Greetings community members!
In recent past I have noticed questions on operational resource plans via multiple posts. To answer all those questions, I have created this article. In this, I will focus mainly on operational resource plans and will cover following points:
1. What is an Operational Resource Plan?
2. Need of operational resource plan
3. When to create an operational resource plan
4. Different fields of an operational resource plan form & their significance / usage
5. Explanation with an example
6. Impact on resource’s availability on creating operational resource plan
7. Frequently asked questions
Resource Plans:
As we know, resource plan is the basic building block to request and manage resources for any type of work in PPM.
Work can be categorized as run vs build or run vs grow. Main difference between the two are:
| Run | Build |
| Maintain the existing business functionalities. | Enhance & expand business capabilities. |
| These activities are also known as “Business as usual”, “KTLO” or “Sustaining IT”, "Maintenance work" etc. | These activities can be project work or solution development etc. |
| Achieved via operational resource plans | Achieved via non-operational resource plans. |
Let's focus mainly on the operational resource plan in this article.
Define Operational Resource Plan
Operational resource plan is a way to keep aside a portion of team’s capacity for operational work.
Typically, resource manager creates an operational resource plan for her team. Often these plans are created for longer duration such as one year to plan for operational work in advance.
Need of Operational Resource Plan
In an organization, resources spend some of their time on the activities which are not related to project work. Operational resource plan should be created, in order to plan for these activities in advance.
Examples of non-project work could be Meeting, Training, KTLO activities, admin work etc.
When To Create An Operational Resource Plan?
As a best practice, capacity for operational work should be planned in the beginning of the year or quarter.
Operational Resource Plan Form & Its Fields:
1. Select ‘Create New Operational Plan’ from left navigation pane.
2. Operational resource plan form will open as shown in below screenshot:
3. Let’s discuss the fields and their values available on operational resource plan. I will cover when to select which value.
a. Number: This is auto-generated resource plan number. Just leave this value "as is"
b. Resource Type: It has three values:
i. Group
ii. User
iii. Role
Based on the requirement, you can create the operational resource plan for specific group, role or user by selecting one of these values.
Default Value: Group
c. Group / Role / User: Field below ‘Resource type’ depends on the value selected in ‘Resource type’. Based on whether Group/User/Role is selected in ‘Resource type’, the next field will be Group / User / Role. It allows you to select the desired group/role/user for which this operational resource plans is to be created.
For example: In above screenshot, I have selected Group in the 'Resource type' that is why the very next field is Group.
d. Member Preference: It has two values:
i. All Members
ii. Specific Members
Whether capacity for operational work is to be set aside for all the members of the group / role or for selected members, you can select one of the above two values.
Note: 'Member Preference' field is not available when ‘Resource type’ is selected as ‘User’.
e. Skills: Allows to select specific skills for group / role members.
Note: This field is not available when ‘Resource type’ is selected as ‘User’.
f. Request Type: It has two values:
i. Hours
ii. %Capacity
By selecting hours, you can set aside specific number of hours for a group / role / user for operational work.
Typically, deciding number of hours for operational work especially for group / role members becomes tricky for resource manager hence better option is to use %capacity.
By using %capacity, you can set aside specific capacity for operational work.
For example: Organization has a mandate for employees to spend 10% of their capacity on learning new stuff. To achieve this, resource manager can create an operational resource plan for Training by selecting request type as %capacity.
Default Value: Hours
g. Planned Hours / %Capacity: This is the field below ‘Request type’. It depends upon the value selected in ‘Resource type’ field.
Based on whether Hours / %Capacity was selected in ‘Request type’, the next field will be ‘Planned hours’ or %Capacity.
Note: %Capacity will not be available if Hours was selected in ‘Request type’
h. Planned Hours: System always populates this field irrespective of the value selected in ‘Request type’ is hours or %capacity.
System converts the %capacity value into hours and value is populated in 'Planned hours' field.
i. Confirmed / Allocated Hours: This field is auto- populated on allocating resource plan.
j. Name: This is to provide a name to operational resource plan.
k. Operational work type: This field provides the different types available out of the box for planning the operational work. This list is configurable.
l. Rate Model: If populated, the planned cost and confirmed / allocated cost is calculated based on the rates defined in the rate model.
Note: If matching rate is not found in the rate model, system considers out of the box default rate i.e. $50 per hour.
m. Start Date & End Date: Defines the duration for which the operational resource plan will be effective.
n. Allocation Type: It has three values:
i. Weekly
ii. Monthly
iii. Plan duration
Value selected in this field decides the allocation records created for resource plan.
Default Value: Monthly
If you want to track the planned hours / cost and per resource’s allocated hours / cost at monthly level, then select Monthly.
If the requirement is to track planned hours / cost and per resource’s allocated hours / cost at week level, then select Weekly.
However, if you just want to know the overall planned hours / cost and per resource’s allocated hours / cost for the whole resource plan duration then choose Plan Duration.
o. Allocation Spread: It has two values:
i. Even
ii. Front load
Default Value: Even
If the requirement is to evenly allocate the hours, then select Even otherwise select Front load.
How it works?
System evenly divides the total number of hours per time period.
Then the hours of every time period are divided between resources either evenly or in a front load fashion depending upon the value selected in this field.
Point to Note: Irrespective of even or Front load the initial distribution of total hours between time periods happens in evenly manner. This considers the total number of working days in every time period.
p. State: On creation, operational resource plan is in requested state. Once Allocated, the state changes to Allocated.
q. Planned cost: This is calculated as hourly rate * number of hours
Note: If Rate model is configured on the resource plan, system will fetch the group rate from rate model. If matching rate is not found, system will fall back to out of the box standard rate of $50 per hour.
r. Confirmed / Allocated Cost: This is calculated for per resource as
Sum of every resource’s hourly rate * number of hours
EXAMPLE: Let’s understand this with an example of group operational resource plan.
Scenario: It’s mandatory for the members of App Security group to spend 10% of their capacity in July and August months in learning new stuff.
To accomplish the above mandate, resource manager creates an operational resource plan for App Security group for 10% capacity for Jul and Aug, 2020.
Before creating operational resource plan for this group, let’s take a look at the data setup
Group Details:
Group Name: App Security
Number of members in group = 2
Each resource’s per day capacity = 8 hours
Both resources are available throughout both the months; no planned leave.
Group and Its Members’ Rate: Defined as following via rate model.
Group Hourly rate = $150
Jeff Grey’s hourly rate = $100
Clay Bresher’s hourly rate = $100
Operational Resource Plan Creation:
Let’s understand one by one each field’s calculation as a result of creating this resource plan. Note: This resource plan is in requested state, not yet allocated.
Number of working days in Jul = 23
Number of working days in Aug =21
Total Planned hours for group for 2 months = (23 * 8 * 2) + (21 * 8 * 2) = 368 + 336 = 704
Planned hours for 10% capacity for 2 months = 704 * 0.10 = 70.4 = 70
Per day planned hours for group = 16
Per day planned hours by 10 % of capacity = 16 * 0.10 = 1.6
If the number of working days were equal in Jul & Aug, we would have got 35 (70 / 2) planned hours in each month but that is not the case. July has 2 working days more than Aug hence
| July, 2020 | August, 2020 | |
| Planned hours | 23 * 1.6 = 36.8 = 36 | 21 * 1.6 = 33.6 = 34 |
| Planned cost | 36 * 150 = 5400 | 34 * 150 = 5100 |
As explained above, showing the values in application via screenshot, refer below.
Planned Cost is calculated as group cost * number of hours.
Planned cost = 70 * 150 = $10,500
Impact of Allocation Type = Monthly:
Since this operational resource plan is created for 2 months & allocation type is ‘Monthly’.
In Requested Allocations: One requested allocation record for each month will get created.
This helps in tracking the planned hours and planned cost at monthly level
In Resource Allocations: After the resource plan gets allocated, one record per resource per month will be created.
This helps in tracking the allocated hours and allocated cost per resource at monthly level.
Now let’s allocate this operational resource plan.
On allocating the resource plan, notice following fields are auto-populated:
1. Confirmed / Allocated hours
2. Confirmed / Allocated cost
3. Allocation records under ‘Resource Allocations’ tab because now resources are allocated to plan
Let’s understand the how the value of each field is calculated, in this case.
Confirmed / Allocated Cost = Each resource’s hourly rate per month * number of allocated hours.
Jeff’s Confirmed / Allocated Cost for July = 18 * 100 = $1800
Clay’s Confirmed / Allocated Cost for July = 18 * 100 = $1800
Jeff’s Confirmed / Allocated Cost for Aug = 17 * 100 = $1700
Clay’s Confirmed / Allocated Cost for Aug = 17 * 100 = $1700
Confirmed / Allocated Cost for operational resource plan= $1800 + $1800 + $1700 + $1700 = $7000
As explained above, refer the values shown in resource allocations:
Impact of Allocation Spread = Even / Front load
Even / Front load impacts the way hours are allocated at daily level.
If Allocation Spread = Even;
System will evenly distribute hours for each working day
For example: In July month, Jeff is allocated 18 hours.
Due to allocation spread = Even; system will evenly allocate 1 hour on each working day.
If Allocation Spread = Front load
System will try to utilize maximum availability of resource in the beginning of the duration.
For example: If allocated hours for Jeff in July month = 20 hours, Jeff will be allocated 8 hours on first working day, 8 hours on second working day and then remaining 4 hours on the third working day.
Impact on resource’s availability on creating Operational Resource Plan:
For allocated operational resource plan, hours are deducted from the availability of the resource.
Remember, in the beginning (before operational resource plan allocation) the App security group’s allocation details was as shown below:
After allocating 10% capacity via resource plan,
1. The resources are allocated for a specific number of hours
2. Availability of the resources is decreased as allocation has taken place
Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Where can I see the hours allocated for operational work?
It can be accessed mainly from two places:
a) Resource reports
b) Resource Finder section of resource allocation workbench
2. Can I post time for operational resource plans?
Yes.
3. To which project, an operational resource plan is associated with?
Operational resource plans are designed to plan for operational work which is separate from the project work hence operational resource plans are not associated with any project.
Additional Links:
1. For further reading, refer doc link
2. To post your ideas, use Idea Portal link present on this page
Look forward to get your comments and feedback.
Hi
You can create additional operational work category and use them to "classify" operational resource plans. Login as an administrator.
Steps:
1. Open the choice table
Left navigation panel - sys_choice.list
2. Create a new entry for resource plan table. Use the label & Value of your choice for defining new operational work type. In below example, I have used Support Assistance as new operational work type.
3. NOTE: Before creating operational resource plan for this operational work category, it is mandatory to map it with time card category.
OOTB time card categories are mapped with operational work type as shown below:
4. To demo this use case, I have created one custom time card category as well - Support Assistance.
To map custom operational work type with custom time card category, follow below steps:
A) Left navigation pane -> Time card mapping (NOTE: This option is available starting Paris release)
Click New and map the custom operational work type with custom time card category.
5. Now you can create the operational resource plan for custom operational work category & allocate the resource plan.
6. Last but not the least, test this by posting time sheet for the new time category.
Hope this is helpful.
Thanks,
Namita Mishra
***Answering only one question***
You can display the name, rather than the number, of the resource plan on the Time Sheet Portal by configuring the Resource Plan table.
Navigate to the Resource Plan table. Change the Name to true and Number to false.
The Time Sheet Portal Resource Plan will display name.
Please mark reply as helpful or correct if applicable (I'm working on a badge!). Thanks, Rae Ann
For example, in a task based Resource Plan the Request Type values are Hours, FTE and Person Days. When requesting hours for an effort those seem to fit nicely with how a requestor thinks about requesting hours (and they all are just a view of 'hours').
On the Operational Resource Plan, the Request Type values are Hours and % Capacity. Again, these are really just hours, but % Capacity is a familiar way for users to consider time to allocate for operational work effort.
Please mark reply as helpful or correct if applicable (I'm working on a badge!). Thanks, Rae Ann
Hi
System allocates users upto 24 hours a day. This is out of the box behaviour. Once the user is allocated more than the per day capacity (as per user's schedule), he / she will be shown as over-allocated.
Let's understand this with an example.
Group QE-US-SFO has two users and Jane and Dave. Both the users have 'Resource Management Schedule' associated with their record. This means they have 8 hours per day capacity. This schedule has 2 days holiday in Jan month. This means number of working days in January are 19 and per user capacity for January month is 152 hours (19*8). This means group's capacity for Jan is 304 hours.
Now let's start with a project resource plan where group is requested for 912 hours.
From the Resource Allocation workbench, if you allocate / Confirm users from
1. Resource finder, system will always honour the users' schedule and will not allow over-allocate the users. So in this case, every user will be confirmed for 152 hours and resource plan will be partially allocated (Note that yellow triangle shown in front of the resource plan in the upper section of resource allocation workbench).
2. Ellipses -> Change state -> Confirm, system will over allocate the users. In this case, every user will be confirmed for 456 hours hence over-allocated for 304 hours. Refer screenshot.
Now if you create any other resource plan for the same group for the same time period and try to book the resources, system will error out the conformation / allocation because users are completely booked and they do not have any availability left.
So, for example, system will display a message that 0 hours are confirmed. Refer below screenshot.
.
and resource plan log will clearly state the reason
Hope this answers the query.
Note: The behaviour is same for operational as well as non-operational resource plans.
Thanks,
Namita Mishra
Yes, you can report on confirmed/allocated costs for an Operational Resource Plan (ORP). As resources submit time on Time Cards associated with those ORPs, they are tracked against that operational effort.
Please mark reply as helpful or correct if applicable (I'm working on a badge!). Thanks, Rae Ann
Hi
Is there any way to prevent following behaviour?
- Each user in the organisation has it's own operational Resource Plan. (e.g. 30% Daily Business)
- The operational Resource Plans will be created in January. They are valid till end of December of same year)
- Each user manages their Time-Off entries by themself (in Resource Calendar)
Example 1:
User "Peter N" is on vacation from Monday till Thursday (4 Days)
> Forecast Utilization shows 150% which IS NOT correct -> should be 30%
> He is forced do to his "Daily Business" for the whole week on Friday?! (30% per day * 5 days = 150%)
Example 2:
User "Peter N" is on vacation from Monday till Friday (5 Days, whole week)
> Forecast Utilization shows 0% which is IS correct -> indicates, that the user is not available at all
Any Idea? I tested the behaviour an a fresh DEV-Instance.
There are existing threads/posts, unfortunately they are very ancient or unanswered:
https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=2b46cfa1db1cdbc01dcaf3231f961993
https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_question&sys_id=70a1c769db98dbc01dcaf3231f9619f9
https://community.servicenow.com/community?id=community_article&sys_id=a4b93c33db541410414eeeb5ca961986
Thanks
Marc
This document is excellent, thanks. Is there a possibility to have exactly how did you prepare the Rate Model?
I am trying to prepare one like this but I couldn t. Which Entities and attributes did you use.
I also have another doubt. You always have to repeat the Entity in the same Rate Model?
And Finally when I selected Group the only possibility I had to select is Parent and in that choice I select some groups that I don t find in the resources-->groups
Thanks in advance.
Adrian
Hi @Yuvaraj T ,
Thanks for checking this point.
Starting Rome release, operational resource plans can be created / managed from the allocation workbench.
Refer below screenshot:
1) Select 'Operational Plans' from the configuration icon (present on the top left of the UI)
2) You will get the Operational Resource Plans as the very first option in the list of resource plans.
NOTE: In case you do not see the option 'Operational Plans' from the configuration icon (present on the top left of the UI), this means the pps admin has not enabled this option. In this case pps admin has to enable the following property from Properties - Resource (left navigation option).
Refer below screenshot.
Please mark this as correct answer if your query is resolved.
Thank You!!
Namita Mishra
