Visualize assignments

A basic task for project managers and request managers is to ensure that work items are assigned to their team members without overloading anyone. This task of balancing the assignments of all resources is called load balancing.

The Analyze Assignment Load portlet provides a tool for visualizing assignments that allows a manager to view workload sorted according to different criteria and levels of specificity, giving them better control and visibility over their resources' workload.

Figure 5-16. Analyze Assignment Load portlet shows the Analyze Assignment Load portlet, which can help a manager rapidly pinpoint areas of over- or under-allocation.

Figure 5-16. Analyze Assignment Load portlet

Table 5-14. Analyze Assignment Load portlet legend

Name	Description
Utilization	The amount of effort that has been allocated to the selected resources during the time period.
Overallocation	The amount of effort that exceeds the capacity level of the selected resources.
Capacity Level	The maximum amount of effort that can be allocated to the selected resources during the time period.

The Analyze Assignment Load portlet can be filtered according to the parameters described in Table 5-15. Analyze Assignment Load portlet - parameters.

Table 5-15. Analyze Assignment Load portlet - parameters

Field Name	Description
Preferences
Analyze Capacity from	A choice of multi-select auto-complete fields that selects the sets of resources to display in the Analyze Assignment Load page. Possible choices: Organization Units, Resources in the Resource Pool, Resources Managed By, Resource Name, Resources on Project If you select Resources in the Resource Pool, two additional options are available: Include children resource pools. Include resources from children resource pools of the selected resource pools. Limit capacity against selected resource pools. Include the capacity and scheduled effort (from staffing profiles) of resources for the selected resource pools only. If a resource belongs to more than one resource pool, the capacity and scheduled effort for only the selected resource pools are used. Scheduled effort entered in a work plan or request (effort not associated with a resource pool) is not limited.
Assignments with Workload Category	Selects assignments of a specific Workload Category to display.
Resources with Role	A multi-select auto-complete field that selects a role or set of roles to display from the sets of resources being analyzed.
Total Assignment Values for	Select to display Scheduled Effort, Actual Effort, or Scheduled and Actual Effort in the Analyze Assignment Load page. If you are analyzing capacity from a resource pool and have selected Limit capacity against selected resource pools, only Scheduled Effort can be selected.
Assignments Against Work Items	Selects assignments against a specific work item or set of work items to be included for the sets of resources being analyzed. If you select Package, Program or Miscellaneous for this option, only Actual Effort can be displayed for these work items.
Time Period
Period	Sets the time period being used by the Analyze Assignment Load page.
Display __ past periods	Selects up to 20 time periods before the current date to include in the Analyze Assignment Load page. Useful for viewing historical trends.
Display __ future periods	Selects up to 20 time periods after the current date to include in the Analyze Assignment Load page.

If large amounts of data are supplied to the portlet, there may be performance problems. Therefore, a threshold for this portlet can be specified in the server.conf file and a default value is provided for optimal performance.

• AAL_PORTLET_MAX_RESOURCES: the maximum number of total resources. The default value is 300.

See the Installation and Administration Guide for more information about editing the server.conf file.

When the threshold is exceeded, the portlet does not display. Instead, a message containing the threshold value and current value that exceeds the threshold appear. To make the portlet display, you can edit the preferences of the portlet so that the threshold is no longer exceeded. It is not recommended to increase the threshold value as this may cause performance problems.

If the amount of data you need to analyze exceeds the threshold, you can export the data to Microsoft Excel. To export Analyze Assignment Load portlet data to Microsoft Excel, do the following:

1. Select Open > Resource Management > Data Exports > Analyze Assignment Load.

2. Set the filter criteria for export.

   An additional field is included for the filter criteria: Include Detailed Data. Select this checkbox if you want to get a breakdown of total resource capacity and workload (data displayed in the Analyze Assignment Load Breakdown table).

3. Click Export To Excel.

The date when the snapshot was taken is included in the export.