Resource Pools Overview

Resource pools are groups of similar types of resources and are used to request and assign resources on a project. How your company defines the resource pools depends on how the company structure and resource planning process. For example, you may choose to define resource pools based on function and specialty, such as Engineers or Chemists, or based on geography, or a combination of both.

Consider the following when defining the resource pools for your organization:

  • Accolade Roles - The roles and rights settings within Accolade determine what each user can and cannot do with resource pools. Administrators and Resource Pool Administrators can add, edit, and delete resource pools. Project Managers and Resource Planners use resource pools in their requests and planning, but cannot define resource pools. If security lists are enabled, the Administrator can create or modify a pool with any security setting, but a Resource Pool Administrator can only create or modify pools that the Pool Administrator can access.
  • Pool Types - Within Accolade, pool types are defined and identified by the demand type that is assigned to the pool. A pool can exist as a requested-only pool, as an assigned-only pool, both a requested pool and an assigned pool, or neither.

    If you choose, you can group resources in requested-only pools and into assigned-only pools (also called allocation pools). Requested pools typically contain only general resources, such as Any Chemist, Any Engineer in the USA, or Any Lab. These are generic pools that Project Managers can use to make demand requests for their projects. For example, Project Managers cannot make a request for a specific user resource for a project. However, as they are planning projects, they can indicate that they need one full time engineer for a project, based in a specific country. Assigned pools contain the actual resources that a Resource Planner uses to create assigned demands for a demand request.

  • Pool Resources - Pools can contain general resources, specific users, and system-generated resources. Typically, general resources are only used in requested pools. A user resource can belong to only one pool.
  • Pool Owners - Resource Pools can exist with or without an owner. Owners are Resource Planners, who can then assign demand to the resources within a pool. If an owner is assigned, only that owner can assign demand to the resources in the pool. If a pool does not have an owner, all Resource Planners have access to the resources within the pool. Assign an owner to restrict who can assign demand to the resources within the pool.

    A resource pool can have a primary owner and any number of additional, secondary owners. Assign additional owners to a resource pool if more than one Resource Planner has ownership of a pool. Assigning multiple owners to a resource pool allows planners to share their workload, as well as establish a backup owner during their absence. Additional owners on resource pools have the same capabilities as the primary pool owner.

  • Linked Pools - Resource Pool Administrators can associate a requested-only pool with corresponding assigned-only pools, which allows Resource Planners to know which group of resources they can assign to certain requests.
  • Automatically Calculating Capacity - If you use request-only pools and relate them to assigned-only pools, ensure that the resource within the requested pool reflects the total capacity of the members in the related assigned-only pools. Auto calculating capacity for your pools helps Resource Planners keep capacities in sync without having to manually update the pool's capacity if a resource is added, deleted, or moved from an allocation pool.

See the following to get started: