Resource Optimizer

Resource optimizer is a tool for planning an optimizing workload of human and technical resources.

This tool allows you to monitor:

the load of human and technical resources in several projects;
whether project tasks have or have not executors;
whether there are overdue project tasks;
whether more human or technical resources are required and so on.

Resource optimizer page

Users, with permissions to edit the project plan can work with the resource optimizer.

There are two ways to open the resource optimizer:

click Optimizer – Open Resource Optimizer for Current Projects in the Project List subsection of the Projects section (fig. 1). The page will display only the names of the current projects;

Fig. 1. Projects section. Optimizer – Open Resource Optimizer for Current Projects button
open the page of the required project and click Go To – Resource Optimizer (fig. 2);

Fig. 2. Project page. Go To – Resource Optimizer button
in the Project List subsection of the Projects section click Optimizer (fig 1). An empty resource optimizer page will open, where you will need to load the require project (fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Resource Optimizer

open a project plan page and click Actions – Open in the optimizer (fig. 4). The current project plan version will open in the resource optimizer;

Fig. 4. Project plan page. Actions – Open in the optimizer

The resource optimizer page like this (fig. 5):

Fig. 5. Resource optimizer page

Below the page name, you can see a panel (fig. 6), with the list of projects, added to the resource optimizer. To the left of the project names you can see icons, indicating the project type: The base project type has the

icon, and the sub-project type has the

icon.

To show information on one of the projects on this page (task list, Gantt chart, resource workload bar chart), click on its name. The name of the selected project will be dark-yellow, and the current version number of the project plan will be displayed below. After editing a project plan, you will see the

icon next to its name (fig. 6). To the right of the project name is the

button. Click this button to delete the selected project from the list.

Fig. 6. Resource optimizer page with the selected project

When you select a project, the page displays its task list and Gantt chart. These units are the same as displayed on the project plan page. To learn more, see the respective Help section.

Below the task list and Gantt chart is the resource workload bar chart and the list of human and technical resources involved in all the selected projects. To learn more, see the respective Help section.

Top menu buttons

	Publish all the project plan versions, changed in the resource optimizer.
	Save the selected project plan version, edited in the resource optimizer. Click and Save all the changed plans to save all the project plans you have edited in the resource optimizer. If no plans are changed, you will see a respective notification.
	Add projects to view in the resource optimizer.
	Add resources to view in the resource optimizer.
	Select a project plan, to open in the resource optimizer.
	When you click Undo a dialog box opens, where you have to confirm cancelling all the changed you made. When you click and Undo all, a dialog box opens, where you have to confirm cancelling all the changes you made to all the opened project plans.

Publishing changed project plan versions

To publish all the changed project plan versions at the same time, click Publish in the top menu of the resource optimizer page. When you click this button, a dialog box opens (fig. 7), where you have to select projects, whose plans should be published. You can also add all the tasks executors to the project team members, if they are not. To continue, click Publish.

Fig. 7. Dialog box for publishing project plans

Adding projects to the resource optimizer

To start working with the resource optimizer, select an object, whose plan you want to optimize. Possible objects are base type projects, custom type projects, and sub-projects.

To add project plan objects to the resource optimizer page, click Add Objects in the top menu. When you click this button, a dialog box opens (fig. 8), where you have to select the projects to add to the resource optimizer. The drop down list contains only those projects, available to the current user and not added to the resource optimizer.

Fig. 8. Adding objects. Base project type

After searching, the dialog box will be expanded. It contains the object search form (fig. 9, 1) and the search results (fig. 9, 2).

Fig. 9. Adding objects. Search results

To find all the available objects, select an object type and click Find or press Enter.

You can also select a filter, or use quick and/or advanced search.

Plan object search form

To search objects you want to add to the optimizer, use the search form (fig. 9, 1).

As the Object Type you can select:

Base project type – includes the default Project type, and all the custom types;
Sub-project – includes all the sub-projects.

When selecting a Sub-project you can fill in additional fields:

Status – the status of the sub-project. The following statuses are available:

All;
Active;
Overdue;
Not overdue;
Completed.

Project Type – the type of the parent project for this sub-project.

Hide tasks of outdated plans – hide the sub-projects, created in a project plan with the Outdated version status.

Search result table

The search result table (fig. 9, 2) shows the projects, available to the current user, and not added to the resource optimizer.

This table consists of the following columns:

Plan Object – name of the project or sub-project, whose plan will be opened in the resource optimizer.

Project – the name of the project or the parent project, if you select Sub-project.

Project stage – the stage of the project or the parent project, if you select Sub-project.

Start Date – the start date of the project or sub-project, whose plan will be opened in the optimizer.

Due Date – the due date of the project or sub-project, whose plan will be opened in the optimizer.

Status – depend on the selected object type:

for Base Project Type, it shows the status of the project, whose plan will be opened in the resource optimizer;
for Sub-Project, it shows the status of the Sub-project task.

To select plan objects, check the box next to them. You can select several plan objects at the same time. To select all the objects, check the

box in the table header.

To finish adding projects, click Add.

Adding resources to the resource optimizer

To add resources to the resource optimizer, click Add Resources in the top menu. When you click this button, a dialog box opens (fig. 10), where you have to select resources (human/technical) to add to the resource optimizer. If there is the

button, the current user can add new instances to the respective objects. This button is available only if the user has respective access permissions.

The list displays only those resources, created in the Human Resource/Technical Resource objects and not added to the resource optimizer.

Fig. 10. Dialog box for adding resources

To complete adding resources to the resource optimizer, click Add.

Selecting a project plan version

To select a project plan version to display on the resource optimizer page, click Choose Project Plan in the top menu. When you click this button, a dialog box opens (fig. 7), where you have to select the required project plan version, which will be added to the resource optimizer. This dialog box is similar to the dialog box for adding a project. The drop down list displays project plan versions with the Current and Draft statuses. To complete adding a project plan version to the resource optimizer page, click Add.

Using the resource optimizer

Consider a situation, in which a resource is involved in two projects at the same time. Its workload reaches 200% on some days. In this case, the executor will not be able to complete all the project tasks. To unload the resource, you have to distribute its tasks among other project team members or reschedule some tasks.

To do so, open the required projects in the resource optimizer and select the resource on the workload bar chart (fig. 11). When you mouse over the resource, a notification with its workload pops up (fig. 11).

Fig. 11. Resource optimizer page. Resource with high workload

When you double click on this bar, a dialog box with information on the tasks, scheduled for this day, opens (fig. 12).

Fig. 12. Resource workload information

Select the task to reschedule or reassign to another executor. Edit the task and publish the changes made to the project plan.

To workload bar will be highlighted green, meaning that the resource's use is optimal (fig. 13).

Fig. 13. Resource optimizer page. Optimized resource