Resource View Best Practices

Mark Ryan · 02/18/20

I have built a Sheet that is planned to be used in our project planning and project delivery. One area I've been fighting wit a lot is Resource Management. The first being more a best practice when it comes to assigning resources. If I have a tasks called Design Workshops for instance, and I have a number of resources working on it, but these resources will be allocated at different percentages, as far as I can tell, this needs to be done with children rows underneath, with each row representing each resource. Or am i missing a trick? Is there a better, neater way of doing this?

The second question is more around how tasks are allocated. For instance during the planning, tasks would be typically assigned to a role, say Solution Architect or Project Manager. If a project then gets signed off, we would then need to allocate an actual person to the tasks, or depending on what the usage looks like, make a decision on whether we hire in consultants to fill a gap. Currently with the resource management tool in Smartsheet, I am struggling to find a neat way of doing this. Does anyone have any tips/suggestions on best practices for this?

Isaac Jose · 02/20/20

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your post! I'm happy to help with resource management. I've addressed each of your main points below.

Tasks with multiple resources

If each resource is allocating the same percent of their time to the task, then you can certainly use a Contact List column that allows multiple contacts (Assign People to a Task). However, if each resource is allocated a different percentage of their time to the task, then you will need to use multiple rows (Resource Management and Allocation).

Your idea of indenting child rows beneath the main task to represent each resources is a great idea given the current resource allocation functionality in Smartsheet.

Placeholder resources

Currently, Resource Management will only calculate against users included in your organization's User Management list. However, the resource listed in User Management can be used even if their invitation is pending. With this in mind, there are two options

In User Management, invite a few "placeholder" users, such as "project.manager1@domain.com" or "solutions.architect2@domain.com" then use these resources as placeholders in your Project Sheets
When creating your project sheets and plans, keep Resource Management disabled and assign real resources into your Contact List fields. When you want to validate allocation, temporarily enable Resource Management in the project settings of the sheet and make the adjustments as needed before turning Resource Management back off.

Conclusion/Additional Resources

You're definitely on the right track! I also recently wrote out some additional Resource Management/Project Planning tips in this discussion: https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/65688/project-management-automating-timelines-across-multiple-projects-sheets

Here are some additional resources that may help you:

Based on the Smartsheet account associated with your Community profile, I can see that your plan includes Professional Support. As such, I recommend using the following Pro Support exclusive resources to further develop your resource management practices

I hope the above has been helpful!

Isaac Jose

Smartsheet Support

Isaac Jose · 02/20/20