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Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

  • 1.  Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 07, 2016 05:16 PM

    I'm trying to understand the difference/correlation between the resource's standard calendar and the Availability set on the Resource/Properties/General tab. 

     

    Currently all resources have an availability of 8 hrs on the Resource-Labor Properties/General tab.  Everyone is assigned to the Standard calendar that has a 8 hr shift from 8a-12p, 1p - 5p.

     

    We want to have Clarity reflect the 3 types of employees that have an availability of 7.5 hrs, 8 hrs, and 9 hrs.  What do we need to do in order to have the each of these resource's accurately reflect the correct availability, allocation on projects, and cost estimates on a cost plan?  For example, can we just change the a resources availability from 8 hrs to 9 hrs and leave the standard calendar with an 8 hr shift?  Or do I need to create 2 more calendar's for the resources that have 7.5 hrs and 9 hrs of availability?

     

    Resource Availability.jpg



  • 2.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 07, 2016 05:27 PM

    Hello,

     

    Kindly refer to the "Base Calendars" under Project Management section on Administration page.

     

    You can set up as many Base Calendars and define the number of working days for resource. Resources can then be aligned to the Base Calendars.

    Its upto you how many Base Calendars you can have. However, Resources will have only one Availability Field, which will be constant.

     

    Availability of resources is somewhat however the resource availability in a month is calculated as (Number of Days in Calendar month X No of hours the Resource Works) for example: 20*8=160 hours in a 20 Calendar days month.

    This will give you availability hours of resource in a month, which can be observed while assigning Resources to Project Tasks. (Kindly refer to Project Management and Resource Management guides for references)

     

    Cheers,

    Hemant.



  • 3.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 07, 2016 05:50 PM

    Thanks for the reply Hemant.

     

    I am aware of where base calendars are.  What I'm trying to understand is how the Resource Availability and Base Calendars work together.  I am continuing to research on my end as well.

     

    If I understand what you're saying, I'll use the month of February as an example:

    February had 20 working days because there was one holiday.  You take 20 days x 9 hrs = 180 hrs.   

     

    If this is true, then what is the reason for setting an 8 hr shift in the calendar?



  • 4.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 08, 2016 06:51 AM

    Hello Garrett,

     

    Just to add - Resource Availability is the number of hours the resource is required to work on a daily basis as per the company laws. It could be that the resource may work for 9 hours in a day, but, the Resource Availability may be set to 8 hours just because the 1 hour break is not counted to be paid. In other circumstances, the resource may get paid for the full 9 hours in a day including the break time. The Resource Availability field can be changed either by the Resource Manager or the Booking Manager or by the Admin itself.

     

    Suhail.



  • 5.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 08, 2016 03:53 PM

    Hi Suhail,

     

    Thanks for the response.  I used 9 hours as my example because we will have some resources that have a 9 hour workday not including a lunch break.  With that said do I have to have a resource that has an availability of 9 hrs also have their calendar reflect the 9 hour work day shift or can I leave it at the default 8 hour shift without it effecting any reporting and allocations?



  • 6.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 07, 2016 11:55 PM

    The below should help:

    Resource Availability in clarity tables?

     

    NJ



  • 7.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 08, 2016 03:59 PM

    Thanks for the response NJ.

     

    I think the link you posted was a little more in depth than what I'm looking for, or maybe I'm thinking to simplistic about the resource availability and calendar.

     

    I just can't wrap my head around the answer and I also seem to be finding different answers.  For example, here's where I'm seeing different posts on the topic.  I saw Martti post this on the discussion:

    Resource availability is in prj_resrouces.pravailcurve

    which is based on prcalendar.prvalue for each resource linked to a calendar and the resource specific changes if any made to the resource calendar or availability field.

    To make changes to resource availability go to
    1) Base calendars in Admin tool if they apply to more than one resource, create different calendars for different daily/weekly availability
    2) Calendar on resource properties if that is one resource only
    Make the changes by setting the shifts.


    Leave the availability field in resource properties untouched (the default is 8) it will be changed to reflect the changes in calendars.

    Unless you want to get into a mess don't change both the length of the working day through shifts and the availability. If you do you may have a hard time to get where you started from or to a value you want.
    Martti K.

     

    But then I read the CA PPM document example that says this:

    Example: Monthly Resource Availability

    This example demonstrates monthly resource availability calculations.

    1. 1. Create a base calendar for December with 5-hour shifts per day.
      December has 22 days. The total hours are (5 × 22) = 110.
    2. 2. Assign this base calendar to a resource.
      Daily resource availability is 5.
    3. 3. Change the Availability field value from 5 to 8.
      The calendar still displays 5-hour shifts.
      Portlets show December availability as (8 × 22) = 176 hours.
    4. 4. Change the resource calendar to reflect 4-hour shifts for December for this resource. The availability of the resource is greater than 4 because you previously indicated a value of 8.
    5. 5. The Availability field shows 8, the base calendar shows 5, and the resource calendar shows 4. The calculated availability in hours for the resource for December is as follows:

      (4/5) × 8 × 22 = 140.8



  • 8.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 08, 2016 04:39 PM

    Also, be aware of the FTE gotcha, when using multiple calendars. You can search the community for the effect of multiple calendars on the FTE calculation.



  • 9.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 08, 2016 04:45 PM

    Thanks Michael.  I will do that.  Do you recommend not using multiple calendars then?

     

    Garrett



  • 10.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 09, 2016 01:06 AM

    Hello Garrett,

     

    As per the information that I've gathered from the Resource Management User Guide, here is a short definition about Resource Availability:-

     

    Availability

    Defines the number of hours in a business day that the resource is expected to work. The availability number is automatically multiplied by five, which is the number of days in a standard working week.

    Default: 8

    Note: This field is mandatory and must be greater than zero for the Labor type of resource or role. ETC is based on the availability. An expense type of resource or role that is assigned to a task does not have a default ETC.

     

    I've previously seen CA Clarity PPM Users entering the Resource Availability depending on the number of hours that a resource is supposed to work on a daily basis. So, it could be either 7.5, 8 or 9 hours.

     

    For more information about Calendars, Shifts, and Work Days; you can check at the link here.

     

    Suhail.

     

    Note: In case if the above link is not opening, you can refer the Resource Management User guide for your reference. Go to Resources and Roles -> Calendars, Shifts, and Work Days.



  • 11.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 11, 2016 12:26 PM

    Your link is bad



  • 12.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 10, 2016 10:59 AM

    We use multiple calendars, but they all reference a common base calendar.  That way, we know that 1 FTE in US vs. 1 FTE in EU equates to the same amount of hours of demanded or availability.

     

    If you have well separated lines of business, where each business has a good reason for having a different base calendar and overall summary reporting won't be done across businesses, fine have multiple base calendars.  Otherwise, keep it simple - just have one base calendar.  IMO. 



  • 13.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 11, 2016 12:24 PM

    We have multiple calendars for different areas and different shifts. This works well. We just do not use the FTE from Clarity.

    We have 4 Calendars for India, 4 for North America, and a UK one as well and 4 different shifts.



  • 14.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 09, 2016 04:07 AM

    I tend to think of it as something like;

     

    Resource availability comes from their base calendar...

    ...unless they have a personal deviation from that calendar (when it starts to get complicated)...

    ...unless they have a personalised availability rate at resource level (when it gets very complicated, especially if you then start changing the underlying calendar).

     

    The "availability slice" for the day has the final answer ; but I don't think that anywhere is a simple view of how that availability amount is calculated (since it considers a number of factors).



  • 15.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 10, 2016 09:57 AM

    Exactly, it needs to be simplified.



  • 16.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Mar 11, 2016 02:58 AM

    Hi Garrett.S

     

    You really need to ask the question "Why do I want to define different availability?"

     

    True, you will know which resources are available 7.5, 8 or 9 hours per day but for what purpose?

     

    If you think about a Project Manager scheduling work for these resources, they now need to think about how many hours per day each resource is available in order to adjust the ETC. So a resource available 7.5 hours per day can do 37.5 hours in one week but a resource available 9 hours per day can do 45 hours in one week. If the Project Manager wants to give 5 days work to a resource they have to think "Is this 37.5 or 45 hours I need to assign to this task?"

     

    How many Project Managers do you know who are going to be happy to faff around with estimates like this? I don't know any! Also, I can count on one hand the number of Project Managers who understand effort-based planning. Most simply use Microsoft Project to schedule dates and have no idea that when they assign a resource to a task they are also assigning Work (or ETC in PPM parlance).

     

    So, my advice is, unless you need to micro manage resource ETC and it's critical to schedule work at that level, keep it simple and stay with a single calendar.



  • 17.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 11, 2016 12:25 PM

    I constantly find RM's that micromanage resource assignments. I am constantly getting complaints from some PM's on the TSV issue for daily and weekly allocations.



  • 18.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 11, 2016 04:13 PM

    Steve,

     

    We do not use ETC for tasks, but instead we use how much the resource is allocated on the project.

     

    When we setup Clarity we set everyone to a general availability of 8 hrs from one Standard calendar with bank holidays in it no matter if they had a different work shift or holiday calendar.

     

    We use resource availability to determine the estimated resource Allocation on the project. This in turn also effects the Cost Plan total which we use to equal the Project approved budget.  We create a Cost Plan by selecting "Populate from Investment Team."  So the monthly cost of a resource is calculated by: 

     

    The number of calendar working days for that month  x  the resource availability (on the Resource/Properties tab)  x  the resource rate in the rate matrix.

     

    Resource Allocation.jpg

     

    Cost Plan Resource Cost.jpg

     

    So answer your question, "Why do I want to define different availability?" 

    The PM's have requested the the resources be setup to the calendar that they follow and have their correct availability so that they can have an accurate Cost plan cost total that equals the project approved budget.

     

    Does this help?  Originally the request only started with changing the resource's availability but now we are even discussing have an accurate calendar for on-shore and off-shore resources.

     



  • 19.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Oct 24, 2017 10:46 AM

    Hello Garrrett,

     

    Your explanation is really good for this question but can we know the Calculation for Resource Availability rate? It's a virtual field and we don't know on how this value is populating. Some times we are not able to provide explanation to end users because we don't know what's calculation behind this.



  • 20.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Oct 25, 2017 01:15 AM

    Hi Giriraj,

     

    Please refer to the below technical document and see if it helps answer your question:

     

    How to set the default resource availability rate 

     

    Thanks

    Shailey



  • 21.  Re: Resource Standard Calendar vs Resource Availability

    Posted Mar 11, 2016 03:13 PM

    Thank you everyone for your responses and input.  I do appreciate it.

     

    Garrett