Clarifying Behavior: Resource Type = Group but Named User Selected in Resource Field (Yokohama)

[jparham]

Hi everyone,

I’m validating Resource Management behavior in ServiceNow SPM (Yokohama) and came across something I’d like to confirm. We’re still using the classic Resource Management module, not the new Resource Management Workspace.

In some cases, a resource plan is created where the Resource Type is set to Group, but a named user is also selected in the Resource field.

Example:

Resource Type: Group

Resource: John Smith (individual user)

Group: ZZ-TOP ME1

When this happens, I’ve noticed inconsistent results with timecard generation and capacity calculations. It looks like the same hours may be counted for both the group and the individual.

I’m hoping to confirm a few things:

1. Do you know if this setup (Resource Type = Group with a named user selected) is supported, or is it considered a misconfiguration?
2. How does the system handle planned and actual hours in this case? Could it lead to double-counting or duplicate allocations?
3. When Resource Type = Group, should the Resource field always point to a group record rather than a user record?
4. Could you please provide any best practices or documentation that clarify why users and groups should not be mixed on the same resource plan?

I’m not making configuration changes. This is part of a governance validation effort to better understand how SPM handles group-level versus user-level planning before we finalize our resource management standards.

Thanks in advance for any insight or documentation that can clarify this behavior.

James Parham
ServiceNow SPM Technical Consultant

[kaushal_snow]

@jparham ,

Yes, mixing a Resource Type = Group with a named user in the Resource field is technically allowed in under the classic Resource Management module, but it’s not recommended because it can lead to ambiguous allocations and double counting of hours (the system can count hours for both the group and the individual if both are referenced).... According to the official docs on the Resource Plan form, when you choose Group for the Resource Type, the Group field is expected to contain the group record and the Resource (user) field is designed for User type plans.......Best practice is that when you select Resource Type = Group you should not also select a specific user in the Resource field, because the system will interpret the plan as a group-level allocation and then the named user may be counted separately or treated as a group member allocation, leading to capacity/assignment inconsistencies. For clarity and governance, keep group level plans strictly to groups and user-level plans strictly to individuals to avoid overlapping hours or unexpected aggregation in timecard generation or capacity forecasting....

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