Planning and monitoring resources with both project allocations and task assignments

Combined view heatmap is a mode of People Schedule that displays utilization of resource demand from both project allocations and task assignments. On a project by project basis for a given period, combined view calculates which is greater: time allocated for the resource or time on tasks assigned for the resource. Utilization and demand are represented by whichever is greater for the resource for the project in that period of time.

This article covers:

• Overview of the resource heatmap (People Schedule)
• Understanding combined mode heatmap (People Schedule)
• Configuring company settings for combined mode 
• Viewing and managing resource utilization using combined mode heatmap
• Time registration settings and heatmapping
• Monitoring resource utilization in reporting

Overview of the resource heatmap (People Schedule)

The People Schedule heatmap displays each team member's utilization and remaining availability based on the individual's working hours and can be viewed by quarter, month, week or day. To learn how to view and manage your People Schedule, check out Reviewing your resource heatmap. How the heatmap displays utilization is based on the company's resource management setting. For more on selecting your company's resource management setting, see Selecting your resource management strategy. 

Users with standard permission profile of Coordinator and up have access to viewing and managing People Schedule. With custom permissions, profiles must have the permission "Manage projects" enabled. More on permissions can be found in, About permission profiles and how they work. Each user's view of People Schedule is specific to their profile only, therefore each user can customize how the heatmap displays based on their individual needs and workflow.

Understanding combined mode heatmap (People Schedule)

When the company resource management setting, Both project allocations and task assignments, is enabled, use the dropdown to select how you wish to view the heatmap.

Each display option provides a different view of resource utilization and demand.

Combined view

The cells of the heatmap reflect the demand on the resource’s time against their capacity in the period. Capacity is the resource’s working hours minus time off or calendar holidays. On a project-by-project basis for the given period, combined view determines which is greater: time allocated for the resource or time on tasks assigned for the resource.

Whichever is greater is considered the demand for the resource for that project in that period of time.

Combined utilization modal

Click on a cell of the heatmap to open the utilization modal for the resource for the given time period. The modal shows the breakdown of the demand expressed in the heatmap cell whether it is coming from planned work (task estimates or allocations), from time registered, or remaining task estimates.

Configuring company settings for combined mode

Admins are the only users permitted to access or update the company's resource management settings. Admin users can enable combined mode at any time.  Admin users may also switch back to the previous-enabled mode if desired. No data is modified or removed when switching into or out of combined mode.

To enable combined mode

1. Click Admin in the top bar.
2. Select Company Details.
3. Scroll down to Resource management.
4. Toggle Both project allocations and task assignments.
5. Select from the additional settings to determine how the heatmap handles time registrations.

   1. Exclude: If selected, planned demand will come from task estimates or allocations, regardless of any actual time registered.

   2. Include: If selected, past periods will reflect time registered rather than estimates or allocations. Current and future periods with time registered and time remaining will include both.

Time registration handling and the heatmap

There are two options to select from when enabling combined mode, Exclude time registrations in the heatmap and Include time registrations in the heatmap. These settings determine if your heatmap will report and display planned time or actual time.

Exclude time registrations in the heatmap

Selecting this setting enables the heatmap for planned time only. Planned time or demand comes from task estimates or project allocations, regardless of any actual time registered on the project or its tasks. 

Include time registrations in the heatmap

Selecting this setting enables the heatmap for time registrations and remaining time. With this setting, the heatmap will appear as follows, for the given time period:

• Past periods will reflect time registered rather than estimates or allocations
• Periods with both time registered and time remaining will include both
  • Time remaining is calculated on an individual project basis as whichever is greater between time remaining on unfinished tasks or future allocations

Switching modes

Admin users can switch into combined mode from either resource management setting, Allocate people to projects or Assign people to tasks. To learn more about these resource management settings, see Selecting your resource management strategy. 

No data is modified or removed when switching into combined mode. Admins may also revert back to the previous setting before combined mode was enabled without any impact on existing data. Admins will not be able to revert back to the alternative setting; the option appear grayed out as it is not available. This is intentional to prevent any modification of data when moving into or out of combined mode.

Viewing and managing resource utilization using combined mode

Within People Schedule, select Combined view. The heatmap will update and reflect utilization based on the source of greatest demand. 

Heatmap values

Adjust the time period to view as day, week, month or quarter. Select Heatmap in hours or Heatmap in % based on your preference. 

Win probability

Apply Use Win probability to view Opportunity stage projects and compare demand from soft allocations against task assignments.

Exclude allocations and grouping

Use Exclude allocations to remove soft or hard allocations from the heatmap. Group by role to review demand by the type of resource assigned to each project. 

Filters

Filters are useful to hone in on specific projects, people, their allocations and/or task assignments. Save Filters to preserve those frequently used filter combinations for future application. Saved filters are user-specific and cannot be shared. Users who wish to use the same filter combinations must create and save the filters in their individual view of People Schedule. 

Applying filters in combined mode is also now recognized by the heatmap where hours and utilization percentages will now update to reflect the filtered data result.  This is true in any of the three views, Tasks-only, Allocations-only or Combined view. For example, applying a filter to exclude Opportunity or Halted projects will exclude any time allocated to these projects or assigned to their tasks in the utilization values displayed.

Time registration settings and heatmapping

There is a direct connection between how you select to manage time registrations and the heatmap. Additional settings such as Timesheet Approval also impact the heatmap.

Timesheet Approval

Timesheet Approval is a company managed setting, available to Admins. It controls the requirement for timesheet submissions and approvals and is accompanied by two additional time approval settings, Internal Time Approval and Time-off Approval.

• When Timesheet Approval is enabled, timesheet entries will show up in the People Schedule heatmap, regardless of submission and approval status.
• When Internal Time Approval is enabled, timesheet entries for internal time will show up in the People Schedule heatmap, regardless of submission and approval status.
• When Time-off Approval is enabled, time off entered into timesheets will not appear in the People Schedule until it is approved. Once the time off is approved a time-off allocation is created. The time-off can only be modified from the allocation and can no longer be modified from timesheets.

Exclude time entries in the heatmap

Regardless of whether the time period of the cell is past, present or future, and regardless of whether there is time registered in the period, the utilization modal will show the planned time in demand versus capacity (working hours - time off) for the period. Planned time demand from a given project will be based on whichever is greater: time allocated for the resource on the project or time estimated on tasks on the project assigned to the resource.

Include time entries in the heatmap

For periods entirely in the past, the heatmap will show utilization based on time registrations and will be colored in blue. If a period has time registrations and no time remaining (e.g. because the period is entirely in the past), the utilization modal will show demand as the sum of time entries for the period.

For additional context, the modal shows per project the time registered versus the time planned for the resource. The planned time is calculated as whichever is higher between assigned task estimates or allocations. The modal will also calculate the amount that time registrations are over or under the planned hours.

If a period has no time registered, the utilization modal will show demand as the sum of future time remaining across projects and internal time. For a given project, the future remaining time is equal to whichever is greater: future time allocated or time remaining on assigned tasks.

If a period has both time registered and time remaining (e.g. a period that spans past and future), the utilization modal will show demand as the sum of time registered and time remaining per project in the period. Time remaining will be based on whichever is greater: future time allocated or time remaining on unfinished assigned tasks.

Monitoring resource utilization in reporting

Resource demand and utilization can be viewed within People Schedule as well as in Connected Projects, Utilization reporting and Advanced Analytics. Combined mode values are not currently available within Project Timeline.

Connected Projects

Connected Projects will be shown in the People Schedule and in the Utilization Report. The demand for Connected Projects will be determined similarly to standalone projects; it will check which is greater between hours allocated to the Connected Project versus the sum of hours assigned across the sub-projects. The heatmap for team members will be available on the Connected Project Timeline, but not on the sub-project Timeline pages. More on connected projects can be found in Connecting your Projects. 

Utilization Report

Combined mode also introduces columns for combined numbers across tasks and allocations for Planned Time, Remaining Time, and Forecasted Time.

To ensure consistency with Utilization reporting and to continue to provide users with a view of billable utilization, these categories will divide hours into Billable, Non-Billable and Internal Time, with Total Time being the sum of these. Each time category will have its corresponding utilization figure, calculated by dividing the amount of time by the resource’s availability.

To learn more using Forecast's standard Utilization Report to review your resource demand, head to Overview of Utilization Report. 

Advanced Analytics

There are no new data model fields required for Combined mode. The sample formula below dynamically calculates the higher value between task assignments and project allocations and can be used against any time period or date range.

IF (([Total Project Minutes Registered] + [Total Person Tasks Remaining Total Minutes]) > 

[Total Project Allocation Minutes], ([Total Project Minutes Registered] + 

[Total Person Tasks Remaining Total Minutes])/60, [Total Project Allocation Minutes]/60)

For more information on Advanced Analytics, check out Getting started with Advanced Analytics (Walkthrough) and Overview of the Advanced Analytics Data Model.