PPM Express provides an overview of Resource utilization that shows whether your whole team or specific employees are fully booked. It makes Project planning easier and helps get the most of the available Resources.
Resource utilization is available on the Resource dashboard, where you can review the utilization of a specific Resource per Project. Also, you can review the Resource utilization from the Resources page for all Resources in the company or only for the selected ones.
This page is used not only for viewing the information but as a team planner as well. You can allocate the selected Resources to the required Projects at one go and quickly plan your team. Also, it is possible to set actual hours for Resources.
In this article, we describe the Resource dashboard sections for Project-level Resource Planning. If a Program or Portfolio level is selected on your tenant instead of Projects, all the settings and Resource Planning logic will be the same.
To get to the Resource utilization from the Resources page, perform the following:
1. Open the Resources page.
2. Select all Resources or only the ones you would like to review right now and click the Planning and Utilization button.
3. Resource Planning and Utilization page will be opened at once, displaying the information for the selected Resources.
Resource utilization will be displayed for all Projects (Program or Portfolio depending on the Resource Planning level selected for the tenant), displaying the total hours, starting from the current month plus 6 months.
The Project filter is available on the Resource Utilization page (as well as on the Utilization Resource dashboard section). It allows filtering Projects to review the information for active Projects only and hide the inactive ones, etc. Custom filters can also be created for your convenience.
You can review the Resource utilization by day, week, month, quarter, or year.
The Configure Columns button is used to show or hide specific columns from the list or rearrange their order (by clicking and dragging). If you need to add a custom field, this can be done from the Resource Dashboard, Details section (the custom fields are shared between PPM Express entities).
Using the 'Add Resource', 'Remove from Project', 'Allocate', and 'Set Actual' buttons on top, you can take the corresponding actions: add more Resources to the list on the page, remove the selected Resources from the selected Projects, allocate the Resources in bulk (set planned hours, set actual hours).
It is possible to add a Project to the selected Resource on this page and allocate it at once on this page. For this purpose, click on the ellipsis button and click the 'Add Project' button.
If the 'Add Project' button is disabled for the Resource, then this Resource is inactive. Only active Resources can be assigned for tasks, key dates, risks, issues, etc. Inactive Resources do not appear in the list of available Resources when assigning them, so they cannot be added to Projects from the Utilization page. However, suppose an active Resource is assigned for tasks, as an example. In that case, all assignments will be preserved for this Resource if it becomes inactive (the time allocated for this Resource in the Project Plan section will also be preserved).
The 'Shift Allocation' option allows moving the hours planned for a Resource(s) if the Resource starts working on the Project earlier or later than planned initially.
Select the Project that you need to shift the allocation for, and select the days and the shift date when the allocation should start. The 'Use Calendar' option allows taking into account the calendar settings (weekends, exceptions, etc). If this option is disabled, the weekends will not be taken into account and the Resource may be allocated for the weekends when the dates are shifted.
If the Resource is planned for 4 hours per day instead of 8 hours (according to the calendar exception for example), when shifting the allocation for the new days, the Resource will be planned for 4 hours accordingly.
The allocation can be shifted for a number of Projects and/or Resources at once.
It is also possible to expand each Resource and review the information for the Resource per Project.
The Project filter is available on the Resource Utilization page (as well as on the Utilization Resource dashboard section). It allows filtering Projects to review the information for active Projects only and hide the inactive ones, etc. Custom filters can also be created for your convenience.
In this case, you can review the total hours for all Projects, starting from the current month plus 6 months, and utilization hours for each period in the Projects separately.
Resource utilization can be viewed in Hours, Percent, FTE, or Chart Views
You can review the Resource utilization by day, week, month, quarter, or year.
Resources can be Committed and Proposed. When you allocate the Resource to the Project it is in the Proposed state. When you are ready you can commit the Resource. For this purpose, select the required Project click on the ellipsis button next to the Resource, and select the Commit option. The Uncommit option allows setting the state back to Proposed.
You can also allocate the Resource (set planned hours) and set actual hours, set the charge rate from this menu, and remove the Resource from the Project.
The time periods can be displayed in three colors depending on the Resource allocation hours:
- green/grey - allocation hours are within the Resource capacity;
- yellow - total allocation hours per month are within the Resource capacity, but the Resource is overallocated for one day;
- red - Resource allocation is higher than Resource capacity (Resource is overallocated for the period displayed in red).
If you have the required permissions, you can edit Resource allocation per Project. Double-click on the required period to edit it or select several periods using the Shift button. It is also possible to hold and drag the mouse to select several time periods at once.
When you are ready with the selection click the Allocate button from the pop-up window and select or type in the required number of hours. You can also use percent, FTE, or auto allocation.
You can also select several Resources and Projects at once to plan the teams on your Projects quickly.
Project names are clickable and allow you to jump to the required Project at once and start editing the information there.
If you need to allocate Resource(s) for the Project dates or custom period, select the required Projects and click the Allocate button.
On the ‘Allocate Resource’ panel, you can see the Project dates, current allocation period of the selected Resource(s), and type of allocation.
The Project dates will be set per default, but you can also set a custom period instead.
The Current Allocation Range shows if the Resource(s) is allocated for this Project already and if yes, the allocation time frame will be displayed.
From the Allocate Resource panel the Total hours for period allocation type is available. If you provide the value in this field, hours will be distributed evenly between working days for the selected period. If several Resources are selected, hours will be split between these Resources.
Resource utilization is also available on the Resource dashboard page. Here, you can review the information for the specific Resource.
The same set of actions and settings as on the Resource Utilization page is available here.
If you have the required set of permissions, you can edit the information in the Utilization section.
When you allocate the Resource calendar exceptions are taken into account. Also, you can set the work week or calendar exceptions on the Resource dashboard for the specific Resource. If a Resource has calendar exceptions, this information will be taken into account and the Resource availability and capacity will be displayed according to these settings in the Resource utilization section. If you navigate to the selected period, a notification will be displayed where you can review the calendar exception applied and why the capacity is 0 for this period, for example.
If you select to auto allocate (allocate => auto or manually allocate) the Resource on the Project, the Resource will be allocated taking into account the Calendar Exceptions setting, if any.
If the Standard Cost is changed on the Resource dashboard for the Resource, the Estimated Cost will be recalculated.
Also, it is possible to set a Charge rate value for a specific Resource on a specific Project. For more information please refer to this article.