Forecast planning

When planning for multiple projects in an organization, staffing profile managers may deliver multiple projects at the same time. Instead of accessing each project's staffing profile individually, staffing profile managers can create forecast plans for all projects in a single location using the Forecast Planning page.

In this topic:

Options on the Forecast Planning page

The Forecast Planning page enables staffing profile managers to do the following:

• View all positions and staffing profiles they own across multiple projects

• Filter displayed positions and staffing profiles

• View forecasts for all projects to estimate resource needs

• Edit resource forecasts across multiple staffing profiles

• Add positions to staffing profiles

• Send resource requests

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Access the Forecast Planning page

You can access the Forecast Planning page from the main menu bar.

Prerequisite:

You must have the required access grants. See Configure access grants.

To access the Forecast Planning page:

1. From the main menu, select Project Management > Staffing Profiles > Manage Forecast.

2. Select the search criteria and click Search. For more information about the search fields, see Search filter.

   Note:
   • The staffing profiles that appear in the Forecast Planning page are those that you manage and are not in Lock Down, Cancelled, or Completed status.
   • The Forecast Planning page loads data only once. If another user modifies the data (either through a different instance of the page or elsewhere), your current page is not updated. Any conflicting changes you make are not saved, and you need to reload the page and re-enter your data. To avoid conflicts, save your changes frequently.

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View staffing profile or position information

You can view additional information about a staffing profile or position by using a tooltip or opening an overview window.

Viewing staffing profile information

You can view information about a staffing profile in the following ways:

• Hover over a staffing profile to view the tooltip, which displays the following information: staffing profile name, status, staffing profile manager, project name, start date, end date, and work load category.

• Click the staffing profile name to open the Staffing Profile overview page in another window.

  Note: The information that appears is for reference only. Do not edit the staffing profile from this window. If you make changes in this window, changes in the Forecast Planning page may not be saved.

Viewing position information

You can view information about a position in the following ways:

• Hover over a position to view the tooltip, which displays the following information: position name, status, response needed by, role, resource pool, and resource type.

• Click the position name to open the position overview page in another window.

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Chang forecast values

Update forecast values.

To update a forecast value:

1. Select the cell to update.
2. Replace the existing value with a new forecast value.

3. Click Save to save the changes.

   Tip: Press TAB to select another cell.

To copy a value from one cell to multiple cells:

1. Select a cell to copy.

2. Press SHIFT while clicking to copy the value to all contiguous cells. This updates the values from the copied cell to the selected cells.

3. Click Save to save the changes.

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Add or remove positions

You can add potions to or remove positions from staffing profiles on the Forecast Planning page.

To add a position to a staffing profile:

1. On the Forecast Planning page, click next to the staffing profile and select Add Position.

2. In the Add Position dialog box, specify a Role Required, Position Label (name of the position), and Resource Pool.

   Note: When you click Search on the right of the Resource Pool field in the Add Position dialog box to search for resource pools, the search result would list all the resource pools that fit the search criteria, regardless of whether you have the view access grant to all of them.

3. (Optional) Provide data for any optional fields.

   Note: A message appears if any data provided does not match the filter information specified in the Search for Staffing Profile dialog (the added position will not appear in the Forecast Planning page.

   For a description of the fields, see step b.

4. To add the position, click Add.
   

   To add another position to the same staffing profile, click Add Another.

5. Repeat these steps to add one or more positions to all the staffing profiles.

To remove a position:

1. Locate the position to remove, and click the Delete button . The position and its data remain, but appear in gray.

2. Click Save.

   Tip: You can re-add a position that has been selected for removal by clicking the Undo button . This button appears only when a position has been selected for removal but before clicking the Save button.

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Send a resource request

Send resource request for one or more positions in a staffing profile.

To send a resource request for one or more positions:

1. On the Forecast Planning page, click next to the staffing profile and select Send Requests.

2. In the Send Resource Requests dialog box, select the checkbox for each position for which you want to send a resource request.

3. Specify a date by which a response should be made in the Response needed by date field.

4. Click Send.

   The resource requests are sent to the appropriate resource pools. See Assign resources to tasks for details about assigning resources.

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Filter and sort

You can use filtering to modify the data appearing on the Forecast Planning page. You can also sort the information by staffing profile.

Filter

You can use search filter and time period filter to filter displayed positions and staffing profiles.

Filter	Details
Search filter	To set the search filter: Click Modify next to the Filter For header. On the Search Positions page, provide the information for one or more fields on which you want to filter: Staffing Profile, Role, Resource Pool, Position Name, and Staffing Profile Status. Click Search.
Time period filter	The Showing from<date>to<date> indicates the data's time period. By default, this period is one year, starting one month before the current month. To change the time period: Next to the time period, click Change. In the Change Time Periods dialog box, select the Start Period and End Period dates. Click Change.

Sort

By default, the list of staffing profiles are sorted in alphabetical order. You can sort the staffing profiles in reverse alphabetical order by clicking on the staffing profile header. The Sort icon ( ) appears next to the staffing profile header.

Change display options

Use the Display Options button to change the amount of data that appears on the Forecast Planning page. You can change the period type and effort type.

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