Replace Resources on Investments

Resource Allocations › How to Find, Book, and Allocate Resources › Replace Resources on Investments

Replace Resources on Investments

You can generate a list of resources with the same role and availability during the time of the investment. You can also use this procedure for replacing a resource on a project. The following rules apply:

Replacing a resource does not transfer the actuals, pending actuals, and baseline of the original to the new staff member. Only the remaining ETC is transferred to the new staff member.
The original staff member must complete any outstanding time entries so that the actual data is posted before the replacement occurs.
The project role of the original staff member is transferred to the new staff member (unless you are replacing a role with a different role).
If a project is locked, you cannot replace existing team members resulting in deleting a team member and transferring assignments. The Replace button appears disabled in this case. Additionally, you can be allowed to replace a resource role only (without replacing task assignment) based on the role replacement settings. For more information about this setting, contact your administrator.

Follow these steps:

With the resource open, click Allocations.
To replace a resource, click the Resource Finder icon next to the investment.
To narrow the resource list, enter filter values.
To view all resources, click Show All.
Examine the following fields:

Availability

Identifies the project period and the number of hours the resource you are replacing was allocated to the project. Both the dates and the hours that are allocated are transferred to the new replacement.

Availability Match

Displays a weighted average that factors in the work period and the availability of each resource. If you do not add any skill specifications to your search criteria, the Total Match column duplicates the Availability Match number. The Skill Match column remains blank. Searching by skills and availability criteria, displays an average of the two in the Total Match column.
The following message can appear at the top of the page:
```
Match scores can be inaccurate if availability dates do not fall into the following range: ddmmyy - ddmmyy
```
The message indicates a discrepancy between the date range in the message and the dates in the Availability field. That is, the Availability Match score can be inaccurate. For example, the dates in the Availability field are 9/1/15 - 2/7/16 and the date range in the message is 9/7/15 - 9/7/15. A one-to-one comparison for any resource does not exist and this condition lowers the overall availability match scores.
To replace the previous resource, select one or more resources and click Replace.
Confirm the selection by clicking Yes.
The allocations page appears. As a result of replacing the resource, the investment no longer appears in the list of investments for the resource.
If the available hours for a resource are less than the total number of hours, the remaining availability (not the booking) confirmation page appears. If you add resources to the project or investment, the remaining availability confirmation page indicates overbooking of the resource. If you book at 100 percent (default) availability of the resource, the 100 percent Resource Allocation column lists the number of hours utilized. The Remaining Availability column indicates the actual number of work hours available for the resource to work on the project.
Select one of the following values:
- Over-allocate to over-allocate the resource.
- Remaining Only to book the resource for the amount that is listed in the Remaining Availability column.

Resource Availability Examples

This topic explains the relationships between a resource calendar with shift adjustments, a base calendar, and the Availability field. These related values influence resource availability calculations, planning graphs, and the Missing Time report.

Resource availability is based on the calendar for the resource. If a resource has a calendar with shifts, their availability in resource planning portlets and reports reflects those shifts.

Example: Calendars with Irregular Shifts

As a resource manager, you want to implement the following work shifts:

Normal hours from Jan 1 to Jun 30 and from Sep 1 to Dec 31

Monday to Thursday: 08:30-14:00 and 15:30-18:30
Friday: 08:30-14:30

Summer hours from Jul 1 to Aug 31

Monday to Friday 08:00-14:30

Follow these steps:

Click Administration. Under Project Management, click Base Calendars.
Create a base calendar for the normal workdays with two shifts and the unique short Friday-only shift.
Select Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and set the two shifts in one calendar.
Select Friday and set the shift that begins at 08:30 in the same calendar.
Apply this arrangement for the following months: January to June, and September to December.
Create a base calendar for the two summer months.
For the months of July and August, set the new summer shift that begins at 08:00 on all workdays.
Note: You can also use one calendar and adjust every workday in July and August.
Navigate to the resource profile for each resource and assign a calendar.
You see the shifts on their calendar. The Resource Availability field varies from one resource to another even though they are assigned to the same calendar.
- Each resource works 8.5 hours per day for 4 days, and 6 hours on Friday. Their availability is 40 hours per week or 160 hours each month.
- In the two summer months, each resource works 6.5 hours per day for five days. Their availability is 32.5 hours per week or 130 hours each month.
- You can have other resources who are assigned to a different calendar. For example, 8 hours per day and 5 days per week. Their availability is 40 hours per week or 160 hours each month.
You can adjust an assigned calendar at the resource level. For example, add one or more vacation days on the resource calendar. A resource on vacation for 2 days shows a decrease in availability. The availability of a resource working 8.5 hours per day drops 17 hours for a two-day vacation. However, the availability of a resource working 6.5 hours per day only drops 13 hours for a two-day vacation.
Portlets, pages, and reports use the availability time slice for availability amounts. Availability is always derived from the resource calendar. The original value that you enter in the Availability field on the resource profile is not used in availability calculations.
Note: Instead of hours, you can also use FTEs to measure resource availability. To calculate the FTE availability, the application divides the availability of the resource by the standard calendar.
Click the Home menu. Under Resource Management, click Resources.
Open a resource.
To reflect their current availability, set the Availability field for each individual resource. Availability can be different, even for resources who are assigned to the same base calendar. For example, you assign a resource who is typically available 6 hours per day to a base calendar with five 8-hour shifts. The Availability field shows 5.65. When you change the base calendar to one with 8.5 hour shifts, the Availability field shows 6.38. You can also adjust the shifts on the individual resource calendar. The value that you set last (Availability or Base Calendar with or without adjustments) determines their most current availability.
Note: The availability values in portlets and reports are also calculated in the same manner.

Example: Resource Availability

This example demonstrates monthly resource availability.

Create a base calendar for December with 5-hour shifts per day.
December has 22 days. The total hours are (5 × 22) = 110.
Assign this base calendar to a resource.
Daily resource availability is 5.
Change the Availability field value from 5 to 8.
The calendar still displays 5-hour shifts.

Portlets show December availability as (8 × 22) = 176 hours.
Change the resource calendar to reflect 4-hour shifts for December for this resource. The availability of the resource is greater than 4 because you previously indicated a value of 8.
The Availability field shows 8, the base calendar shows 5, and the resource calendar shows 4. The calculated availability in hours for the resource for December is as follows:
```
(4/5) × 8 × 22 = 140.8 
```

Example: Resource Allocations

When you book a resource as a staff member for an investment, the application generates an allocation amount for each resource. You can calculate resource allocation using the following equation:

Resource allocation amount = (Availability) x (Number of resource workdays in the investment time period)

The number of working days for an individual resource during an investment is based on the resource calendar. All days that a resource is available during an investment time period are counted, including the start and finish dates.

For example, the following list shows the weekly availability of some resources during an investment time period:

Resource A works four hours a day for five days a week
Resources B works eight hours a day for five days a week
Resource C works eight hours a day for three days a week

If all the resources are allocated at 100 percent to the investment for three weeks, their allocation is as follows:

Resource A = 60 hours
Resource B = 120 hours
Resource C = 72 hours

If you attempt to over-allocate a resource by staffing the resource to additional investments, you are warned. An over-allocated resource cannot perform work efficiently or complete work by the established end date. For this reason, it is important to be aware of how resources are allocated to investments.

In these examples, John, Bill, and Sue are the direct reports of Mary:

John is hard-booked for 20 hours next week to project A, and soft-booked 10 hours to project B. The total demand for John next week is 30 hours.
Bill is hard-booked for 40 hours next week to project A, and is mixed-booked for 20 hours to project B. The total demand for Bill next week is 60 hours.
Sue is not allocated to any project. The demand for Sue is 0 hours.
A role is designated and soft-booked for 35 hours next week to project A. In the role properties for that project, Mary's team is designated as the Staff OBS unit. The demand for that role for Mary's team is 35 hours next week.
The total allocation or demand next week for the resources in Mary's organization is 125 hours: 60 hours hard-booked staff, 30 hours soft-booked staff, and 35 hours soft-booked unfilled roles.