A role is a project personnel job title or skill. Examples of roles are engineer, carpenter, or architect. You can assign one or more roles to individual resources. The set of roles you assign to a resource describes the resource's capabilities, while the proficiency you define for an assigned role describes the resource's skill level. For example, one person may fill a role of both software engineer and manager. When you assign roles to a resource, you can designate which role is the primary role.
Role assignments facilitate resource staffing for activities. You can use roles with specific skill sets as resource assignments until specific resources can be assigned. Assigning roles to activities, rather than resources, is very useful during the project planning stage.
When working with roles, you can:
- change a resource's role assignment information including assigned roles, proficiency level and primary role
- view role allocation in histogram or spreadsheet format
- add, modify, and delete role teams
Change a resource's role assignment information
You can add or remove a resource's role assignment, change a resource's role proficiency level, and change or remove a resource's primary role assignment on the Roles page of the Details tab.
To access the Roles page
- On the Resources Home page, click the name of the resource whose role assignment information you want to change.
- On the Details tab, click Roles.
- Continue with one of the following sections:
For detailed information on using the roles page, including field definitions, refer to Details tab - Roles page.
To add a role assignment to a resource
- Click Assign Roles.
- Select the role you want to assign, then click Assign.
You can continue assigning additional roles as needed.
- When finished assigning roles, click Close.
To change a resource's role proficiency level
- Click the role name for which you want to change the proficiency level.
- Click the arrow in the Proficiency field and select the resource's proficiency level.
- Click Save.
Note: To change the proficiency level, you must have the required security privilege.
To change a resource's primary role or remove a primary role designation
If a resource has a defined primary role, you can change or remove the designation at any time. A resource is not required to have a primary role designation; only one role can be defined as a resource's primary role.
- Click the role name that you want to designate or remove as the resource's primary role.
Tip: You do not have to remove an existing primary role designation before changing a resource's primary role; when you select a new primary role, the existing primary role designation is automatically removed.
- Mark the Primary Role checkbox to designate the role as the resource's primary role; clear the checkbox to remove the primary role designation.
- Click Save.
Tip: You can also select a resource's primary role when adding resources. See Adding resources for more information.
To remove a role assignment
- Click the role name whose assignment you want to remove from the resource.
- Click Remove Assignment.
- Click OK to confirm.
View role allocation in histogram or spreadsheet format
You can view role allocation information in histogram and spreadsheet format for a primary role and the primary role's associated resources, as well as for any role or role team.
- To view allocation for a primary role and its associated resources, click a Primary Role name on the Resources Home page to display the Usage tab. For information on working with the Usage tab, refer to Customizing the Usage tab.
- To view allocation for a role or role team, choose View Role Usage from the Resources action menu in the global navigation bar. For information on working with the View Role Usage page, refer to Customizing the View Role Usage page.
Add, modify, or delete role teams
You can add, modify, or delete role teams from the Manage Role Teams page, which displays a list of existing role teams. Role teams are useful when you want to categorize related roles and view allocation for those related roles. To access the page, choose Manage Role Teams from the Resources action menu in the global navigation bar.
To add a role team, click Create a Role Team underneath the list of role teams. To modify a role team, click a role team name and modify its details on the Role Team Details page. To delete a role team, click the role team name, then click Delete Role Team on the Role Team Details page.
For detailed information on adding, modifying, and deleting role teams, see Add, modify, or delete a role team. See the Manage Role Teams and Role Team Details pages help topics for more detailed information, including field definitions.