View, 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.

About this task

The assign logic provides you with the flexibility and control for users when assigning work to resources. It addresses the following goals:

• Efficiency: Quickly allocate unassigned tasks to available resources.
• Personalization: Enables users to configure how effort is distributed—either automatically or manually.
• Transparency: Get a preview of the real-time breakdown of effort allocation before assigning the work to resources.
• Flexibility: Manual distribution supports custom selection of resources, which helps Resource managers manage work allocations based on the availability and remaining capacity of the resources.
• Fairness: Distributes work equally among the resources maintaining a balanced work.

Before you begin

• Create an active employee definition for resources to view their allocation details on the Resource Management Workspace.
• Create a resource card.
• Role required: resource_user, resource_manager

Procedure

1. Navigate to Workspaces > Resource Management Workspace
2. Select the Resource cards icon () from the menu and open a resource card.
3. Enable the Unassigned tasks toggle () to view the unassigned work requests in the lower tray.
   Project Managers create resource requests based on the primary attributes (Group, Skill, or Role).
4. In the bottom tray, select Filter () to filter the unassigned work and get a custom view of what you want to see.
   You can use the attributes such as resource groups, teams, roles, skills, projects, time frame, and so on, to work with advanced filters.

   Tip:

   Use the condition builder to build a filter and work on priority requests.

   Example: This is a condition to filter the unassigned work requests created for a specific user.

   

5. Select Filter.
   The unassigned work matching the filter condition is displayed in the Unassigned tasks tray.

   

6. In the Unassigned tasks tray, select the Row context menu for any task () and select Assign Work.
7. You can assign work using one of the following ways.

   Assign work choices	Description
   Auto Assign	The system automatically identifies all resources based on the selected primary attributes and distributes the work equally among the resources. In the Assign resources window, select Assign resources automatically from the Assign resources list.
   Manual Assign	Enables you to choose specific resources and decide how much effort to allocate. There are two suboptions which you can choose. Select the required resources from the Select resources list. You can assign efforts using one of the following suboptions: Select the Distribute entire efforts equally option to distribute the entire requested effort equally among the selected users. Select the Distribute partial effort equally option and enter the required efforts in the field. Partial Effort Equally: Assign only the entered efforts equally among the selected resources.

   Note:

   Remaining efforts after equally distributing the work among the users is retained in the Unassigned tasks tray. Resource managers can again allocate these efforts.
8. Select the Preview button to see the real-time allocations before assigning the work.
9. Select the Assign button to assign work to the resources.
   The assigned work is reflected in the top tray nested by resource view and will be in Pending state ().
10. Expand a resource row using the chevron icon () to view assigned tasks.
11. Double-click in the Resource status column and select Approve to confirm the assigned work so the resource can start working.
    While assigning the work, you can easily identify if a resource is available () or overutilized (), even for the future periods, using the iconography.
12. You can change the status of any assigned assignments using one of the following options.

    Choice	Description
    Approved	Approve the assigned work to confirm the work.
    Unapproved	Unapprove any efforts that don't required work due to a change of business need or priority planning.
    Pending	Move approved or unapproved tasks to pending to reprioritize the work requests.

13. Optional: You can select the owner's name to collaborate with them over Microsoft Teams to get additional insights regarding the work.

Result

The assigned work items are Approved () or Unapproved () and the status of the work assignments is rolled up to the resource level.

What to do next

If no tasks appear in the Unassigned tasks tray, verify the following:

1. Verify the resource requests exist. Project Managers must create resource requests (resource assignments with status Requested) on project tasks. Navigate to the project and verify resource requests exist on the Resource Assignments related list.
2. Check if primary attributes match. The resource card filter must match the primary attributes (Group, Skill, or Role) defined in the resource requests. Open your resource card and verify the filter criteria aligns with existing requests.
3. Check if the employee profiles are generated. Ensure employee profile definitions have been generated for the resources in your view.
4. Request state is correct. Only resource requests in Requested state appear as unassigned. Requests that are already Assigned, Approved, or Cancelled don't show.
5. Check the date range. Verify the resource card's date range overlaps with the resource request dates. Requests outside the visible time frame will not display.
6. Confirm the permissions. Confirm you have the resource_manager role, which is required to view and manage unassigned work.