Adjust daily allocations in the Workload Balancer

Transcript

The Workload Balancer shows when a user has been over allocated in the time frame shown. This can mean one of several things. The allocations are unbalanced and need to be redistributed across the work items duration. Or the work item needs to be split between or reassigned to another user. These two options can be done in the Workload Balancer to create better work balance, assist users in better time management, and ensure work is completed on time. If redistributing, splitting the assignment or reassigning the work item doesn’t resolve the issue, it’s time to go back to the project and adjust from there.

Let’s first try to keep the assignment intact by redistributing the hours, or percentages, in the Workload Balancer for the items assigned to users.

To view and edit or redistribute those allocations: Hover your mouse over the assignment name. Click the More Menu icon and click Edit Allocations. From here, you can redistribute the work by entering the number of hours ,or percentages, for each day of the work item’s duration. Just make sure the total equals the original amount assigned for the work item. Any adjustments made here will also update the project. When done, click the checkmark to save. An icon appears next to the work item name, allowing you to easily identify where adjustments have been made. These adjustments allow users to find a better balance in their work, and gives managers an improved picture of when users are available for work. Now, if redistributing hours or percentages does not balance the user’s allocation, it may be best to split the work item with another user or to reassign it altogether.

You can assign a work item to more than one person through the Workload Balancer, either through the Summary Panel or the “Assign this to” option in the More Menu. This way, you don’t have to leave the page to update the assignment and continue with allocation adjustments afterwards. What’s nice about do it all the Workload Balancer is that before adjusting your assignment, you can view the user’s current allocations and primary job roles to find the best match for the work needing to be done.

Let’s show you how to update the assignment through the Summary Panel.

In the Summary Panel Go to the Details section. Click on Assignments. Enter the name of the person or people that need to be assigned to the work item and click Save. As soon as that happens, the work item appears underneath the user or users that were entered. From there, you can edit the allocations to evenly spread the work load between the assigned users.

There are cases where it’s best to just assign the work item to another user. When that’s the case, you can again update through the Summary Panel as shown previously, or click the More Menu icon next to the work item.

Click “Assign this to” remove current assignees, And then enter the name of the person you would like to assign to the work item.

You’ll notice that from here, you can also assign multiple people to the work item to split it and balance the workload.

Once done, click Save The work item will move to the user within the Workload Balancer and officially be assigned to the user or users on the project.

Another quick way to reassign or unassigned work is simply to drag and drop a work item from one user to another, or from a user to the Unassigned area.

With the ability to redistribute allocated hours or percentages and to split and reassign work, the Workload Balancer gives you better insight into how users are being allocated for work, and allows you to create a better work balance for those users.