Resource Demand - Resource Allocation

Once the demand has been set for a project, resources can be allocated to it. This is also done from the Resource Demand page.  

Depending on your Resource Management Process this can be done either by the Project Manager or the Resource Manager.

Any user with owner access to the project can allocate resources to a Project but in order to approve those resources you must have resource manager permissions for that resource. 

When you open the Skills tab, any resource gaps will be highlighted in pink:

To get started, click Edit Mode.

You will now see a list of all the resources in the resourcing department set for the project.

In this example, you are still a Project Manager requesting resources on a project.  You can now request resources to the project in one of two ways.

Drag and Drop

This is probably the easiest and quickest way to add resources if the resource demand is even over the duration of the Project - for example you need a full time Consulting Engineer over the entire course of the project.

Click on the resource you want to assign and drag them up to the Add>> cell for the corresponding Skill.  In the below example we have selected “Conor Grogan” for the Consulting Engineering skill.

The skill now moves from the available list and shows in the grid. Click SAVE to apply your selection.

Click on the below icon to the right of the Skill name in the resource grid. In our example it is “Engineering-Consulting Engineer”.

This opens the “Add Comment” pane.

Enter a comment relevant to resourcing and select one or more recipients.

• Click SAVE

The selected recipient(s) will receive an email. 

The email contains a link back to the Resource Demand page of the Project.

Note: In some cases, the resource might only be available for a portion of the demand.  

Cora will display the warning icon next to the resources name, to warn that the resource might be over allocated part way through the assignment.

When there is an existing comment, the icon will show as green.

An audit trail of activity for the project can be viewed in the history tab. This provides an area to see and add comments, and can also be directed to any resource that has an email address set-up in the system.  

Click on the Clear icon to the right of the Skill name in the resource grid. In our example it is “Engineering-Process Engineer”. This will clear the entry for the Skill: Process Engineer and will remove the line. Click SAVE to commit the changes.

If you click on the page icon to the right of the resource name in the resource grid (in our example it is “Conor Grogan”) the recipient email options will be to their direct line manager(s). Whereas, multiple users could be set up as “Skill” approvers, depending on your systems configuration.

Click on the Clear icon to the right of the Skill name in the resource grid.  In our example it is “Conor Grogan”. This will clear the entry for “Rees, Paul” and will remove the line. Click SAVE to commit the changes.

Resource allocation is controlled by the Month From, Month To and Allocation fields.  

By default:

• “Month From” is set to the Planned Start from the settings tab 
• “Month To” is set to the Planned End from the settings tab
• “Allocation” is set to 1  

If you leave these defaults in place, the resource will be allocated 100% for the duration of the project.  If you adjust these fields, the resource will be allocated based on your settings.  For example, if you change the allocation to 0.5 and leave the set “Month To” as the project start month, the resource will be allocated 50% for just the first month of the project.

Adding Resources

If demand is not even over the duration of the project, it may be quicker to manually add resources on a month-by-month basis.

For each Skill and month, there is a grey 'Add' box.  

Place the mouse over this text and it will change to a button.

Clicking the Add button opens the “Add Resource” pane, shown below.

Select your resource(s) and click SAVE.