How to prevent over-allocation of a resource?

[Louis Savalli]

In resource management, I can see that you're allowed to over-confirm and over-allocate a resource up to 24 hours/day.  However, what if you only want to be able to confirm or allocate up to their availability?  Is there a way to limit confirmation/allocation so that a user is never confirmed/allocated past their availability or capacity?

[H S B · Accepted solution]

I guess this is OOB behavior only. As per my understanding, you are allowed to do over allocation only through certain mediums however if you use RESOURCE FINDER, you can't over allocate. As per the attached link, I found following information -

If you do not want to over-allocate a user, always use Resource Finder for confirming / allocating the resource plans. This is because resource finder restricts the confirmation / allocation only up to the scheduled hours whereas form or workbench confirmation / allocation will attempt to allocate up to 24 hours. 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/spm-articles/resource-management-troubleshooting-guide/ta-p/229...

Also as per my experience, whenever it comes to NUMBERs like duration, time, number-of-users, there are system-properties which are not even documented properly. Try searching sys_properties.LIST for something which is relevant to your requirement.

Please mark this answer as HELPFUL if it helps.

[H S B · Accepted solution]

I guess this is OOB behavior only. As per my understanding, you are allowed to do over allocation only through certain mediums however if you use RESOURCE FINDER, you can't over allocate. As per the attached link, I found following information -

If you do not want to over-allocate a user, always use Resource Finder for confirming / allocating the resource plans. This is because resource finder restricts the confirmation / allocation only up to the scheduled hours whereas form or workbench confirmation / allocation will attempt to allocate up to 24 hours. 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/spm-articles/resource-management-troubleshooting-guide/ta-p/229...

Also as per my experience, whenever it comes to NUMBERs like duration, time, number-of-users, there are system-properties which are not even documented properly. Try searching sys_properties.LIST for something which is relevant to your requirement.

Please mark this answer as HELPFUL if it helps.

[Louis Savalli]

Thanks, I tested that out but it showed the same behavior - I could allocate up to 24 hours using the workbench, resource finder, or just creating resource plans through the regular form.  I was unable to find any properties to address this.

Edit:  I went back today and was able to see how the resource finder limited confirmation to just the available hours.  Not sure what I did wrong last time.

[H S B · Accepted solution]

As per my R&D, this is OOB behaviour only and also mentioned in the SNOW documentation that Over Allocation is allowed & they didn't mention any configuration to edit this.

Please find below the documentation link - 

https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/vancouver-it-business-management/page/product/resource-management...

I would suggest to forward this information to client as of now & raise a ticket with ServiceNow High Support as only they can give you a confirm answer regarding this.

I hope it helps. If yes, do mark this as HELPFUL / ACCEPTED SOLUTION as of now.

[Ravi54]

Adding my 2 cents here.

Allocation only impacts the Budget for the activity. I have used group resource plans when I am unsure of the resource and changed once resource is identified.

Projects are more concerned about the Actuals and Actuals have nothing (OOTB) to do with the limits of Allocation in my view. What I ment is, Resource X can be allocated 8 hr on a job but worked 20, he/she should be allowed to enter 20hrs on the timecard.

So my view is , Allocation is for balancing the resources and budgeting but actual can be entirely different.