Assign role allocations to resources and teams with the Staff Role function. This is helpful, for example, when you have planned based on roles and are now ready to implement your plans.

• General
  • Required User Rights
  • Where to Find
  • Overview of the Staff Role mode
• Filter for Relevant Resources
• Selecting Resources and Timing
  • Assign a Resource to an Entire Project
  • Assign a Resource to a Part of a Project
• Editing Singular Allocation Values

General

Required User Rights

To use the Staff Role mode, you need to be in a user group with the following rights:

• You need to have edit rights for the currently selected scenario or the Edit Plan of Record right.
• Either the right Resource Managers Can Always Edit Allocations of Their Own Roles and Resources, or under Edit Allocations, the option Resources, Teams, and Role Allocations.

Where to Find

You can open the Staff Role mode from both the Portfolio Designer as well as the Team Planner.

Portfolio Designer

Choose the project you want to edit and select the role that you would like to staff. Click the three dots after the role's name and select Staff Role:

Team Planner

For each role, choose the project which you would like to staff. Click the three dots to the right of the project name or allocation segment and select Staff Role:

Overview of the Staff Role Mode

On the top of the left side, you will find the name of the project and the role with the allocation to be staffed. Underneath, you can see the relevant resources and teams sorted according to their available capacity:

In the timeline to the right, you can see the open role allocations per time period (depending on the zoom-level). Underneath is the available capacity for each resource and team per time period. Only the relevant maximum capacity of a resource or a team will be displayed. If a resource or teams has more capacity than the project needs, the excess capacity will not appear.

Filter for Relevant Resources and Teams

In the Staff Role mode, you will find Ad-Hoc Filters which you can use to refine your displayed resources and teams. These filters can be used, for example, to filter for resources and teams with specific skills.

When you open the Staff Role mode, you automatically filter for the primary role that you want to staff. You can always change or delete this filter, or add more filters, for example, to get more results with resources and teams with different primary roles. Again, only resources and teams that meet your desired criteria filters will be displayed. Only the first 100 available resources and teams will be displayed.

Selecting Resources or Teams and Timing 

You can allocate either a single or multiple resources and/or teams to a project. You can allocate each resource or team for the entire project, or only a specific time frame.

Available capacity for a resource or team can be assigned either in full or partially by selecting a resource or team. At the top of the Staff Role mode, the open capacity to be staffed will be accordingly reduced. When the role’s capacity is completely allocated, it will be shown with a green check mark:

Assign a Resource or Team to an Entire Project

To staff a resource or a team to an entire project, check the box next to their capacity:

All of the resource's or team's cells will be displayed in blue. All of the available capacity will be assigned to this project, which can be adjusted as needed. To confirm the allocation of all of the capacity to this project, click Staff Role. The role’s allocation will be appropriately reduced or removed from the project.

When, like in the above screenshot, the entire capacity of a resource or team has been assigned, but the entire role allocation has not been assigned, the option Add Remainder will appear. Clicking this will transfer the entire role allocation to this resource or team; this will result in an overallocation. 

You can edit a cell to reduce the amount of capacity allocated to this project by clicking it, and then manually entering your new desired value.

Assign a Resource or Team to a Part of a Project

When you would like to assign a resource or team to a range of dates in a project, select the cells for the specific time period:

The selected cells will be displayed in blue, and the capacity will be assigned to the project. To confirm this allocation, click Staff Role. The role’s allocation will be reduced or removed from the project.

Editing Singular Allocation Values

You can edit the allocation values in these assigned cells. This is especially helpful, for example, when a project takes priority. Click the cells displayed in blue and type in the desired allocation value:

The capacity will be assigned to the project, and the top cell with the open allocation will be updated. To save these changes, click Staff Role. The role’s allocation will be reduced or removed from the project.

You can also unstaff an allocation back to a role, or reassign it to a different resource or team. Learn more about this in our article on Reassigning Resource Allocations.