How resource management works

Administrators set up permission sets to:

• Allow resource and project managers to allocate resources to projects and tasks
• Signify which users are project resources

They may also set up:

• Skills to help resource managers find suitable resources
• Project roles for specifying the role a placeholder is intended to fill on a project and their hourly cost
• Timesheet templates to have a resource’s timesheet pre-filled with their allocations

Administrators create project resources as users. When setting up users they’ll need to:

• Set the user’s hourly cost, for use in project estimates
• Assign a project resource permission set
• Assign a timesheet template with allocation options, if desired

They also assign appropriate permission sets to project and resource managers.

Resource managers assign skills to resources. Then, when allocating, the manager can search for resources that meet the project’s skill requirements.

Project managers create projects for planning and tracking. They may choose to add resources to the project team, but may not specify their allocation at this point.

Resource and project managers search for available resources and allocate them to projects based on the estimated effort.

When allocating, the manager specifies which dates the resource will work on the project and how much of their time will be dedicated to the project during those dates.

If a suitable resource is not available, the resource manager may allocate a placeholder temporarily. Alternatively, project managers may allocate placeholders to indicate their resource requirements to the resource manager.

Project managers review cost estimates, which are automatically calculated based on each resource’s allocations and their hourly cost. Once resources begin entering time, the project manager tracks the estimates against actuals.

As projects change and resources become unavailable, the resource and project manager add, remove, and update allocations. Additionally, the managers replace placeholders with real resources as they become available.