Role-based resource forecasting involves assigning resources to a project based on their specific roles, such as developers, designers, project managers, etc. This allocation is typically stable across various phases of a project, particularly for roles with consistent monthly commitments. 

Role-based resource allocation is further refined by allowing managers to switch between forecasting resources in terms of headcount and hours. This flexibility enriches the understanding of resource allocation and workload distribution, leading to more precise cost estimations. 

Key Steps in Role-Based Resource Forecasting: 

1. Identifying Required Resources: The first step in role-based allocation is to define the specific roles needed for the successful completion of the project. 
2. Allocating Resources Effectively: Next, project managers estimate the monthly allocation for each role, incorporating these into the project's budget and timeline. Fluid's integration of these estimates with the resource's rate card allows for an automatic calculation of the financial impact. 

This article focuses on how to allocate resources to a project based on their specific roles.

Updating the Project Resource Allocations

To update the resource allocation of a project, navigate to the project workspace and scroll down to the Community section.  Click on Edit Allocation to open the Manage Allocations Plans page.

The allocation grid displays all the resources  that are allocated to the project with their monthly allocation. You can update the allocation of existing resources simply by changing the allocation amount. Do not forget to save before leaving the page!

Note that you can only update the allocation forecast for open months.

Tool panel

You can use the tools panel to:

Add Resource: Click on this button to add a resource to the project allocation plan. 

Group: Use the Group functionality to group the resources by role, engagement type or skill.

Resource Filter: The various filters allow you to filter on resources based on their past, current and future allocations.

Show Skills: Display or hide the skills attributed to each resource profile.

Allocation as Headcount or Hours: Select your preferred method of allocation and how you want to view all current allocations. You can opt for allocating resources by Headcount or by the number of hours per month. 

Month toggle

Scroll backwards and forwards through the months or fiscal years by clicking on the arrows either side of the date ranges.

Adding a new resource to the project

To add a resource, click now on the Add Resource button, and the following dialog will open.

You can type in the name, if known, and the system will find the resource, or alternatively, you can use the filters to find the resource you want to allocate. Please click here to learn how to use the filters.

You must select a role within the project, as this is a mandatory field. Note that it is possible to configure the application to automatically set the project role to the role value set on the resource record. Please ask your system administrator to learn more about this settings.  

Once done, save to add the resource to the plan. You can now set the monthly allocation to the resource you just added.

Please note that once a resource is added to the project community plan, the resource will automatically get access to the project workspace and will be able to see the project data in a read-only view mode only.

Overallocation

Should the updated resource allocations lead to an over-allocation of resources, a warning message will be displayed upon saving these new allocations. The message will list which resources are over allocated and will display the allocation breakdown by projects they are allocated to - giving you an opportunity to amend your forecast or negotiate on resource needs.

If your instance is configured to allow resource overallocation, the Force Save button will be shown allowing you to save the allocations even if it results in resources being over-allocated. If over-allocation is not permitted, then you need to change the allocations before being able to save.

Removing a resource from a project allocation plan

You can only remove a resource from a project allocation plan if:

1. The resource is not part of the project community as defined in the project settings (i.e. Primary PM, Executive, and project owners cannot be removed from the project allocation) 
2. The resource has never booked time against the project.