The Resource Demand feature is available in both Projects and Programmes. It is used to compile a list of resources that will be required. You can specify how many days you require them by month, as well as actual days consumed when work has been done.
Resource Demand Feature Summary
The Resource Demand feature is accessed via the Resource Demand tab of the project.
Resource Demand Overview
The list of resources created for your projects will serve multiple purposes:
- Supports a resource demand and approval process, with visibility of resource remaining capacity and over-allocation.
- Will allow you to request resource days by role, for a Resource Manager to nominate an individual team member to do the work.
- Actual days can be entered (or received via the Timesheet feature) once work has been done.
- Both demand and actual days can be translated into cost (Forecast and Actual) which will be reflected in the Investment calculation of the project.
Adding a Resource Demand Row
|
Click to add a new row. The only field now editable on the new row is the Role – double-click into it to see a drop-down of defined Roles and select one. Once selected, the default Team Member and Cost Sub-Category will be filled in and the Role can no longer be changed on this newly added row. NOTE: Depending on the Project Role settings, you may or may not be able to change the Team Member at this point. If Resource Approval Mandatory is set to Yes then you will not be able to select a specific Team Member, the Resource Demand request will remain set to GENERIC and the Resource Manager will select the most appropriate Team Member using an holistic approach. |
A newly created Resource Demand row will show a status of ‘Planning’.
Columns
The following columns are available for a row added to the list (and can be individually shown or hidden via the column selector on the right):
(Yellow highlight denotes input field)
|
|
Comment |
| Role |
Select the role of the resource from the drop-down. Once selected, various other columns will be filled in. Once a row is created, the Role cannot be changed. Remove the row (Remove) and create a new row (Add) from scratch to correct the role selection. |
| Team Member | The default Team Member will be filled in (if one is associated with the role). Click to change by selecting from the drop-down of available team members for the given role. Best Practice is to leave this as GENERIC and allow the Resource Manager to assign an individual. |
| Skills | Displays the Skills requested for this Role and/or the Skills matched by the assigned Team Member. |
| Status | Identifies the submission/approval status of the row. Planning, Requested, Approved or Revision. |
| Last Status Change | Date/time of last status change – sort by this column to see the most recent changes at the top. |
| Cost Sub-Category |
Determines which row in the Investment grid will receive the cost resulting from this Resource Demand. Will be set to the default value for this Team Member and may be changed if alternative values are configured. Once the row has been saved, the Cost Sub-Category can no longer be changed. Remove the row and create a new row from scratch, then apply a different Cost Sub-Category. |
| Changes |
Displays any notes that may have been entered as part of the Approval Process. Hover to read latest comment, click to view historical comments. |
|
|
|
| Demand |
Effort, in days per month, required by the project. NOTE: Please see Resource Demand Investment Settings for Historical Lock setting which may cause some fields to be locked. |
| Approved | Days allocated and approved by the resource owner. |
| Variance | Calculated days (Approved minus Demand). |
| Actual (Days) | Actual days to be filled in once work has been done. |
| TS Actual (Days) | Actual days derived directly from Approved Timesheet entries. |
| Day Rate | Day rate as defined for the Team Member and month. |
| Forecast | Calculated (Demand x Day Rate). |
| Actual (Cost) | Calculated (Actual x Day Rate). |
Resource Requests
A newly created Resource Demand row will show a status of ‘Planning’. If your organisation operates an approval process, then you should submit this Resource Demand as a request for approval.
Submitting the Resource Request
|
|
Click this button to submit the resource demand. The row status will change to ‘Requested’. Click ‘Save’ at the top, and this row will be visible on the Resource Approval board for consideration by the Resource Manager (see Resource Approval). |
Recalling the Resource Request
|
|
On a ‘Requested’ row, this button is available to recall the request. Click it to change the status back to ‘Planning’, you are now able to make changes and then submit the request again (again, click Save at the top to complete the transaction). |
Reviewing the Approved Request
Once the request is approved (using the Resource Approval function described in section Resource Approval), its status will change to ‘Approved’ (click Refresh if you haven’t navigated away from the Project).
Click to sort rows showing the latest changes at the top. This makes it easy to identify the most recent approvals.
Use the column selector on the right to show Approved or Variance columns in the grid. With these columns, you can identify any differences between your request and what has been granted.
The Approved days value will override the Demand days in terms of Forecast cost calculation – in other words, the Project Forecast cost will have changed if the Approved value is different to the original Demand.
Note that you cannot change any values on a row with status ‘Approved’. However, you can delete the row or revise it.
Revising the Approved Request
|
|
On an ‘Approved’ row, this button is available to revise the request. Click it to change the status to ‘Revision’, which will make Demand days available for changes. |
Re-Submitting the Resource Request
|
|
A row of status ‘Revision’ can be re-submitted by clicking this button. Click ‘Save’ at the top, and again this row will be visible on the Resource Approval board for consideration by the resource manager (see Resource Approval). |
Deleting Rows
| Click a field within an existing row to select the row, then click this button to delete it. |
Adding Skills to the Resource Demand
In addition to the Role, you may choose to use the Skills feature of the system whereby Team Members can be defined with a list of their skills, picked from the Skills master table.
In the Resource Demand grid the Skills column can be revealed, allowing you to pick one or multiple skills that you need for your project or programme. This will be visible by the Resource Approver when considering which Team Member to assign to your project.
Skills Mismatch
If the Resource Demand row has a named (i.e. not generic) Team Member who does not have the skills selected on this row, then a warning icon will appear. Hover to see the skills showing in red and crossed out that are not matched by the Team Member.
Move Demand
Multiple Demand values within the project's Resource Demand grid can be moved in bulk if required, rather than having to delete and re-enter when timescales are amended. Demand values can be selected across both multiple columns and multiple rows before right clicking and selecting Move Demand.
You will then be prompted for a Move To Date, as follows:
Click move to complete the amendment. All values that were highlighted will be shifted accordingly. Only valid dates (within the Project Time Window) will be available.
NOTE: If Demand is moved to a cell that already contains a value, the values will be combined, rather than overwritten.
Time Window/Move Project
It is also possible to move the entire project.
The time window shown in the Resource Demand grid is determined by the Start and End Date of the project as entered in the project’s Summary tab. If this project is still in its early stages, these dates may just be provisional and may be subject to change later.
Power Framework has the “Move Project” function which allows you to move the project to a new Start date. All Resource Demand figures will be moved accordingly (as explained in section The Project 'Time Window').