Assigning Resource Curves to Resource or Role Assignments

For information on creating custom resource curves, refer to “Defining Custom Resource Curves” on

page 129.

You can assign a resource distribution curve to any resource or role assignment on activities with a duration type of Fixed Duration and Units/ Time or Fixed Duration & Units. Resource usage and costs are distributed evenly during an activity unless you specify nonlinear distribution using custom curves (or manually enter future period values as described in the next section).

You can also assign a resource curve in the Resources tab in Activity Details.

To learn how to manually plan future period resource/ role distribution, refer to the next section, ““Manually Planning Future Period Assignments” on page 224.”

Choose Project, Resource Assignments. Select the resource/role assignment to which you want to assign a resource curve. To display the Curve column, click the Display Options bar, then choose Columns, Customize. Select Curve from the General group and add it to the Selected Options list.

After planning future period resource allocation, you can create a baseline from the project plan. As the current project schedule progresses and you apply actuals, you can track how the project is performing against plan by comparing the current project’s budgeted future periods to the current project’s actuals.

Assigning a pre-defined or custom resource curve to the resource/role assignment may not reflect the actual work being performed on the activity at any given time. To achieve the most precise resource/role distribution plan, you can manually enter the budgeted resource/role allocation per assignment in the timescale unit you choose (days, weeks, months, quarters, years, or financial periods).

As the project progresses, if work on an assignment is not proceeding according to plan, you can manually update the remaining units for an assignment's future periods, enabling you to measure the remaining work for an assignment without changing the original plan. You can manually modify an assignment’s budgeted past and future periods at any time, even if the activity associated with the assignment is in progress.

When you manually enter future period bucket values for an assignment, the module automatically identifies the future period values as a MANUAL resource curve.

There are many factors to consider when manually planning future period resource distribution. For a more detailed list of guidelines and considerations, refer to the “Future Period Bucket Planning FAQ” topic in the Project Management module Help.

When choosing the spreadsheet fields to display, you can also display Actual Units to compare the completed work against the budgeted and remaining work.

Guidelines When manually planning future period assignment buckets, adhere to the following guidelines:

Additionally, if the project-level setting 'Link Budget and At Completion for not started activities' is marked (Project Details, Calculations tab), the total planned values of the Budgeted Units and Remaining (Early) Units for the assignment will always be equal for not started activities. For example, when you enter a value for a future period in the Budgeted Units field, the Remaining (Early) Units field is automatically populated with the same value; the reverse is also true. If this setting is not marked, you can enter different values for the same future period in the Budgeted Units and Remaining (Early) Units fields; in this case, the total values for each field are calculated independently for the assignment.

Once an activity is in progress, the Budgeted Units and Remaining (Early) Units fields are automatically unlinked.

Display spreadsheet fields for future period bucket planning in the Resource Usage Spreadsheet Display the Resource Usage Spreadsheet in either the Activities window or the Resource Assignments window. To display the Budgeted Units and Remaining (Early) Units fields in the Resource Usage Spreadsheet, click the Display Options bar and choose Spreadsheet Fields, Customize. Move the Budgeted Units and Remaining (Early) Units fields to the Selected Options list and, if desired, remove all other fields from the Selected Options list. Click Apply, OK.

To sort the display in an alphabetical list, click the Available Options bar and choose Group and Sort By, List.

For detailed information on creating layouts, modifying columns, and adjusting the timescale, refer to “Customizing Layouts” on page 427.

Create a future period bucket planning layout You can budget future period resource/role assignments in any type of layout in the Resource Assignments and Activities windows. Here are some helpful hints to consider before you begin:

■Create or open a layout that enables you to easily identify resources, the activities to which they are assigned, and the activities’ associated projects (because the same activity name may appear in different projects). Refer to the following image for sample layouts.

■Click the Layout Options bar and choose Columns, Customize. Move the Curve, Budgeted Units, and Remaining (Early) Units columns to the Selected Options list, then modify the remaining columns as desired. Click Apply, OK. By displaying the Curve column, you can determine which assignments already have an assigned pre-defined or custom curve, or a defined manual curve. When you manually enter or edit a value in a future period bucket for an assignment, the module automatically enters a value of Manual in the assignment’s associated Curve column.

For assignments that do not have a defined total Budgeted Units or Remaining (Early) Units value, it is useful to display the Budgeted Units and Remaining (Early) Units columns. When you display these columns, you can enter or edit an assignment's total budgeted or remaining units to spread the units evenly over the duration of the assignment, then manually modify the future period distribution as necessary.

For detailed information on displaying the desired data, refer to “Grouping, Sorting, and Filtering Data” on page 417.

■Adjust the timescale in the Resource Usage Spreadsheet to reflect the planning periods in which you typically plan future resource distribution. For example, if you plan your work in daily buckets, adjust the timescale to Week/Day and enter hourly planning unit values.

If you track past period actuals per financial period and plan to report performance against manual future period values, you should enter future period planning values in financial period timescale units. You can adjust the timescale to reflect your predefined financial periods. For example, if your organization has defined weekly financial periods, set the timescale to Week/Financial Period.

■If you are planning future period resource distribution for a project that has already started, you may want to apply a filter to display only the activities you want to plan, such as activities that don’t have an actual duration or that have a planned start after the current date or data date. Alternatively, if a project has already started and you want to update the remaining units for activities that are in progress, you could apply a filter to display only activities that have an Actual Start date and do not have an Actual Finish date.

If you use the Resource Usage Spreadsheet in the Activities window to plan future period resource distribution, you can only enter values for open projects.

Layout grouped and sorted by project and by resource.

List layout displaying columns for Project, Resource Name, Curve, Planned Start, and Planned Finish. Use a list layout to sort the list in ascending or descending order for a specific column by clicking on a column heading.

Spreadsheet fields displayed for

Budgeted Units and Remaining Early

Units.

Change the timescale intervals to reflect your planning, updating, and reporting periods.

When you edit a future period value for an assignment, the Curve column automatically

displays a value of Manual, even if a pre-defined or custom curve was previously assigned.

Editable future period assignment values are displayed in white cells; non-editable values are displayed in gray cells.

For samples of manuallyplanned future period assignments using different planning periods, timescales, and user preference settings, refer to the Project Management module Help.

Manually enter future period values You can manually enter future period assignment values per bucket for labor, non-labor, and material resource assignments, as well as for role assignments. After you display the Resource Usage Spreadsheet, create a suitable future period bucket planning layout, and display editable spreadsheet fields, enter or edit the Budgeted Units and/or the Remaining (Early) Units for each assignment bucket for the original or remaining duration of the activity.

If desired, you can apply a resource curve to an assignment before you manually enter future period values for the assignment. For example, if the assignment you want to manually plan has a planned resource distribution that is similar to a defined resource curve's distribution, you can apply the resource curve to the assignment. When you apply the resource curve, future period values are spread across the duration of the activity according to the resource curve distribution; you can then manually modify the future period values as necessary. Once you manually modify future period values, the resource curve you assigned is automatically removed from the assignment.

Once an activity is in progress and changes occur to the project plan, you can manually edit the activity assignment’s past and future period Budgeted Units and future period Remaining (Early) Units to reflect changes to the original plan.

Before entering values in future periods, consider the following:

■The values you should enter in future period buckets are dependent on the duration of your planning periods (buckets), the timescale you choose, and user preference settings.

■The values you enter in the Budgeted Units and Remaining Units fields are converted to the Unit/Time specified in the User Preferences, Time Units tab. For example, if the Unit/Time user preference is set to Hour and you enter 1d, the value is converted to 8h. To avoid planning mistakes, you should set the Unit/Time user preference to the same time unit you use to plan your work. For example, if you plan your work in hours, set the Unit/Time to Hours.

■You must have the 'Edit Future Periods' project privilege to manually enter future period data.