario feature should configure default scenario views for the Project Data page and for Assignment pages. Users can create their own personal views and partition administrators can create scenario views for their partition.

In the screenshots below you see records for two different scenarios, Aspen SC and Aspen SC 2.

Project Data View

Scenario projects (rows 2 & 3) were created from the source project(PID 1433 on row 1).

Assignment View

Scenario assignments (rows 2 & 3) were created from the source assignment (AID 19081 on row 1).

How To

Create a Scenario

See article Creating a Simple Scenario.

Add Project to Scenario

Step 1: Go to the Project Data page.

Step 2: Click the selection checkbox at the left of one or more projects to be added.

Notice that project Oak is the parent project of ADogwood and Elm. Adding Oak to a scenario adds its child projects by default unless explicitly prevented.

Step 3: Click the Baselines & Scenarios icon in the upper left toolbar icon group.

Step 4: Click Add to Scenario and select the scenario to which the projects are to be added and set the Include Children and Include Assignments checkboxes as appropriate.

Step 5:  Click the Add button.

The projects appear in the current sort order with scenario highlighting.

Add Assignment to Scenario

Note:

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 get the success message anyway.

A current forecast assignment can be added to any scenario that does not already contain it.

Step 1: Go to any assignment page.

Step 2: Click the selection checkbox at the left of one or more assignments to be added.

Step 3: Click the Baseline, Status, Scenarios & Templates icon in the upper left toolbar icon group.

Step 4: Click Add to Scenario.

Step 5: Select the scenario to which the assignments are to be added.

Step 6: Click the Add  button.

The assignments are added to the scenario.

If the project of the source assignment is not already in the scenario, that project is added to the scenario by itself (no children, no other assignments).

Each new assignment has the database ID of its source assignment in column Original AID.

Create New Assignment in a Scenario

The standard Add Assignment dialogs (Asset, Resource, Skill, Team, 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 “scenario name_source project key” in the Project Key field at the right of the project drop down list in the Add Assignment dialog.

Edit project field and period forecast data values

Fields on scenario projects and forecast values on their assignments are modified normally on Project Data and Assignment pages.