Resource Assignments and relationship to Resource allocations

[lisafin]

Looking for some clarity on the relationship between resource assignments and resource allocations.  Currently when a resource assignment is created it also creates the resource allocations.  These resource allocations seem to be created with a booking type = Hard no matter what the status of the Resource Assignment is (i.e. pending, approved or unapproved.)

I am encouraging teams to use My Calendar to see what their upcoming project commitments are, however the My Calendar view shows resource allocations (not assignments) and all of these are set to hard so there is no confirmation that the resource assignment has been actually approved or is still pending.  Is this all by design, is this being looked at in future releases, ideally, I would just like to just show resource assignments in the My Calendar view but do not want to customise anything if this is something that is going to be fixed. 

Have I misunderstood how this all fits together, has anyone handled this differently?

[Jonathan Schnei]

My understanding is this is by design. When a Resource Assignment is created - no matter what the Status is - an Allocated Resource Plan is created along with the associated Hard booked Allocations.

Subsequently, we've been advised by SN SPM folks that the ability to soft/hard book is no longer available. They also advised that they've not created any workflows from the Resource Status. ie - if you change status to unapproved for a Resource Assignment, the Resource Plan is still in State = Allocated, and the Allocations are still Hard booked. You will need to build out your own workflows that align with your processes on assignment/approval/rejection of resource assignments and related notifications. 

Unfortunately, I don't have any insight into future releases - hopefully someone at SN sees this and can comment.

[Chris Cannella]

Hello all, 

I'd like to briefly address the question of hard\soft booking and the table used to hold information.  I am with product management, so my answer is biased. 

Previously, as a resource plan changed state it would move from one table to another.  While this presented a very clear flow, it did require clients follow that specific flow.  A majority of our clients indicated a desire to have the option to follow a less rigorous policy based on how centralized they were.  By way of example, the most common use case we heard was - I only want the RM to get involved when a resource is overbooked. Otherwise, assume all assignments are valid.

In the new model, all assignments are 'born' in the allocated table but can have various status states depending on the process you want to follow.  The change in tables should not prevent a client from following the process they want to follow.

This year based on additional feedback from clients who want a more centralized process, we have given (in August) the ability for clients to use a 'ready for review' flag, the ability to determine what counts towards utilization in the utilization calculation modal (November), and we are adding new optional states for KTLO unassigned work (February 2025).  Most clients I've met with felt the August release addressed their hard\soft booking process for named resources, while the February release addresses hard\soft promises for teams\types\groups of individuals for longer term planning. 

I hope this addresses the question and if not, please let me know.

-Chris Cannella

[Jonathan Schnei]

@Chris Cannella,

Can you confirm that for the 'Ready for Review' flag you are referring to is the flow described by Luis Ataide in his community article? https://www.servicenow.com/community/spm-articles/resource-assignment-ready-for-resource-manager-rev...

Can you also also advise on how to resolve the display of the soft-booked resource events in My Calendar. Since the RA automatically creates hard booked allocations, they would display in My Calendar even if the RA has not yet been reviewed or is Pending. To the Resource looking in My Calendar for their allocations, there is no difference between hard-booked (approved) vs soft-booked (Not Reviewed/Pending) RA's.

Thank-you 

[Chris Cannella]

Hello @Jonathan Schnei 

Yes, the community article is what I was talking about with Ready for Review.  In the near future, we will be publishing a short video showing that working alongside the new utilization modal logic to better support med-highly centralized clients.  

With regard to 'MyCalendar' - At this time, My Calendar has not been uplifted to the Next Experience.  As you have noted, all resource assignments will appear on My Calendar regardless of status value. 

With the November release, we added a setting so that clients can self-determine which status values count towards utilization in the utilization modal used by PW and RMW, the heat map of PW and RMW, and the utilization calculation for a resource in RMW.  Hayley Alexander (the Product Manager who owns Project Workspace) has enhancements to 'MyCalendar' planned for late next year so that it will also leverage this setting.  Right now, it is not slated for a specific release.