Resource Planner

The Resource Planner takes the guesswork out of project planning and team assignments, thus instilling confidence that you always have the right team to complete the work. It brings predictability and accuracy to resource allocation, supports informed decision-making, and generally streamlines the project and resource management process from start to finish.

This article provides a general overview of the Resource Planner, including what it is used for, how to prepare TaskRay data to be used for capacity planning, and how utilization is calculated. For information on how to use the planner for allocating work, refer to the Capacity Planning article.

Additionally, the Resource Planner allows viewing and planning with forecast data (requires Forecasting to be configured). 

Overview of the Resource Planner

The Resource Planner visualizes TaskRay Resources and their utilization on a timeline. It allows managers to view team member capacity and effectively manage workload based on availability, job responsibilities, or skills. Using the planner, managers can review team capacity, easily distribute unassigned work, and make assignment modifications on in-flight projects when necessary. 

Resource Planner Permissions

One of the following additive permission sets is required to access and use the TaskRay Resource Planner:

• TaskRay - Admin Access
• TaskRay - Resource Manager Access

Resource Planner Details

To access the Resource Planner, navigate to TaskRay Resource Planner within the App Launcher.

Once within the Resource Planner, you will first need to set filter criteria and specify a date range to pull in Resource data. The filtering mechanism provides various options for refining the data within the planner, mainly focused on Resource criteria. Using these controls, you can tailor and focus the view in any way you need, such as to match up resources and relevant skills with the specific subsets of work that need to be allocated.

Once the filters are applied, the planner will pull in applicable data and display utilization information for Resources. Each Resource is displayed as a row, with individual cells that summarize utilization details for each day (or week/month, as set in the planner filter). Clicking on a Resource will expand a flyout with additional details about that Resource, including their utilization for the selected date range, their assigned Role and Attributes, time away information, and a breakdown of assigned work.

Resource Management Terminology

As we go over the Resource Planner functionality, we will reference various Resource Management terms.

Prepare TaskRay Data for Capacity Planning

The Resource Planner has requirements for pulling in and filtering out Resource and Project data from the board. This section outlines details for Resource and Project/Task data and how it should be set up to use the planner.

Set Up TaskRay Resource Management

First and foremost, you need to configure TaskRay Resource Management settings before you can start using the Resource Planner. Review the following article for instructions on how to set up TaskRay Resource Management.

Resources

After you complete the steps for configuring TaskRay Resource Management, your Resource data should be ready for the Resource Planner. For reference, here is a summary of all required elements to make Resource data visible in the planner:

• Resources must be fully configured and active.
• Resources must have Business Schedules and set Daily Hours: Schedules and Daily Hours are some of the main drivers within the Resource Planner as they provide insight into resource availability for allocating work. Therefore, it is important that every TaskRay Resource is linked to a Business Schedule and has Daily Hours defined.

TaskRay Projects and Tasks

This section summarizes key requirements for TaskRay Project and Task data to make it available in the Resource Planner.

• Tasks must have time estimates: When it comes to capacity planning, time estimates are used as a means of measuring work and determining Resource utilization. Therefore, time estimates on tasks are required for capacity planning in TaskRay.
  
  Tip: If you are using Templates for project creation, you can define time estimates on tasks in the template. As the template is used to create new projects, all the set estimates will be automatically carried over from the template onto the projects.
• Tasks must be open (incomplete): Tasks with open (incomplete) statuses will appear in the planner. Considering that capacity planning is used to proactively allocate incomplete work, the Resource Planner will filter out completed tasks. 
• Tasks must be scheduled: Tasks must be scheduled to appear in the Resource Planner. Additionally, only the tasks that have estimated end dates after the current day will be visible in the planner. The Resource Planner is used for proactive planning of upcoming work; therefore, tasks that are scheduled in the past or are unscheduled will not be available in the planner. 
• Archived Projects and Tasks: All archived projects and tasks are excluded from the Resource Planner.
• On-Hold Projects: All projects currently on hold are excluded from the Resource Planner.
• Template Projects: All template projects (including draft templates) are excluded from the Resource Planner.

Capacity Planning for Billable / Non-Billable Work

If you plan on doing billable/non-billable capacity planning, then you will need to consider the following:

• Default Time Type on tasks: To designate tasks as billable/non-billlable for capacity planning, it is necessary to set their default time type accordingly.
• Billable Daily Hours on Resources: To capacity plan based on billable targets, Resources must have Billable Daily Hours defined. 

Forecast Data

If you plan on viewing and planning using forecast data, then you will need to make sure that Forecasting is configured and enabled in your organization. 

How Utilization Is Calculated

Resource utilization is calculated as a percentage. These calculations incorporate several data points, including business duration and time estimates on Tasks, as well as daily hours and working days on Resources.

Overview of Data Points

Resource Working Days and Daily Hours

In simplest terms, working days are the days on which the work can be allocated to a Resource. Non-working days, on the other hand, are days on which the work cannot be allocated to a Resource. Non-working days could be any of the following: 

• • As defined in the Business Schedule linked to the Resource (e.g. weekends and holidays).
  • As defined in the Resource's Time Away. 

Daily Hours define how many hours per day each Resource is available for work. In use cases where capacity planning is done for billable work, Daily Billable Hours are used.

Task Time Estimates and Days

Estimated Time is a key measurement of work to be done on tasks. Time estimates are used for calculating utilization of Resources when tasks are assigned to them.

Additionally, task schedules are incorporated in utilization calculations. When allocating a task to a Resource, the planner will look at the task's start and end dates to determine the total date range over which utilization needs to be spread out. In addition to that, the Resource's availability is also applied to determine specific days on which the work can be allocated within the task's date range. 

Once the days for allocating work are identified, the planner will evenly spread out the task's estimated time over every available working day for the Resource to calculate utilization.

Utilization Calculation Examples

To expand on this further and illustrate how the calculation works, let's take a look at some examples.

Example #1

For the first example, we'll l use a very simple scenario for assigning a single task to a Resource. In this case, we'll assume that the Resource has no other assignments. Additional details:

• Task Date Range: 1 day
• Task Estimated Time: 6 hours
• Resource Daily Hours: 6 hours/day

Using this data, the Resource's utilization for the day will be at 100%. Since the new task is 1 day long, it is estimated that it will take 6 hours to complete the task, and the Resource's daily target is 6 hours - assigning the task to the Resource will use all of the Resource's capacity, making the utilization 100% for the day.

Example #2

For our second example, let's look at a slightly more complex scenario that incorporates multiple days and a larger time estimate. Similar to the previous scenario, we'll assume that the Resource currently has no other assignments. Here are the data points:

• Task Date Range: 4 days
  • All days within the task's date range are working days
• Task Estimated Time: 12 hours
• Resource Daily Hours: 6 hours/day

As the task is assigned to the Resource, its Estimated Time is spread evenly across 4 days. Since the total estimated time on the task is 12 hours, that gets evenly split across 4 days, thus allocating 3 hours for each day. Considering that the Resource's daily target is 6 hours, that will put the Resource's utilization for each day to 50%.

Example #3

Next, let's take a look at an example that incorporates Resource non-working days (e.g. Saturday and Sunday). Similar to the previous scenarios, the Resource currently has no other assignments. Here are the data points:

• Task is scheduled to start on Friday and end on Monday; Saturday and Sunday are non-working days for the Resource.
• Task Date Range: 4 days
  • 2 days within the task's date range are working days (Friday and Monday)
  • 2 days within the task's date range are non-working days (Saturday and Sunday)
• Task Estimated Time: 12 hours
• Resource Daily Hours: 6 hours/day

As the task is assigned to the Resource, its Estimated Time is spread evenly across 2 working days (Friday and Monday). Since the task spans over 2 non-working days (Saturday and Sunday), those are excluded from the calculation. Therefore, the task allocation is calculated to be 6 hours for each working day. Considering that the Resource's daily target is 6 hours, that will put the Resource's utilization for each working day to 100%.

Example #4

For our final example, we'll review a scenario where a Resource already has some work assigned within a given timeframe, putting the utilization above 0% for each day. As new tasks are assigned to the Resource, they will be incorporated in the existing utilization calculation using the same approach as described in the previous examples. In other words, any given day utilization for the Resource will be calculated using relative time estimates from all assigned tasks scheduled on that day.