All about resourcing

Resourcing is the allocation of resources to projects, with consideration to their availability, percentage allotment, role, skillset, and groups required. The goal of resourcing is to meet all project requirements, while keeping all resources as utilized as possible.

Project managers can use Replicon Mobile to submit resource requests, However, resource managers can’t fulfill resource requests using the mobile app; they need to use the web app to do that.

Typical resourcing workflow

Project manager requests one or more resources for their project, specifying the role, duration, and other requirements that need to be filled. Request is labeled Submitted.
The resource request displays on the Project Resourcing > Pending tab.
Resource manager selects and proposes a suitable resource to fill the request. Once a proposal is made, the request is labeled Tentative.
Project manager either accepts or rejects the proposed resource.

- If they accept, the request is marked as Complete.
- If they reject, the request is marked as Res Rejected, and is sent back to the resource manager, where they can update the request and propose new resources.

Quick Allocation workflow

Sometimes, small- to medium-sized organizations don’t want to follow the formal back and forth request process when allocating resources, due to its high overhead.

These managers can use Polaris’ Quick Allocation feature to make and edit allocations directly.

Refer to Using Quick Allocation to add, edit, and view resource allocations for more information.

Workflow for project managers with resource manager permissions

Some smaller organizations don’t have a dedicated resource manager. In these companies, project managers may be allowed to pick their own resources for projects directly.

If you assign these managers resource manager permissions, they can:

Add, edit, or delete resource plans
Allocate resources from the Resource Plan tab

Refer to Can project managers allocate resources to projects directly? for more details.

Setting up resourcing

Before resource managers can start allocating resources to projects, administrators may need to:

Assign permissions to resource managers, project managers, and resources
Create skills
Create roles and associated rates
Set up notifications
Create and assign schedules
Set resource profile settings, including roles, skills, user custom field settings, group assignments (e.g. location), certifications and any other documents (e.g. licenses, recommendation letters, resumes, etc)

If you want a user to record time against a project, but you don’t need to define the amount of time they spend working on it, you can allow them access without submitting a resource request and adding that user as a project resource. Users allowed access in this way cannot be assigned as task owners.

Refer to Allowing users to enter time against a project for more information.

FAQs

How far into the future can we allocate resources?

Administrators can define how many years into the future resources can be allocated using by updating the Planning Limit field located at Administration > Projects > Project Resource Planning. This field defaults to 2 years into the future.

Help Administrators