Hi Christine, I would start by revoking their PM cards �� . Has anyone been able to limit resourcing to budgeted hours w/out a detailed task-based timeline and have it be successful? I'm sure it's been done, but as a PMP I can't recommend it. There's a good reason project management is a full blown profession and has a certification process etc. The potential success rate of a project significantly drops without a task-based plan. The less detail the less chance of success (depending on the nature of the project). Everyone's definition of detail will vary. But I would say you should at least have high level tasks. Otherwise how would one know the true forecast (compared to your budget) or track how you did? In fact, I would say your budget should be based on what your task-based timeline says. We create a high level plan to start and use that to inform us what the budget should be. If it's higher than we wish we look to remediate (i.e. cut scope, etc. even maybe kill the project). But at least we know right from the start we're in trouble and by how much. Is there a way for the PM to budget hours for each project and have the resource manager 'approve' these requested hours? There's probably a few ways to do this, but you would need to start with a plan to give you figures as stated in my answer to the first question. If you construct a plan with tasks and assignments (and roles/rates etc.) WF will tell you the estimated cost of your project. You could use the Business Case in WF, or create a Form in the Project or an Issue and then attach an Approval process to that. Let me know if you want more detail on that. Or perhaps someone has an easier way. Is there a way to set up notifications so that the Resource Manager gets notified once a PM has submitted their budgeted hours? The only way I can think of is to send the Resource Manager (by name) a directed comment with the information (or make them part of the above Approval process). Hope that helps a little.
