A Practical Guide to Resource Assignments

[DanielCordick]

A Practical Guide to Resource Assignments

If you're new to the SPM world, resource management is driven by planning attributes like Group, Skill, and Role. Combined with other SPM tools like Strategic Planning Workspace, Project Workspace and Capacity Planning, it provides better visibility into who’s doing what. This guide walks through configuring planning attributes, transitioning from plans to assignments, managing operational work, and updating cost plans.

Setting Up Planning Attributes

Planning attributes are used to categorize resources based on criteria such as group, role, skill, or location (e.g., “Developer,” “Analyst,” “Chicago Office”). These attributes help the system assign individuals to specific tasks by matching them to required characteristics. Admins can create or edit planning attributes based on project needs and available resource data.

How to Create a Planning Attribute

1. Go to All > Project Administration > Planning Attributes in the platform view.
2. Fill Out the Form:
• Type: Pick Resource for people or Task for just costs.
• Name: Choose something clear, like “group” or “skill.”
• Resource Management: Check this to use it for assigning people (it’s usually on by default).
• Financials: Check this for budgeting, but you need Resource Management checked first.
• Field: Pick a specific detail, like “Location” or “Role,” from the Employee Profile.
• Active: Make sure this is checked to turn it on.
3. Click Submit, and your new attribute appears in the list.

4. Set Up Lookup Tables:

   1. Open the planning attribute you just created.

   2. For resource planning tables like resource_allocation, resource_plan, sn_plng_att_core_resource_assignment, and sn_plng_att_core_cpaam_combination are added automatically.
   3. For budget planning, the cost_plan table is added, and sn_plng_att_core_cpaam_combination is removed.

   4. Before adding any field names, go to each relevant table and create the field

   5. Once the fields are created, return to the Planning Attribute Column Configurations related list and add the field names so the system knows how to use the attribute.
      
      

5. Confirm the Active box is checked

These attributes are critical for making sure the right people end up on the right jobs.

Migrating Resource Plans to Assignments

The platform only Migrates plans in certain stages: Planned, Requested, Confirmed, Allocated, Rejected, or Completed. If they’re Cancelled or In-progress, they don't switch

How Plan Statuses Become Assignment Statuses

Here’s the breakdown:

Plan Status	Assignment Status
Planned or Requested	Unassigned
Allocated	Approved
Confirmed	Approved
Completed	Approved
Rejected	Unapproved
Cancelled or In-progress	Doesn’t switch

What Happens

• The system creates assignments based on Group, Skill, and Role, or for specific people if you picked them in the plan
• The allocation type is set to planned duration.
• The allocation spread is always even.
• Old assignments get cleared out and rebuilt with the person’s name and planned time.
• The allocated costs and allocated hours are copied to planned costs and planned hours.
• If the plan was confirmed or allocated, actual hours stay with the plan.
• Have Later Changes? If you add a new assignment with the same combination of attributes, it updates the existing one instead of creating a duplicate.
• Example: A requested plan for a developer in Team A turns into an Unassigned assignment with the same dates and hours.

What Are Operational Resource Plans?

These plans set aside time for the non-project stuff your team does, like meetings, training, admin work, or keeping systems running (KTLO). Your team’s time isn’t just for projects. They’ve got other responsibilities, like:

• Meetings: Team check-ins
• Training: Learning

How They Switch:

• Only plans in the Allocated or Completed stages become assignments.
• Assignments use Group, Skill, and Role and the request type switches to Hours.
• Team structure (parent-child links) stays intact.
• Example: An allocated plan for Team B for training becomes assignments for each team member, with hours reserved.

These plans keep your team from being stretched too thin, balancing project and operational work.

Updating Cost Plans

When you switch from resource plans to resource assignments, your cost plans get updated too, becoming attribute-based labor cost plans tagged as Labor Capex. This happens when you use the Migrate resource plans link.

What’s Happens

• New cost plans are based on Employee Type, Expense Type, and Role.

• Breakdown:

  • Planned Costs: These move to the new cost plans.

  • Actual Costs: These stay with the original cost plans.

• If a plan doesn’t have Employee Type or Role, the costs are combined into one cost plan.

• The project’s rate model determines the costs.

• New cost plans aren’t tied one-to-one to assignments.

Tips

• Make sure attributes are set up right in the lookup tables.
• Spend time showing people how to use Project Workspace and Capacity Planning.
• After switching, review assignments and attributes
• Use operational plans to keep everyday tasks from messing up your projects.

Once properly configured, the platform enables consistent management of both project-based and operational work. This structure promotes greater efficiency, visibility, and coordination across teams.