Get started with Resource Management

To plan how resources are allocated at a higher level, before the actual work on projects begins, use the following tools:

• The Resource Planner: You can use the Resource Planner in the first stage of resource management to budget project time for your resources according to their scheduled availability. During the planning of resources phase, you can organize users in resource pools and assign multiple resource pools to a project.

  For more information about Resource Planning, see Resource Planning: article index.

• The Scenario Planner: This is a higher-level planning of resources that allows you to manage them across multiple initiatives that can span over a one, three, or five year plan and include multiple projects. You can use the best scenario for making the most out of their availability and your budget.

  The Scenario Planner requires a separate license, in addition to the Workfront license. For information about the Workfront Scenario Planner, see The Scenario Planner overview.

To schedule or assign resources to actual work (tasks and issues), use the following tool:

• The Workload Balancer: This belongs to a lower-level stage of resource management, where you can assign your resources to the actual work (tasks and issues) that they must complete, based on the amount of hours needed to complete them and their availability. Using the Workload Balancer you can assign users to actual work that is currently unassigned or assigned to job roles.

  For information about the Workfront Balancer, see The Workload Balancer: article index.

To analyze budgeted, planned, and actual allocations across multiple projects, use the following tool:

• Utilization Report: Use this report to view the utilization of resources for projects. You can compare budgeted, planned, and actual allocations for your projects and their impact on the cost and revenue of the projects.

  For information about the Utilization Report, see View resource utilization information.

Configuration: As a system administrator, resource manager, or Project Owner you must configure certain fields and objects in your Workfront instance before managing your resources. For more information about the prerequisites necessary to start managing resources in Workfront, see the Prerequisites for accurate resource management section in this article.
In addition to having projects with work items, you must configure the following items in Workfront:

• Users
  For more information about creating users, see the article Add users.

• Job Roles
  For more information about creating job roles, see the article Create and manage job roles.

• Schedules
  For more information about creating schedules, see the article Create a schedule.

• Project Preferences

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  Only a system or group administrator can modify Project Preferences for your system or for your group.

  For more information about defining Project Preferences, see the article Configure system-wide project preferences.

• Resource Pools

  For more information about creating resource pools, see Create resource pools.

• Resource Management preferences

  As a system, you must decide how Workfront calculates user availability at the system level, whether using the user’s schedule or the Default Schedule of your system.

  For more information, see Configure Resource Management preferences.

Resource allocation: As a resource manager, or a Project Owner, you can define allocation of resources for your projects as well as assign work. For this step, you can manage the estimate the allocation of your resources using the Resource Planner or the Scenario Planner, and assign actual work to users in the Workload Balancer.

For more information about resource planning and assigning work, see the following sections:

• Resource Planning: article index
• Adobe Workfront Scenario Planner
• The Workload Balancer: article index

Analysis: As a resource manager, Project Owner, or people manager, review the Utilization Report to understand how the budgeted and planned allocations of your resources compare to the actual ones. Review information by hours, cost, or revenue. For information about the Utilization report, see View resource utilization information.

The system administrator.

A user with a Standard or Plan license.

A user with a Work license can use the Workload Balancer of a project and manage assignments and allocations.

In addition to having a Work or higher license (or a Standard license), you must have the following to use specific resource management tools:

• Edit access to Resource Management (not needed for making assignments in the Workload Balancer)
• Edit access to Financial Data to display Cost information in the Resource Planner
• View access to Financial Data to view Cost and Revenue information in the Utilization Report (only users with a Plan license)

Contribute or higher permissions that includes Make Assignments on the projects you want to manage resources for.