Team Resources

Resource management decisions are often based around labor. How much is needed? What types of skills are required and when does it needs to be done by? Who can do it? Did it get done? You can measure labor in the following ways:

Demand How much is needed? Demand is the net request for labor, work, and resources for a work item.
Capacity What types of skills are required and when does it need to be done by? Capacity measures what is needed for a work item and the availability of resources that can be allocated or assigned to one or more tasks. Capacity can be measured using actual resources or by using generic resources as a placeholder.
Allocation Who can do it? An allocation is an agreement between a resource manager and a project manager as to the availability of a given resource (actual or generic) to work on one or more tasks in a work item's task plan.
Assignments Did it get done? Assignments are tracked against the individual tasks within the task plan. Assignments are tracked in timesheets that are submitted by the resources assigned to tasks in the task plan. Timesheets can be approved or rejected.

You can use the Team Resources tab to help identify the skill levels needed by a task and then to find (or request) the resources in your organization who can be assigned to work on them.

The upper pane of the Team Resources tab is used to view the resources that have been allocated to a work item. A project manager or resource manager can allocate actual and generic resources one resource at a time or can allocate many resources by using the Allocation Editor.

Select a start date and an end date to view the resources that are available; allocations that fall outside of the selected date range will not be displayed. You can also view resources in the Team Resources tab by dimension (such as Plan or Task Baseline), by a unit of measurement (such as currency or hours), or by a time period defined by your organization (such as a fiscal year).

The default column shown for a team roster is: Name. To display a resource's assigned tasks, click the plus symbol next to a resource name. You can add additional columns to the upper pane by clicking the Properties button. Use the Swap/Grid Timeline button to toggle between the timegrid and timeline views. Click the Apply button to recalculate the timeline or timegrid view to include your changes. Click Show Allocations to display allocation values instead of assignment values. Move the splitter bar to increase or decrease the size of the upper pane.

The lower pane of the Team Resources tab is used to view resource allocation properties. The General tab shows a resource's properties, such as their email address and contact information. The Calendar tab shows the resource's personal calendar. The Graph tab shows the resource's capacity, assignments, and allocations. The Allocation tab shows resource allocation and allows you to make changes to allocations. The Resource Role tab shows resource role details.

For more information, see the following topics: