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Author's profile photo Sandeep Dinesh Janardan

Resource Management in Business ByDesign: Project Task, Service and Period Plans

With the 2008 release of SAP Business ByDesign, a “new” project based resource management functionality is available, where the resource availability is calculated based on the Planned Work based on the work package assignment on the project tasks. This way, the resource availability and resource search is based on the granular planning done by the project manager.

Resource%20Calendar

Figure 1: Resource Calendar

 

As you can see above, the resource calendar displays the following:

  1. Gross capacity of an internal employee, based on the assigned work schedule. For service agents, this is hardcoded to 8 hours per day, Monday to Friday, since service agents cannot be assigned a work schedule.
  2. Absences applied for by the employees (including non-availability of service agents)
  3. Project assignments, where the user can drill down to the project tasks, work packages and period plans.
  4. Availability of the employee taking the above into consideration.

Customers can choose this solution via business configuration.

Figure%201%3A%20Select%20option%20via%20business%20configuration

Figure 2: Select option via business configuration

 

On selection, the existing project assignments are evaluated, and the required entities to support the new resource management functionality are created automatically in the system.

What I’m going to list below are the features and functions of the resource management solution that is based on the new scoping option.

Resource Search:

As a resource manager, you can now use the resource search to find employees who are available to be assigned to a project.

Figure%203%3A%20Using%20the%20Resource%20Search%20to%20find%20available%20employees

Figure 3: Using the Resource Search to find available employees

 

In figure 3 above, the resource manager has used the resource search to find employees who are available for 100 hours of work, and who are skilled in ABAP.

The resource manager can then open the resource calendar to view the project assignments of the employees.

Editing of the planned hours from the Resource Calendar

The Planned hours on the project can be edited by selecting the Service line on the resource calendar, and clicking on the Edit button in the toolbar. This opens up a new UI where the manager can adjust the service assignment – make changes to the planned hours and even create period plans.

Figure%204%3A%20Select%20the%20Service%20to%20be%20adjusted%20and%20use%20the%20Edit%20button

Figure 4: Select the Service to be adjusted and use the Edit button

 

Figure%205%3A%20Edit%20the%20Service%20assignment

Figure 5: Edit the Service assignment

 

Update of the Resource calendar

The resource calendar is updated via a background job, when the project manager assigns work via the project UI, or edits the service assignment from the resource calendar, or time administrator changes the work schedule, or the employee applies for a leave of absence. It also occurs when the employee undergoes a personnel event change, such as a transfer.

Figure%206%3A%20Update%20of%20the%20Resource%20Calendar%20in%20progress%2C%20as%20indicated%20by%20the%20icon

Figure 6: Update of the Resource Calendar in progress, as indicated by the icon

 

As you can see in figure 6 above, the “In process” icon shows up in the resource calendar and the resource search, that indicates that an availability calculation is in progress, and will be updated as soon as the job is completed.

The background job typically takes a minute or two to process the updates, depending on the number of changes that are present for all the employees in the system. As a result, the resource calendar is not instantaneously updated – the user would have to wait a couple of minutes and manually refresh the calendar to see the results.

Bringing Project Planning closer to Resource Availability

The resource search that is used to find employees based on their availability can now be used within the project UI. Wherever a team member is to be assigned to a work package (service within a project task), the employee value help incorporates fields within the advanced search that allows you to search for employees based on available hours.

Figure%207%3A%20Using%20Resource%20Search%20within%20the%20Project%20Planning%20UI

Figure 7: Using Resource Search within the Project Planning UI

 

In addition, the project manager can launch a read-only form of the resource calendar via the Show Availability button in the Team and Staffing view.

What is super important to note is that with this solution, the Committed Work from the team and staffing view does not show up in the resource calendar, and has no effect on the Availability of the employee.

Figure%208%3A%20Commitment%20information%20does%20not%20flow%20to%20the%20Resource%20Calendar

Figure 8: Commitment information does not flow to the Resource Calendar


Presence of the new Resource Calendar 

The new resource calendar is also visible in the resource factsheet and resource profile. A new forecasted utilization report is also available on scoping this solution, that shows the availability and utilization of the employee based on the planned work on projects. 

Project Team:  A read-only version of the resource calendar is visible to the project team member in the Project Team work center. This can be accessed from the Common Tasks – View Resource Calendar. 

Managing My Area: The line managers can also view the resource calendars of the employees reporting to them. The resource calendar can be launched from the existing Team calendars in the the Managing My Area work center.

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      5 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Sean Barbera
      Sean Barbera

      Good afternoon and thank you for this outline of the new capabilities. Has someone created an overview video covering these updates the mirrors the Blog post?

      Author's profile photo Sandeep Dinesh Janardan
      Sandeep Dinesh Janardan
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Sean

      Thank you for the feedback ! I could create one that would cover a few features we would deliver with the 2011 release - you can expect this to be published by the end of the month.

      Regards,
      Sandy

      Author's profile photo Sean Barbera
      Sean Barbera

      Hi Sandy -

       

      Any luck creating that video?

       

      Thanks

      Sean

      Author's profile photo Michi Lin
      Michi Lin

      Hi Sandeep Dinesh Janardan,

       

      Thanks for your outline. I am confused was that you mentioned "the Committed Work from the team and staffing view does not show up in the resource calendar, and has no effect on the Availability of the employee". Can I know what factors would affect Availability of the employee?

       

      Besides, we found that the Edit button is grey out in our Resource Calendar screen after selecting option via business configuration, does it mean we don't have the authorization to edit it?

       

      Thank you in advance.

       

      BR,

      Michi

      Author's profile photo Marine Ogier
      Marine Ogier

      Hi Michi,

      Only the planned work and absences impact the availability.

      Kind regards,

      Marine