Allocation by Resource Plan FTE

[ahelp]

Allocation by a Resource Plan using FTE on an admin/overhead project seems
like an ideal way to control availability. Allocate resources at say .3 on an
overhead project with email, training, vacation, etc, and that would leave
them available at .7 of their max allocation for other projects.

I created a new project on a fresh installation (no other published
projects). I attached a resource plan and assigned myself to various FTEs.
The results are below. Our productive work day for EPM is 7.2 hours. When I
checked my allocation, this is what I found:
FTE Allocation Expected Availability
0 0 0 7.2
.3 3.49 2.16 3.71
.5 5.82 3.6 1.38
.7 8.15 hrs 5.04 -.95
1 11.64 7.2 -4.44

Has anyone else run into this? Is it configuration issues or a bug? I
submitted this on the MOPS 2007 Connect site, but there has not been a
resolution.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Jonathan Sofer]

What setting do you have on PWA under Server Settings>Additional Server
Settings in the Resource Plan Work Day section for "Calculate resource
full-time equivalent from:"

Is it set to Resource Base Calendar or Hours Per Day.

Also, do you have any non working time set for yourself on your enterprise
resoruce calendar or are there any holidays on the base calendar you are
using?

Did you enter the FTE as a total for yourself or did you enter it on a
period by period basis? The calculation can be a little off depending on
these settings and the non-working days per period.

Jonathan

 

[ahelp]

Hi Jonathan,
Thank you for your reply. We initially had Calculate resource full-time
equivalent from Resource Base Calendar. I changed it to Hours per day - 7.2.
We haven't used resource calendars, but do have holidays in our enterprise
calendar.

I don't follow your question about whether I entered the FTE as a total for
myself or on a period by period basis. I believe it is the latter, but I'm
not sure what you mean by the former (changing my units?).

Initially (under View Options for the Resource Plan) I had chosen a column
interval of years and set the FTE for the year to .5 (or whatever). This time
I chose months & set each month to a different FTE.

When I view allocation for myself, it is consistent for each day of each
month (skipping weekends and holidays), and the bars on the chart jump up
each month.

Again, this is calculating resource utilization from the Resource plan.
There is only one published project and it has two tasks running
concurrently. I'm allocated 100% on both of them.

This is what I see under View Allocation (7.2 hour day):
Expected Effective
FTE Allocation Allocated FTE
0.2 1.44 1.73 0.24
0.3 2.16 3.41 0.47
0.4 2.88 4.06 0.56
0.5 3.6 5.40 0.75
0.6 4.32 6.37 0.88
0.7 5.04 7.10 0.99
0.8 5.76 8.64 1.20
1.0 7.2 10.61 1.47

When I calculate resource utilization from the project plan, it correctly
shows me with -7.2 availability.

Any other ideas? I take it when you put in an FTE of .5, it shows a
corresponding allocation of half your work day, is that correct?
Thanks again,
Mike

 

[Jonathan Sofer]

Mike,

In my testing, setting the FTE calculation from hours per day seems to not
work as expected. If you use the resource base calendar option instead, it
seems to be more consistent. If you want it to calculate FTE's based on a
7.2 work day then I would suggest changing the base calendar which your
resources are on to 7.2 hours per day but that has other implications,
especially if you are also tracking no project work which represents the 0.8
hrs per day you are deducting off the top.

Although resource plans add a nice new layer of functionality and in some
ways it is easier to enter demand here, I think MS has a long way to go on
this feature.

Sorry I couldn't help any more than that.

Jonathan

 

[ahelp]

Thanks Jonathan, I appreciate your assistance. This may go back to the old
conflict: Is it a bug or a feature?

 

[Mike]

Thanks Jonathan, I appreciate your assistance. This may go back to the old
conflict: Is it a bug or a feature?
--
Mike








- Show quoted text -

Jonatthan, Mike

In my view the FTE feature is buggy, particularly when using resource
based calendar setting. The period setting, particularly choosing
months misbehaves. You can enter values which on saving turn negative
(try entering values in Jan/Feb for several resources). The hours per
day basis is much more predictable however it counts every day in the
month (eg 31 days) to derive resource plan work. If you display this
in a DAta Analysis view against capacity it looks silly (unless you
redefine your standard calendar to 7 day working.

So FTE is a good idea but its needs thinking thru and critically you
would like to output FTE data in Data Analysis views (from standard
cubes)

regards

Mike