Your “On-Demand Workfront CSM” is back with a new Top 3 video! This time we’re talking about Resource Pools, and some creative ways to use them. This topic always inspires discussion, so check out the video below.
Just getting started with Resource Pools? First things first, what are they?
There are several genius-level examples of why the Experience League Workfront Community is so amazing and this topic is no exception. Just another plug to post your questions or start a discussion when something doesn’t seem right, and help will be on the way.
As I mentioned in the video, Resource Management tools can take a village, so here’s my Oscar speech thanking all the folks that inspired this video. Special thanks to @MelanieM1, @Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore, @skyehansen, @Madalyn_Destafney, @Lyndsy-Denk, and @KellieGardner for the discussions and @RandyRoberts for tagging me. Also, thanks to @Ross_Barton for bringing the topic back on the radar, and @CorinnaJ for being the coolest person (in general) and, of course sharing her Resource Management brain with me!
Mmmmm...resourcing. Delicious! Thanks @CynthiaBoon!
Ever the contrarian, I'll kick things off. In contrast to my Right Answer on the related thread above (assuming that isn't overturned upon appeal, citing this post), I do not use Resource Pools personally, for several reasons:
I look forward to additional conversation here as it unfolds.
Regards,
Doug
Thank you, @CynthiaBoon, for trying to address this.
Two things:
Maybe that's where @Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore comes in?
Hi @Lyndsy-Denk - let me see if I can answer your questions.
Hi @Lyndsy-Denk,
Yes, exactly: although in the long run some overlap does tend to occur, we design our solutions to compliment Workfront's built in As Designed features. In the case of our Capacity Charts solution, all you need in order to get going is a minimal set of Workfront information:
With those in place, our Capacity Charts can help you visualize your mid and long term staffing needs against real projects and make decisions such as (e.g. for crunch times) whether to hire extra skills or defer projects to allow some breathing room. As you get control of your data and plans, you can also introduce Workload Balancer and/or the Resource Planner in parallel, using those features where they fit best with your processes. Happy to chat further at doug.denhoed@atappstore.com
Regards,
Doug
I'm still trying to see the light with resource pools as opposed to just using Teams or Groups. I get now that you need them to utilize the Planner. When you associate a project with pool(s), how does that show what % of the project they are involved in? If you have a project with 10 tasks for example, and only 1 task touches a certain pool, how does WF see this? I guess confused about attaching pools to a project instead of only the tasks within it that need resources from the pool, ya know?
So, I will always have to defer to Corinna on anything Resource Management, so feel free to take anything that I add with a grain of salt. In terms of the Planner, my understanding is that in order to budget any of the Planned Hours or assignments, the Resource Pool has to be assigned at the Project level. Meaning that without this, those Projects (and ultimately those hours/assignments), just "don't exist" as far as the Planner is concerned. And to muddy the waters a bit more, from what I understand, if you're trying to budget for specific users, that user must be associated to a Job Role that is also included in the Resource Pool that is associated with the applicable project.
So the closest answer I could ever give for why Resource Pools, is mainly so that the Projects (along with any hours associated with those users and job roles) display in the Planner and can be budgeted. I found this list of prerequisites that shows what won't happen if they aren't assigned. Posting it, just in case it could be helpful to anyone. (It was news to me!)
Resource Planner - User Prerequisites
But here's the thing - I totally get what you're saying. It makes more sense to me to assign the Resource Pools to the specific Tasks that are critical to completing the project. (And maybe that was what Scenario Planner was supposed to solve towards back in the day?) The challenge for me was that the key factor for implementing Resource Management (being able to decline/"prioritize" work) wasn't ever really possible. I did try to anticipate resource needs a quarter or two ahead of time, but mostly that was handled via our Governance process. We mainly lived in the day-to-day of swapping out or moving around work as the priorities changed each week. So a very light "Workload Balancing" was as close as I could get to RM. I have heard that there are enhancements in the wind for this feature Roadmap, so I'm hoping we hear something soon. (Keeping my fingers crossed for the Roadmap session on May 8th, but we'll see!)
Thanks for the link @CynthiaBoon,
I concur with your "specific Tasks" world view, which is one reason our solutions use Assignments (whether role, or user) rather than Resource Pools.
Regards,
Doug
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