System Roles

Resource Planner

Applying Resource Demand Curves

A demand curve is a template of the estimated demand for the resources in a selected pool during the stages of a project. When working with demands using Resource Editor, manually enter the demand, or select a demand curve to apply to resources assigned to a project.

Demand values are typically calculated from gate to gate. After a demand curve is applied, the demand values are entered and are calculated as a weighted average of the values for each resource planning time period that a stage occurs in.
  • For the first stage in a model starting with a stage, the demand value is calculated from the project start date to the first gate.
  • For the last stage in a model ending in a stage, the value is calculated from the last gate to the project end date, or from the last gate for a number of time periods defined in the demand curve.
  • If the project contains no gate dates, but the project does have start and end dates, the demand for the first stage of the demand curve is applied to every time period from the start date to the end date, unless the final stage has been defined as more than one time period.
  • If all gate dates fall on the first day of the time period, the demand value in every time period equals the value in the demand curve for that stage.
  • If one gate occurs sometime during the time period, the demand value is a weighted average of the demand for the stage before the gate and the demand after it.
  • If two gates fall within a time period, the demand value is a weighted average of the values for the stage before the first gate, the stage between the gates, and the stage after the second gate.
  • If one or more gates without a date falls between gates with dates, the curve's demand value for the first undefined stage is used to calculate the weighted average for all undefined stages.
  • If no gate falls within a time period, the value for the period equals the value in the curve for that stage.

To apply demand using demand curves the following must be true:

  • You must either be the resource pool owner of the pools containing the resources that you want to assign, or the pool must have no assigned owner and you must have security access to the pool.
  • The projects, resource pools, and resources you need must already exist.
  • The resource must be added to a project.
  • The projects that you want to add demand to should have all their gate dates specified. Setting all gate dates before applying demand curves is strongly recommended to generate accurate demand values. When some or all gate dates are missing, the Resource Editor may display values different from those that the project actually requires when its gate dates are set.

To apply demand using demand curves in Resource Editor:

  1. From the Resource menu, select Resource Editor.

  2. Display resources, projects, or demands.
  3. In the Current Effective Period field, select the first time period that the demand values in a demand curve are applied.

    Applying a demand curve creates demand values for time periods beginning with the effective time period; however, values in time periods before the effective time period are preserved.

    If the demand curve is changed part way through the project, you could set the current effective period to the current time period before reapplying the curve. This prevents the record of previous demand in the project from being overwritten while changing the demand for stages during and after the current time period. For example, if you set the period to September 2013, the demand values in the curve are applied to the month of September and after, but any values in August 2013 and before are not modified. See Reapplying Demand Curves below.

Important! The effective period begins on the first day of the period, and the setting governs each instance of applying a demand curve or changing a multiplier that occurs while the period is set.

  1. For a resource assigned to a project, select a demand curve in the Demand Curve column to apply to the resource.

If a demand curve is already applied, selecting a different curve replaces existing demand values with values from the newly selected curve. If N/A displays, no demand curve is currently applied to the demand row. Selecting N/A in a row where values have already been applied does not delete them.

Only demand curves set for the pool-model combination that match the pool the resource is in and model the project follows are available for selection.

  1. (Optional) In the Multiplier field, enter a factor to use to multiply all the demand values calculated using the demand curve in this row.
  2. Click Apply to save your changes.

Reapplying a Demand Curve

If a demand curve is modified, you must reapply it to any resources that use the curve within Resource Editor for the changes to take effect. If some demand values have been modified manually, you may need to reapply the original values from the demand curve.

Important! When you reapply a demand curve to a resource that already contains values, ensure that the current effective period correctly identifies the time period before which you want existing data to remain unchanged. If you overwrite historical data, you must re-enter the correct values manually.

When you reapply a demand curve, any manually entered values in time periods after the curve are deleted. If you need to preserve such values, copy them, reapply the curve, and then paste the values back to the appropriate columns.

To reapply a demand curve:

  1. From the Resource menu, select Resource Editor.

  2. Display resources, projects, or demands.
  3. In the Demand Curve field, select [N/A] and then select the same demand curve.
  4. Click Apply to save your changes.

Notes:   

  • For demand to be calculated for post-launch activities in a project ending in a stage, the last gate date must be set.
  • If you apply a demand curve to a project without enough date information to calculate demand, all values for the resource for that project in Resource Editor are deleted.
  • If gate dates are added or modified after the demand curve is applied, the changes to the demand are made automatically starting at the effective period that was selected when the curve was applied.

  • Resource Planning is an optional Accolade component that you may not have access to. To implement this solution, contact Sopheon Customer Support .

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