Using Resource Management Workspace

Create custom resource board views of persistent portfolios to view the current resource allocation and resource requests for all of your resources and work.

Resource assignments from different planning workspaces are pulled into this dedicated view for Resource Managers to give you an overall work view. Resource Managers can access the dashboard to view the assignment details at high level and create resource cards to build persistent portfolios and view the resource allocations.

Quickly create multiple portfolios using resource cards and navigate between these cards to work on the resource requests. Use the advanced condition builder to customize these portfolios based on the teams, attributes, groups, and so on, to view the resource allocation.

Tip:

Save the filter query and the conditions that you build to revisit and work on the resource allocations.

Overview dashboard

Resource Management Workspace overview dashboard provides a high-level interactive resource assignment details that help Resource managers to focus on where to prioritize the efforts, identify conflicts, and review the upcoming or pending assignments. Using this dashboard, Resource managers can view the data around their resources and work for efficient resource forecast planning.

The Overview dashboard is crafted to reduce the effort of navigate between different resource boards to view the unassigned work, pend activities, and prioritize day-today tasks.

Note:

When you navigate to Resource Management Workspace, the Overview dashboard is the landing page. You can navigate to resource cards using the side navigation menu.

You can edit the dashboard based on:

• Primary attributes and date range selection.
• Add and edit widgets to the dashboard.

The interactive dashboard creates a resource board for any selected data helping you to directly access the customized board view from the dashboard. For example, if you select the Unassigned tasks widget, this creates and navigates you to a resource board view with the list of unassigned tasks from the widget.

On the board view, you can get the drill down view of all the assigned assignments to the users. The timeline range in the board view matches with the date range of the dashboard.

By accessing these custom boards, Resource managers can assign and approve the assignments in reduced turn-around time, and enhancing productivity.

Table 1. Dashboard widget details

Widget title	Description
Resources over allocated	Number of over-allocated users.
Resources under utilized	Number of users with available bandwidth.
Unassigned assignment requests	Number of unassigned tasks.
Pending resource requests	Total number of requests in Pending state.
Upcoming pending assignments	Number of assignments starting by next month. There are two views for this widget. A pie chart and a list view. Selecting Pie chart navigates you to the resource board view. Selecting the table values. Start date - opens resource assignment record view. Resource - opens to resource details page. Task - opens project task details in record view. Top task - opens the top task details in record view. Select View all to see the simple list view of assignments.
Assignments ending soon	Number of assignments ending from current date to next month.
Ready for review	Number of assignments that are in ready for review state.
Overdue assignments	Number of assignments with past end dates.
Unapproved assignments	Number of unapproved assignments.
Utilization percentage	Average of the utilization % of the users based on the selected primary attributes. Example: You can select a primary group to view the average utilization % of the entire group. This helps Project Managers to better plan the resource requests. Resource Managers can use this data while approving the assignments.
Assignments status	Breakdown view of the resource assignments based on the status.
Total efforts	Bar chart displaying the monthly breakdown view of allocated hours vs capacity. Select the chart to get the drill down view of the resource allocations in the resource board.
Total resource work by type	Displays the allocated hours based on the task type. Example: Operation work, Project Task, and so on.
Role allocation	Bar chart displaying monthly breakdown view of the total number of allocated hours based on the user roles. Select the chart to get the drill down view of the resource allocations in the resource board.

Resource board

Using this intuitive workspace, Resource Managers can:

• View the number of tasks assigned to a resource.
• Understand the type or state of the assignment, and track the changes made to assignments.

  Indicator	Description
  	Indicates that the resource allocation is within the available bandwidth.
  	Indicates that the resource is over allocated for the available bandwidth.
  	Indicates the work assignment is made for a group.
  	Indicates changes to start or end date, allocated hours, and so on, to the approved resource assignments. Note: When these changes are made, the status of the assignment is moved to pending, indicating resource manager about the review required for the changes made. Once the changes are reviewed and the assignment is either approved or unapproved, this icon is no longer displayed.

• Understand of the status of the assigned tasks rolled up to resource level using the Resource status column.
• View the primary attributes such as Group, Role, and Skill of each resource in the top tray. These come in handy while working on reassigning a task to different user with the same primary attributes.
• View the priority and state of the project, demand, or epic in the Priority and State columns in the resource board and allocate resources to priority or high-risk planning items.
• View the actual hours vs allocated hours for a task.

  Enable the Show actuals toggle () from the settings side panel () to view the efforts captured for a task via time cards. Approved time cards are reflected in the resource board view as actual hours.

• Get insights about the resource allocations using the new heatmap modal.
• View or hide requested work in the lower tray using Unassigned tasks toggle.
• Filter unassigned work to view the custom requests.
• Edit the task effort for any group allocations and approve it in the top-tray using the inline editing feature.
  Note:

  If you edit the allocations for any approved group assignment, a confirmation window appears. Once approved, the state is changed to Pending.
• Assign the unassigned tasks.
• Approve or unapprove the assigned tasks.
• Split a resource assignment into two for one resource at the required date.

Once you access these resource cards, you get a similar view as the following example with extensive insights.

Tip:

You can filter out or add required columns in the top and bottom tray of the resource board view using Column config () settings.

Personalize your resource board view

You can customize the resource board to personalize your view. These user preferences are saved to give you the same view every time.

• View or hide unassigned tasks

  Use the Unassigned tasks () toggle to view or hide the unassigned tasks in the bottom tray.

  The Unassigned tasks view, in the bottom tray, facilitates you to build a custom filter condition to view unassigned requests with details such as duration, breakdown view of requested efforts, requested work item and its parent item, owner or requester of the task. Use the filter condition builder to get a custom or focused view of the unassigned tasks.

  

• Change effort type

  Switch between Hours, FTE, or Person Days effort types to view resource allocations based on the required effort type.

• Group By

  Customize the view of your resource boards using the Group By feature to regroup the resources depending on your organization needs. You can group by Primary Group, Primary Role, Primary Skill, Owner, or Project.

• View or hide columns

  Use the column config option () to view or hide any columns on the top tray or bottom tray of the resource board.

Data grid filtering

Quick filters help you filter and build a personalized view to narrow down datasets instantly without refreshing the page or running complex queries on your resource board. You can filter lists, reference fields, strings, dates, and boolean values.

Resource allocations and heatmap view

The resource allocation view in the top tray provides you with a nested view of the assigned work items rolling up to resource level and the resource allocation breakdown view based on the time-frame (weekly or monthly) and by work efforts (hours, FTE, or person days).

Select the arrow () icon to get details at the individual task level (epics, demands, and so on) assigned to the resources. This helps you to get a breakdown view to understand:

• Work assigned to a specific resource.
• The amount of time a resource is allocated to an individual task.

Tip:

Switch between different efforts such as hours, FTE, or person days to view a resource allocation heatmap based on the selected effort type.

You can edit the resource assignments using the inline editing feature in the top-tray.

The Resource status column helps you to easily identify any Pending () or Unapproved () work items assigned to a resource.

Note:

The status of the assigned work is rolled up to the resource level and the resource card level. If there are any pending or unassigned work items in the top tray, the rolled up status at resource level and card level shows Pending.

Define custom statuses to calculate and view resource capacity in the allocation heatmap modal.

Allocation heatmap modal gives you an overview of the resource utilization to identify the over allocated and the available resources. The allocations are color-coded to display the availability of the resources and help you to identify the availability of the resource for the filtered time frame.

The new heatmap modal gives you the following insights for a resource such as the assigned tasks with their respective project owner, resource status, efforts for each task, total utilization percentage for the approved tasks, and the remaining capacity.

Figure 1. Allocation heatmap breakdown

From the preceding example, you can see the breakdown of the approved work items along with the rolled up efforts, Utilization percentage, and the Remaining capacity for the month of January 2025. The approved work is within the resource capacity as the remaining capacity is 120 hours. A Resource manager can use these insights to decide and allocate the pending work items to another resource with available effort.

Important:

Resource efforts calculations are driven by the com.snc.resource_management.exclude_status_from_capacity property. Admin can configure this property to calculate efforts for certain defined resource assignments only. For more information, see Resource Management properties.

Using the com.snc.resource_management.exclude_status_from_capacity property, Resources managers can customize to view the resource assignments with a specific state in their workspace and what to view in the total allocation modal. For example, you can view resource assignments in either Approved, Unapproved, and Pending resource assignments, or the ones in Approved and Pending states only.

Once the property is set up, work items in a specific states to show up in the full capacity and full allocation rollup of a resource. The new allocation modal displays the allocation breakdown and the rollup values of the work items for the configured states.

When you group a resource board using the Group by option, the heatmap allocation modal for a group gives the following insights.

For example, when you group a resource board by Primary Group to view the allocation heatmap modal of a group for January 2025, the following modal is displayed. This modal gives insights into the total overall allocation of different types of Resource statuses.

Note:

The efforts in the allocation modal are displayed in Hours.

Resource finder

AI-powered resource matching

Resource Finder is a Now Assist for SPM skill that evaluates resources against the requirements of an unassigned assignment. The skill considers multiple dimensions simultaneously such as resource's planning attributes (role, skills, or group) align with the requirement of assignment, how much capacity the resource has during the assignment period, and the resource's historical allocation patterns compare to the requested effort.

Fit scoring

The fit score is a percentage representing how closely a candidate resource matches the requirements of an unassigned assignment. Fit score blends attribute alignment, temporal availability, and workload balance into one number so that you can compare candidates at a glance.

AI-generated rationale

Every recommended resource comes with a rationale which is a short and simple explanation of why the skill considers a resource as a good fit. The rationale references specific factors like availability windows and attribute matches.

Two operating modes

The AI Resource Finder adapts its behavior based on whether the Now Assist AI skill is enabled on your instance.

With AI enabled, the experience is recommendation-driven. Candidates are ranked by fit score with rationale, and detailed availability data. You can view this using a toggle so the initial view stays focused on the AI insights. You can reveal period-by-period capacity whenever you want to cross-check the AI's recommendations against raw numbers.

Without AI enabled, the experience is data-driven. You see candidates listed with their availability data up front and a requested effort row appears immediately for side-by-side comparison. This mode functions as a streamlined staffing search tool without the scoring and reasoning layer.

Availability and effort comparison

Resource Finder lists each candidate's available capacity against the effort the assignment requires, giving you a quick comparison view. Effort values honors the user preferences configured in your workspace such as hours, FTE, or person days on a weekly or monthly basis.

The availability heatmap uses color coding to make this comparison instant. A green cell means the resource has enough capacity to meet the requested effort for that period. A red cell means they fall short. For example, if the requested effort is 1 FTE per month and a candidate shows 1 for April and 0 for May, April appears green and May appears red giving your the availability instantly without doing any mental math.

Group resources on resource board

The resource board provides a comprehensive list of resources, which are fetched depending on various resource attribute types, projects, and work items. You can group these resources to gain an accurate perspective on specific attributes, owner, or the parent items associated with the projects. You can group the resources by Primary Group, Primary Role, Primary Skill, Owner of the task, or Parent Item of the work.

If you group the resource board by Primary Group, you see the list of primary groups that the resources are associated with and a drop-down of the list of resources in that group and the work item they're working on. In this view, you also get the rolled up values of the efforts at resource level and group level. The rolled up values can be viewed at a monthly or weekly breakdown.

Resource Managers can use this information to plan the resources and manage assignments.

Tip:

Grouping the resources based on the primary attributes helps Resource Managers to easily reassign the work as the primary attributes should match to reassign work. For more information on how to reassign a work, see Reassign or unassign work using Resource Management Workspace.

• Create a resource card
  Create a custom resource card to view resources and unassigned tasks, and work on resource mapping for your persistent and focused portfolios.
• Create resource assignments and operation resource assignments in Resource Management Workspace
  Create and assign resource assignments and operation resource assignments from Resource Management Workspace.
• Copy a resource assignment
  Copy an existing resource assignment to create one with inherited values, then adjust the fields before submitting. This reduces repetitive data entry when similar assignments recur across plans.
• View unassigned tasks using Resource Management Workspace
  Filter unassigned tasks to view custom requests to match with your organization's priorities and planning, and assign them to resources.
• Assign unassigned work using Resource finder
  Assign resource using the AI suggestions which match the skill-set and primary attributes requirements.
• Assign and approve unassigned work using Resource Management Workspace
  Filter the unassigned work to view priority requests and assign them to resources. Quickly connect with the requester via Microsoft Teams to get additional insights and approve the assigned work using the inline editing feature.
• Extend or reduce duration of an assignment
  Extend or reduce the duration of an assignment from the grid view in the Resource Management Workspace when the work duration shifts. The system updates the assignment dates and recalculates the allocated effort across the new date range based on the effort redistribution property.
• Edit allocated efforts for tasks with actual hours
  Edit allocated efforts for tasks which have partial actual efforts logged directly from the grid view. This keeps reported time accurate without rolling back time entries through other channels.
• Move a resource assignment
  Move a resource assignment to a different start and end dates depending on the availability of the resource.
• Reassign or unassign work using Resource Management Workspace
  Reassign or unassign any assigned work from the Resource Management Workspace. You can group the resource board by primary attributes to identify the resources with same primary attributes.
• Split resource assignments using Resource Management Workspace
  Splitting a resource assignment at a specific date creates a resource assignment for the same user.
• Manage resource allocations in Resource Management Workspace
  Manage resource allocations to change efforts, start and end dates, extend and so on to adjust resources based on their availability and the priority of the tasks.
• Export resource portfolio view to Excel or CSV format
  Export your resource portfolio view in Resource Management Workspace as Microsoft Excel or CSV format to review or share the resource status with stakeholders, even if they don't have access to your instance.