Resource management at the project level?

wwright

Hi,

From what I gather about Smartsheet's resource management feature, I can show which users are allocated (and over-allocated) given how they're assigned tasks in a project. I'm wondering if Smartsheet can do a higher-level allocation synopsis, whereby I can see simply that someone's completely allocated as a resource given the fact that they're on the project team, with their allocation running coterminous with the project's start & finish dates. I would want to know this so that if I tried to assign them to a different team, they would show as over-allocated in Smartsheet. 

For example: Alice & Bob are on Project A. Project A runs from Jan 1, 2018, to Dec 31, 2018. Within the confines of Project A, I'm not necessarily all that worried if Alice or Bob have been assigned lots of overlapping tasks and might show as an over-allocated resource. What I do want to know is this: if I want to start up Project B on July 1 and really want Alice included on that team, I would see that she's "booked" (or already allocated) to Project A for the duration of 2018. Thus, I either have to find someone else to be on the team or wait until Project A finishes so Alice can take part in Project B.

That's obviously a simple example, but expand to include many projects and users, it quickly becomes complicated. It would be great if Smartsheet can do this kind of higher-level resource management (i.e., inter-project resource allocations, not just intra-project allocations). Is this possible?

Gwyneth C

Hi,

The resource management feature can help you get the answers you want at the project portfolio level (that is, you can see resource allocation across a range of projects).

There's more information about how to get started with that here: 

• Help Center: Getting Started with Resource Management
• Video: https://www.smartsheet.com/videos/resource-management

Hope this helps!

 

 

wwright

Thanks, Gwyneth!

Is there a way I can run a report that will just show the resources which are over-allocated and the names of the tasks to which they're assigned? I know I can view all my resources with % allocation via the Project Resource View, but I would be interested in running a report that only showed those which were "in the red" so to speak. And I can only get the expand/collapse triangle by the resource's name to show the name of the project in which the resource resides, not the name of the tasks that's bumping their percentage above 100 (and thus causing them to be over-allocated).

neelesh

I have a requirement while i am working my tracker.. the Resource View helps us understand the actual allocations for the resource, do we also have a way to display the Task wise view - maybe which helps us understand on specific task how many resources are working upon month on month during their allocation. 

Maybe the screenshot can help understand my query more.. i need to find out how many resources work on specific task / project for the specified duration of months. 

Please suggest

Andrée Starå

Hi,

Unfortunately, it's not possible at the moment to do it in the resource view, but it's a great idea!

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment.

It might be possible to set something up with the help of formulas.

Can you tell me more specifically what you'd need it to show?

Hope that helps!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant @ Get Done Consulting

neelesh

Thanks for the response..

I am working on the Smartsheet for the IT company which has projects requiring resources to work on for specific duration.

While we assign the resources on projects... we want both views - Resource View and Project View for specific duration. I could fetch Resource View from Smartsheet, though could not see the Project view. 

In project view - looking for Number of resources working on the respective project for the specific months and also better if we can get the names on the resources on one click on the numbers. 

Hope this explains

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

Thanks for the explanation!

I'll get back to you if I think of a way to set it up.

Have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée