Viewing your Resources: View by Project. In this video, you’ll see the view by Project View and how resource information is displayed in this view. Your third option is to view resources by project and is almost identical to the previous views we’ve seen. When it comes to this view, there are a couple of things to think about: what work is important to get done now versus later. The first thing is what work is important to get done now versus later? Prioritizing your projects is key because as resources are allocated, your supply diminishes and if you’re not careful, your resources could go to less important projects. With the View by Project option, you can set your top priorities by changing the number to the left of each project or dragging and dropping each project into the desired spot. Changing that number is easy even though making the decision can be difficult. How those decisions are made depends on your organization’s objectives.
In this view, there is a column titled BDG or Budget. In this column, you enter the number of resource hours needed this month for projects, roles, and or users. This is an initial estimate and a guideline to measure against as resources are officially assigned to projects and those projects progress towards completion.
The next thing to think about is what is the work demand and do we have the resource to supply that demand? In the View by Project option, those questions can be answered in the PLN and AVL Columns. Whether those columns provide the answers depends on two things, project planned hours and resource pools.
The planned hours entered into a project supply, the PLN, planned hours column with the number of resource hours needed for the project. Those numbers are either filled in manually from the project landing page or through a project template. They provide the best estimates as to how many resources are typically needed for the types of projects being displayed.
A project’s resource pools fill in the AVL column with the number of resource hours available for the project. If no resource pools are associated with a project, the system doesn’t know what resources to look at and instead of seeing numbers like in the previous views, dashes will appear. So, it’s important to make sure that both planned hours and resource pools have been linked to your projects whether individually or as Workfront would recommend through a project template, depending on the resource pools associated with each project, the numbers in the AVL column may be different. Whatever your goal, the initial context and insight you need to formulate a successful plan comes from the resource planner within Workfront.
For the View by Project option, the default is to show the Budgeted column, which pulls in the estimated number of resources needed for a project from a business case, if it has been filled in. This also means the Net column is, by default, using the numbers from the Budgeted column to tell you how many resources are left.
However, your organization may not be using, or be ready to use, business cases to estimate those amounts. Instead, you use the planned hours already entered on a project. Through the Customize option, you can choose which columns appear in your chosen view and how you would like the Net column to be calculated.
To change the columns that appear and the Net column calculation so it’s based on planned hours:
Click the Hours drop-down menu and select Customize.
In the Customize displayed metrics box, determine what columns appear and check the box next to Use Planned (PLN) values in NET calculations.
Note: You can edit the columns and calculations for the different view types in the Resource Planner by selecting an option on the left side of the box.
Once you click Save, the box closes and the screen refreshes.
The Resource Planner shows what you need to know about your supply and demand without complex spreadsheets and round-robin communication.
With the information on hand and the tools at your command, you can fine-tune your team’s capacity to execute the work that’s important to you.
