If you have the required privilege, you can use Activity Resource Details to
- assign resources or roles
Click the appropriate link. In the selection window, you can search or organize the list to easily find resources or roles. For resources, to view allocation data before assigning, click Show Detail.
- submit resource requests to a resource manager
Click Request Resources, then specify the requirements. At the least, you must specify a primary role.
After you save the request, the Search Criteria column indicates that requirements are available for staffing the request. Through the Resource Staffing feature, resource managers and project managers can then retrieve and use this criteria to assign a resource.
- revise an assignment or specify details such as units, costs, and rate
Click the resource or role name. Then, edit and save your changes.
- remove an assigned resource or role
Click the resource or role name. Then, click Delete Assignment.
- e-mail all assigned resources and roles
For more details about the preceding tasks, see Assign resources to activities.
Customize Resources Details
To choose the detail columns that appear, click Customize. For example, if you want to view the rate for the assignment or user-defined fields associated with the assignment, you need to add the corresponding columns.
Tip: If no user-defined fields are listed in the Customize Columns window, none have been created.
Field Definitions
Note: All fields described here are available when you click a resource or role name to edit assignment details. However, unless you customize Resource Details to include them, some of these fields do not appear when in Resource Details viewing mode.
- Resource
- The name of the resource assigned to the activity. A red
icon
indicates an overallocated resource.
- Role
- The role assigned to resource for the selected activity.
- Search Criteria
- Indicates if specific criteria have been saved to use in searching for a resource to staff the assignment.
- Budgeted or Planned Units
- The resource's budgeted or planned number of work units for the selected activity.
- Actual Units
- The number of work units the resource has spent working on the selected activity.
- Remaining Units
- The number of work units the resource needs to complete the selected activity. (Remaining Units = Budgeted or Planned Units Actual Units).
- Budgeted or Planned Units/Time
- The budgeted or planned units per time at which the resource is expected to work on this activity. For example, a person assigned full time would work for 8 hours per day (8h/d).
- Primary Resource
- Indicates whether the corresponding resource is the activity's primary resource. Typically, the primary resource is the person responsible for the overall work on the activity and for updating activity status.
- Proficiency
- Specifies the skill level of the resource: Master, Expert, Skilled, Proficient, or Inexperienced.
- Remaining Units/Time
- The units/time at which the resource is expected to perform the remaining work on the activity.
- Price/Unit
- The non-overtime price per unit of time for the resource
or role. When the option to calculate costs from units is selected, this price
is used to compute cost for the activity assignment, using the formula:
Cost = Units * Price/Unit.
For resources and roles that have specified rates, Price/Unit corresponds to the Rate Source and Rate Type applied to the activity and is not editable. If an assigned resource or role does not have specified rates, the project default price/unit is used and cannot be edited on this tab. To manually enter a Price/Unit for the activity assignment, you must select Override as the Rate Source.
Note: If the project default price/unit is applied to the activity, a caret symbol (^) appears beside the value. You can modify the project default price/unit on the Settings tab of the Projects > Details page or in the Project Management module.
An asterisk symbol (*) beside the value indicates that multiple, time-varying, resource rates or shift calendars will be applied during the duration of the activity. An asterisk and caret symbol (*^) beside the price/unit value indicate that the project default price/unit is in effect at the start of the activity and a time-varying rate is also in effect within the activity assignment duration.
-
- Budgeted or Planned Costs
- The corresponding resource's budgeted or planned cost for the activity. Computed as Budgeted or Planned Cost = Budgeted or Planned Units * Price per Time.
- Actual Costs
- The corresponding resource's actual non-overtime plus overtime cost for the selected activity. Computed as Actual Cost = Actual Regular Cost + Actual Overtime Cost.
- Remaining Costs
- The corresponding resource's remaining cost for the selected activity. Computed as Remaining Cost = Remaining Units * Cost per Time.
- Curve
- Specifies how this resource's units and costs are distributed
over the duration of an activity. Click
to associate a curve with the assignment.
-
Notes:
-
You can assign a curve only to activities that
have a duration type of Fixed Duration and Units or Fixed Duration and Units/Time.
A Manual curve type indicates that the assignment's future period resource distribution was manually entered in the Resource Usage Spreadsheet of the Project Management module. If you select a different Curve type, the manually-entered distribution is deleted, and the units and costs for the assignment are redistributed according to the curve you select. Be sure this is the appropriate course of action before replacing a Manual curve with another curve. For more information on manually defining resource distribution, refer to the Project Management Help.
- Rate Source
- Rate Source, in conjunction with Rate Type, determines the price/unit used to calculate costs for the activity assignment. If a single activity assignment includes both a resource and a role, you can choose to use the rates, or price/unit values, defined for the resource or use the rates defined for the role. You can also choose Override as the Rate Source, which allows you to manually enter a price/unit for the assignment.
- Rate Type
- Rate type, in conjunction with Rate Source, determines
the price/unit used to calculate costs for the resource or role assignment.
Resources and Roles can have up to five rate types, with each rate type
reflecting a different price/unit. Rate types are defined in the Project
Management module.
When you add a new assignment, the rate type defaults to the setting specified for the project. When you edit a rate type and click Save, the Price/Unit is updated to reflect your change, and if the Calc Cost from Units option is selected, costs are recalculated.
Tip: The default rate type for a project is specified on the Projects > Details > Settings page.
-
- Calc Cost from Units
- Use this field to override the cost calculation setting that is specified for the assigned resource or role. To have cost for this assignment calculated
(Cost = Units * Price/Unit), mark this checkbox. To manually record
resource or role costs for this activity, clear this checkbox.
If you elect not to calculate costs from units, the resource or role costs for the assignment will not be updated when units or rates change.
If you change this setting from No (unchecked) to Yes (checked), the costs for the assignment will be recalculated based on current units and rates.
- Drive Activity Dates
- Use this field to override a resource's default setting
for the selected activity.
Note: The resource's default setting for this option is specified in the Project Management module and is set at the project level for all project resources.
Mark this checkbox to allow the resource dates to determine the activity’s start and finish dates. Clear this checkbox to allow the activity dates to be independent of the resources dates.
- Cost Account
- The cost account associated with the resource assignment. Click
to associate a cost with the resource assignment.
- User Defined Fields
- If you have customized the Resources tab to display columns of user-defined fields, those user-defined fields are listed in this section.