I'm interested in following this discussion. We are not really using Planning or Scheduling right now because we are still trying to figure out how we fit and what is the best way to leverage this in our organization. We don't have any "Resource Managers" charged with staffing all of projects. Within our Group, we are setup by Functional Teams; resources within those teams have their own Functional Managers and in most cases, the Functional Managers are not Project Managers. Functional Managers try to schedule Service Request Work, based on each resource's available bandwidth; they have to take into consideration a resource's Project obligations and Support obligations. For the most part, our bigger / more critical projects are run by Project Managers that have no direct oversight of the resources or their work-load, outside of that PMs projects. When new projects are identified, discussions occur and resources from each functional area are identified based on the needs of that project. This includes having an "idea" of the % of time that a resource will be dedicated to that particular project (ex, 100%, 80%, 50%) in relation to their other work items (Service Request and Support Work) that are prioritized by their Functional Manager. There doesn't seem to be a good way to try to view/manage the Project commitments / allocations (from PMs) and commitments / allocations / availability for Service Request and Support Work (from Functional Managers) for each resource. As far as PMs go, I think it would be better, if possible, to let them have access to scheduling type features within the Task tab, versus going to the Scheduling tab. If they are already working on updating task information such as hours, dates, etc. it just seems more natural to have a one stop shop. Some Scheduling Tab suggestions:
It seems that it would make it easier to use the Scheduling tab if there was an option to toggle on/off whether or not you wanted to display the other resources assigned to a task when you want to edit the hours at the day level.
I could not find a way to adjust the planned hours here if I wanted or needed to. I had to go back to the task make a change on the task, then come back to scheduling and make the day changes here. I hope I'm missing something, but this just seemed like extra steps again.
I'd like to be able to adjust all of the Tasks for a Resource at one time instead of having to expand a task to see the allocations, update the allocations, save it, and then expand the next task. Just seems like it makes the maintenance take longer.
If I want to work on adjusting day by day scheduling on a task that spans beyond the max (6 weeks), I can't save my updates without ensuring that planned hours balance to the original planned hours before saving my change. So I have to enter hours to "pad" to my planned hours in order to save my changes. Then I have to change my time frame to look at the next 6 weeks, but I have to ensure that the first day I display is the last day I entered by "padded" hours. Maybe I'm not going about this the right way, but I'd sure like to get up to speed.
When displaying all resources for a task that is expanded, sort the resource that you are currently working in to the top of the list. In instances where there are multiple resources assigned, the resource you are looking out on the left can be anywhere in that list.
When displaying all resources for a task, provide an indicator to identify who the Default Assignee is.
(Sample for #1 and #3 above) (Sample for #5 above) Planning Tab suggestions on Business Case: 1. If I attach a resource pool to that has more roles available then I plan on budgeting for this particular project, let me have the option to only display the ones that that I have budgeted hours for, instead of all of them. I'm interested in hearing if any way else has an organization setup similar to ours with Functional Managers and Project Managers and how they handle Projects, Requests, etc. Thanks! Admin Kelly-Wehrmann SSFCU