Resource Assignment ready for Resource Manager review

[Luis Ataide]

Please refer to the SPM Delta Deck for Yokohama Release and upgrade the Resource Management Workspace in your instance to use the out-of-the-box solution.

The solution described below is an interim solution prior Feb'25 release. Steps 2 to 6 are still required from Feb'25 release.

Organizations following Partially-Centralized and/or Centralized resource management methodologies may want to signalize to resource managers when a resource assignment is ready for review. 

This article describes a proposed solution to support this use case. 

The proposed solution requires configuration, as such, there is no liability for ServiceNow to provide support, apply changes, fix defects and review impact during future upgrades.

1. Create new field at Resource Assignment table

• Table: Resource assignment [sn_plng_att_core_resource_assignment]
• Type: String (must be String, otherwise it won't work as expected)
• Colum label: Ready for review
• Colum name: u_ready_for_review
• Default Value: n

• Choices
  • No
  • Yes

2. Add new field in Resource Assignment lists
   • View: Default
     • Make the field available in the default lists

3. Add new field in Resource Management Workspace
   • View: Resource Manager
     • Make the field available in RWM top grid

• View: Resource Unassigned
  • Make the field available in RWM bottom grid

4. Reset columns in Resource Management Workspace to have the new field available

5. Add new field in the Project Workspace
   • View: Project Workspace
     • Make the field available in new Project Workspace

6. Reset columns in Project Workspace to have the new field available

[Alex2506]

Hi @Luis Ataide 

Is there any approval workflow associated with this? Currently resource managers can approve regardless if the Resource Assignment 'ready for review' is yes or no.

Also, users creating the assignments are able to change the status of it, essentially approving it. Is there any control around this? Basically when submitted and changed to 'Ready for review = yes', only then should the manager be able to approve the record.

Thank you!

[Luis Ataide]

Hi @Alex2506,

There is no workflow around the 'Ready for review'; this is a process-driven control and communication. Resource managers can filter the 'Unassigned' grid to bring only the resource assignments for which 'Ready for review' = Yes.

Regarding the Resource assignment status, it can be configured to support your resource management methodology. Please take a look at the micro-learning available, which covers this topic as well: Micro-Learning for Resource Management  

[Alex2506]

Hi @Luis Ataide, 

Thank you. Currently configuring some ACL's around the resouce status field. If 'ready for review' is yes, the resource manager can edit the field and approve/reject. 

This works great on the form view but doesn't work in the Resource Assignment panel in the Project Workspace (screenshot attached). Is there a way to set this?

Thank you!

[Luis Ataide]

Hi @Alex2506,

The resource management workspace and project workspace support the ACL configuration described at the Micro-Learning for Resource Management, which limits the Resource status field access to the resource manager only, without additional conditions. 

[ny5_6]

Hi @Luis Ataide,

Do you have any advice on how to more effectively use Resource Cards to view availability against demand for resources when using a more centralized resource management approach? We have found it difficult to see this when Resource Managers are not "assigned" to specific resource groups or roles. For example, when reviewing resource assignments for a project that has assignments requested for several Groups it does not appear there is a clean way to view the current availability of those group members without creating a Resource Card for the particular mix of Groups requested for the Project. But if the Resource Manager does not know that in advance, how are they expected to know how to create the right card?

The task-based cards only show the resources already assigned to the tasks, not the resources related to the assignments requested for the task. It has been difficult to drive adoption under these circumstances. I asked a similar question on a recent webinar and was told that others are using this without issue, so I was wondering if it would be possible to have some direction on how this is being achieved.

Thank you

[Luis Ataide]

Hi @ny5_6,

This situation is normally managed by process, as the Resource Managers know the groups they are responsible for (even though they are not assigned in the system itself), so they can create the resource cards for those groups.

However, for your use case, I would suggest exploring the Dashboards available in the Resource Management Workspace and perhaps adding a new visualization by Group (if required) to help the resource managers identify the groups which they need to act on, so they can create the cards accordingly. 

[Alex2506]

Hi @Luis Ataide 

Thanks for all your work on this. One more question:

When a 'Group' Resource Assignment is created, the system will create a resource assignment for all users that have that group as their Primary Resource Group in the employee profile. However, what happens if users belong to more than one resource group? Similar to how Resource Plans worked, we'd expect a record to be created for everyone in that group

Cheers

[Luis Ataide]

Hi @Alex2506,

Thank you for the feedback.

The new resource management solution is based on the primary attributes defined at the employee profile. In this case, a child resource assignment will be created for each resource on which the primary group matches the group identified in the 'Group' resource assignment, regardless of the user belonging to other resource groups.