Conducting Capacity Planning

This chapter provides an overview of capacity planning, lists prerequisites, and discusses how to:

• Set up capacity planning.

• Create supply forecast models.

• Create demand forecast models.

• Conduct consolidated scenario analysis.

Understanding Capacity Planning

This section discusses:

• Capacity planning in PeopleSoft Resource Management.

• Terminology that is relevant to capacity planning.

• Capacity planning high-level process steps.

Capacity Planning in PeopleSoft Resource Management

Capacity Planning enables the Executive and IT management teams to commit to the highest priority projects and other demands with confidence, knowing that sufficient resource capacity exists within the organization. Capacity planning provides management with the:

• Ability to create and join a supply and demand forecast that highlights future resource gaps and surplus.

• Flexibility of performing what-if scenario analysis to find the optimal solution set.

• Ability to create resource plans to resolve future resource imbalances.

Capacity Planning is an integral piece of functionality for the Project Portfolio Management and Information Technology (IT) governance markets. It is the merger and balance of human resources (supply) and work to be done (demand) to achieve and sustain peak operational efficiency.

PeopleSoft Resource Management provides IT and development organizations with capacity planning functionality to empower managers who make important demand commitment decisions based upon limited resources or capacity information. Capacity planning is primarily concerned with long-term projections and decisions about your organization's resource demand and supply.

After IT and development organizations have made important demand commitment decisions based upon their strategic capacity planning, pool managers, resource managers, and program managers need to execute upon those commitments. At an operational or day-to-day level, difficult resource decisions must be made over the course of a project to be successful. Some operational challenges—such as high resource turnover rates, extended vacations or illness on the part of key resources—cannot be forecast with Capacity Planning.

By logically grouping resources together, resource pools enable efficient resource management, while supply categories allow for classification of resources more interchangeably. Generic resource allocation enables managers to reserve pool capacity, and supply category analytics improve visibility of resource capacity.

Terminology

This table describes terms that are relevant to capacity planning:

Capacity Planning High-Level Process Steps

The capacity planning process can be described with these steps:

1. Executives organize resources into meaningful resource pools and set resource utilization percentages at the regional level.

2. Pool managers forecast capacity percentages for each resource role in their pool and account for future capacity.

3. The program manager creates the initial supply forecast model showing total capacity for each resource pool by using the capacity percentages combined with the preset region-based utilization percentages.

4. Once a supply forecast is created, executives can adjust capacity and regional utilization percentages to create different supply forecasts from the original model to analyze alternate scenarios.

5. The program manager creates the initial demand forecast, which is combined with supply forecasts to create consolidated scenarios for what-if analysis.

   The flexibility of this conditional analysis helps management determine the optimal balance of available resources and pending work for the projected time period.

The project manager can add generic resources with supply categories to the project resource list and requests assignments. The project manager creates a generic resource request, and has the option to automatically request generic and named resources during Microsoft Project (MSP) integration. The pool managers can view supply category capacity, allocation and availability by week, at the pool and role level. The project manager can view individual resource availability based on project assignments and activity assignments. After pool managers have viewed the supply category analytic information, they can transfer resources from one pool to another pool, or do a mass transfer of assignments from one resource to another resource. The pool managers can then update generic allocations to named resource assignments.

Prerequisites

To implement capacity planning, you must

• Install PeopleSoft Project Costing, Program Management, and Resource Management.

• Install PeopleSoft Expenses for time reporting and policy time functionality so that historical policy time submitted for the preceding year is accessible for the region utilization percentage.

Setting Up Capacity Planning

This section provides an overview of resource utilization percentages and discusses how to:

• Manage strategic capacity planning.

• Associate business units with regions.

• Set up resource utilization percentages by region.

• Set up capacity planning options.

Understanding Resource Utilization Percentages

Before you can create a supply forecast you must set up resource utilization percentages. The system enables you to view the historical utilization percentage of the resources and to set a new percentage to create a supply forecast model.

Setting up utilization percentages consists of defining regions, associating time reporting business units and time reporting codes to regions, and setting a utilization percentage default per region.

Note. Region is a supply category.

The Link Regions to Business Units component (RS_REGION_BUEX)includes the mapping of PeopleSoft Expenses business units and setIDs to the region code. The Define Utilization Percentages component (RS_REGION_UTIL) includes a breakdown of historical and default utilization percentages based on the setID’s time reporting codes (TRCs) for that region. The component searches the preceding year’s reported timesheets to gather the historical information.

Note. The historical utilization percentage is an approximation and is mainly used to create the supply forecast.

Pages Used to Set Up Capacity Planning

Associating Business Units with Regions

Access the Link Regions to Business Units page.

Business Unit

Select from a list of PeopleSoft Expenses business units that are not yet associated with a region. Note. Business units that are already associated to a region do not appear in the list.

Note. Region is a required supply category for all PeopleSoft Resource Management resources.

See Also

Establishing and Maintaining Employees and Non-Employees as Resources

Setting Up Resource Utilization Percentages by Region

Access the Define Utilization Percentages page.

Time Reporting Code	Displays the time reporting codes (TRCs) for each region. The system obtains the policy time codes using the business units that are linked to that region on the Region Codes page.
Utilization % (utilization percentage)	The utilization percentage that appears as the default value is the historical utilization percentage. You can override the default value. Note. If you change the Utilization % after a forecast is saved, the forecast will not be affected.
Historical Utilization % (historical utilization percentage)	Displays the percentage of total time reported by the resources in the region for each TRC for the previous year in PeopleSoft Expenses.
Total Utilization % (total utilization percentage)	Displays the final utilization that is used within strategic capacity planning models, which is calculated by subtracting all Utilization % rows from 100 percent.
Total Historical Utilization % (total historical utilization percentage)	Displays the final historical utilization, which is calculated by subtracting all Historical Utilization % rows from 100 percent. Historical utilization assists management with determining the proper utilization value to set.

Setting Up Capacity Planning Options

Access the Installation Options - Resource Management page.

See Defining Resource Management Installation Options.

Managing Strategic Capacity Planning

Access the Strategic Capacity Planning Home page.

Consolidated Scenario Analysis

Click a link in the Scenario Name column to view details of that scenario.

Supply Forecast

Click a link in the Supply Name column to view details of that supply forecast.

Demand Forecast

Click a link in the Demand Name column to view details of that demand forecast.

Creating Supply Forecast Models

This section provides overviews of the supply forecast model and resources and capacity calculations, and discusses how to:

• Create supply forecasts and select pools.

• Add pools to forecasts.

• Review supply forecasts.

• View supply forecast details.

• Modify supply forecasts.

• Add new supply.

• Modify region utilization.

• View forecast history.

• Analyze supply.

• View supply forecast charts.

• Copy supply forecasts.

Understanding the Supply Forecast Model

Supply consists of human resources that are available to do work. A supply forecast is an aggregated projection of all labor resource capacity based on resource pool headcount forecasts and utilization. A supply forecast model provides an organization with a way to gain an accurate, concise picture of its forecasted resource capacity over a period of time.

After resources are grouped in resource pools, pool managers can define a capacity percent for each resource (named or generic) in their pool and account for future capacity in those resource pools. This information is combined with the preset, region-based utilization percentage to create a supply forecast that calculates the total capacity for each resource pool. Three other supply categories (role, region, and personnel status) further segregate the data.

The system also calculates the capacity of each resource (named and generic) within each of the selected pools for the selected date range. The data is presented in a summarized format and initially displayed by pool and role (within each pool). You have the option to view the data by other supply categories as well as in graphical format. In addition, you can view the resource information using PeopleSoft Analytic Calculation Engine interactive analysis.

The maximum range for supply forecasting is 24 months.

Note. All data in supply forecasts, demand forecasts, and consolidated scenarios are point-in-time. This means that if additional resource pools or demand data change or become available on the transactional side, it does not affect any existing forecasts or scenarios—unless you specifically choose to add them afterwards. In other words, forecasts are created based on the picture of the supply and demand as of the date the forecast was created. If pools and capacity are added a week later, for example, that information does not appear in the supply forecast. You can manually add the supply or new resource pools to the forecast or create a new forecast to capture the latest supply data.

This flowchart shows the supply forecast model process:

Supply Forecast Model process flow

You use the Supply Forecast component (RS_FR_SUPPLY) to create, view, and modify supply forecasts.

Understanding Resources and Capacity Calculations

This section discusses:

• Resources without roles.

• Resource capacity calculations.

Resources Without Roles

Because role is not a required supply category for a resource, it is possible that the forecast will encounter resources that do not have a role specified. If the forecast encounters any resources with a blank Role field, the system displays the capacity for these resources with a label of Undefined Role. For example, this table lists the resources within Pool A:

The capacity breakdown is:

• DBA: 220 days

• QA: 100 days

• Undefined Role: 125 days

Resource Capacity Calculations

The system calculates capacity in either hours or days. Organizations decide at the installation level if they will display and calculate capacity in hours or days. Capacity is calculated by selecting each resource that is part of the selected pools for the time period that the forecast is being created. The system looks up the capacity percentage that was set in that pool for each resource. The capacity is multiplied by the number of days or hours in the forecast period. Finally, a utilization percentage (based on the resource's region) is applied. Therefore:

capacity = (resource pool capacity percentage) × (number of days or hours in period) × (utilization percentage)

The following scenarios explain how capacity is calculated. This table presents the information that is used in the subsequent scenarios:

Scenario 1: Resource is in one pool with the same pool capacity percentage for the entire period.

(Pool capacity percentage) × (number of days or hours in period) × (utilization percentage).

1. 0 × (20 days × 12 months) × 0.85 = 204 days of capacity for the period.

Scenario 2: Resource is in one pool with one pool capacity percentage for one full month, and another pool capacity percentage for the rest of the period.

(Pool capacity percentage) × (number of days or hours in period) × (utilization percentage).

06/01/04 – 06/30/04: 0.5 × (20 days x 1 month) × 0.85 = 8.5 days of capacity.

07/01/04 – 05/31/05: 1.0 × (20 days x 11 months) × 0.85 = 187 days of capacity.

Total capacity for the forecast period is 195.5 days.

Scenario 3: Resource is in one pool with one pool capacity percentage for a partial month, and another pool capacity percentage spanning multiple months.

This scenario is one of the more complicated situations that may be present. The dates are broken down monthly (or by fractions of months when the capacity changes mid-month):

(Pool capacity percentage) × (number of days or hours in period) × (utilization percentage).

06/01/04 – 06/30/04: 0.5 × (20 days x 1 month) × 0.85 = 8.5 days of capacity.

07/01/04 – 07/21/04: 1.0 × (20 days x 0.68 month) × 0.85 = 5.8 days of capacity.

07/22/04 – 07/31/04: 1.0 × (20 days x 0.32 month) × 0.85 = 5.4 days of capacity.

08/01/04 – 05/31/05: 1.0 × (20 days x 10 months) × 0.85 = 170 days of capacity.

Total capacity for the forecast period is 189.7 days.

Supply full-time resource takes into account all the regions found in the supply forecast. For example, if the number of days is 6000, the region utilization percent is 80 (since each region can have a different percent each one would have to be included in the calculations), the days per month for a full-time resource is 20, and the number of months in the scenario date range is 12, the calculation is:

6000 days ÷ 0.80 ÷ 20 days ÷ 12 = 31.25 full-time resources.

Note. Full-time resources are calculated differently between the Supply Summary page and the Supply Details page.

Pages Used to Create and Modify Supply Forecasts

Creating Forecasts and Selecting Pools

Access the Supply Forecast - Select Pools page.

Select	Select this check box to designate that a pool is selected for the forecast. When you select a pool that has child pools, all the child pools should be selected as well. You can clear a parent pool without clearing the associated child pools.
Pool Name	Displays the description of the available pools from which to select.
Manager Name	Displays the name of the pool manager.
Add To Supply Forecast	Click this button to add the selected pools to the supply forecast.
Remove From Supply Forecast	Click this button to remove the selected pools from the supply forecast.
Search for Pools	Click this link to access the Search for Pools page where you can provide pool name, pool manager name, and pool ID criteria to limit the search and selection of specific pools.
View Supply Forecast	Click this link to view the summarized information for a supply forecast.
	The Selected Pool icon appears after you select a resource pool and click the Add To Supply Forecast button to add the pool to the supply forecast.

Adding Pools to Forecasts

Access the Search for Pools page.

Select	After you enter search criteria in the Search for Pools group box and view results in the Search Results group box, select the pools that you want to add to the forecast.
Add To Supply Forecast	Click this button to add the selected pools to the forecast. When you click this button, the Selected Pool icon appears next to the pool name. Click the Return to Select Pools link to return to the Supply Forecast - Select Pools page.

Reviewing Supply Forecasts

Access the Supply Forecast page.

Description	Enter a description for this supply forecast.
Pool/Role	Displays the pool name and associated roles for the pool. Click a pool link in this column to view all the calculated capacity in detail for that role within the specific pool. You can remove an entire pool from the supply forecast by selecting the adjacent check box and clicking the Remove From Forecast button.
Total Capacity(Hours) or Total Capacity(Days)	Based on your installation choice, this column displays the total calculated resource capacity in the pool for the date range specified for the supply forecast displays in hours or days. The data is summarized first by pool and then by role.
Full Time Resources	Displays the total number of full-time resources in the pool for the date range specified for the forecast. The common denominator for the calculation is the number of months included in the forecast.
Total	Displays the total capacity and full-time resources. Click this link to view supply details for all the pools in the supply forecast.
Add New Supply	Click to access the Add New Supply To Forecast page and select a date range within the forecast periods, pool, role, personnel status, region, and amount of capacity that you want to add to the supply forecast capacity.
Modify Region Utilization	Click to access the Modify Region Utilization page and adjust the region utilization percentage for the current supply forecast.
Remove From Forecast	Click to remove selected pool data from the forecast.
Continue Selecting Pools	Click to access the Supply Forecast - Select Pools page and refine the pool selection for this forecast.
Supply Analysis	Click to access the Supply Analysis page to view and analyze supply forecast data by the four supply categories with monthly views.
Supply Summary Charts	Click to access the View Supply Forecast Charts page and view charts based on the supply categories.
Forecast Modification History	Click to access the Supply Forecast Modification History page and view each modification to the actual supply in the forecast.

Viewing Supply Forecast Details

Access the Supply Forecast Detail page.

Description	Enter a description for this supply forecast.
	Indicates that the row was added to the forecast by using the Add New Supply page.
and	Click this icon to enter comments about the supply row. If the icon contains lines, comments already exist for the row. If the icon does not contain lines, no comments exist for the row.

Supply Details

Modifying Supply Forecasts

Access the Modify Supply in Forecast page.

The page displays supply categories for the selected row—role, region, pool, and personnel status. You cannot change the supply categories of an existing row that was calculated from a resource pool.

Note. Changes made to either the Days or Resources fields are not saved unless the respective option is selected.

Adding New Supply

Access the Add New Supply To Forecast page.

Note. You can enter the same supply categories as an existing row, including the same date ranges.

Modifying Region Utilization

Access the Modify Region Utilization page.

Note. The utilization values only apply to the particular forecast and do not override the system region utilization percent.

Viewing Forecast History

Access the Supply Forecast Modification History page.

Action

Possible actions are: Add: Indicates that you added a supply using the Add New Supply To Forecast page. Update: Indicates that you added or removed an existing supply row that originally came from resource pools. Delete: Indicates that you selected a row clicked the Remove from Forecast button.

Capacity (Hours) or Capacity (Days) and Full Time Resource

Displays the difference between the original supply details value and what you changed in the Add New Supply To Forecast or Supply Forecast Modification pages. For example, you update an existing row that was calculated based on the resource pools, and not by adding new supply row. You change the total capacity from 500 days to 250 days, and consequently the full-time resources change from 3 to 1.5. The action is Update, the capacity (hours) value in the Supply Forecast Modification History is −250, and the full-time resource value is −1.5.

Analyzing Supply

Access the Supply Analysis page.

Manipulate the data based on dimensions, including Project Role, Pool, Region Code, and Personnel Status. For example, drag and drop the ALL_ROLES project role dimension to change the supply analysis view.

You can also see all months, rolled up together or individually, that are part of the forecast.

You can apportion by supply categories to change the total capacity and full-time resource dimensions.

See Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Analytic Calculation Engine, "Understanding PeopleSoft Analytic Calculation Engine."

Viewing Supply Forecast Charts

Access the View Supply Forecast Charts page.

Total Capacity and Full Time Resources	View the supply information by selecting Total Capacity (in the capacity planning installation level unit of measure of hours or days), or Full Time Resources.
Chart Type	Select to view a bar or pie chart.
Refresh	Click to update the charts after you select different chart options.

Copying Supply Forecasts

Access the Copy Forecast page.

Forecast Type	Displays the forecast type that you select from the Strategic Capacity Planning Home page. If you select Copy Supply Forecast from the home page, the value is Supply. If you select Copy Demand Forecast from the home page, the value is Demand. Note. You can create copies of existing supply forecasts. The newly created copy has the same date range as the original. The main purpose is to enable you to create multiple supply forecasts quickly for the same period to model multiple supply scenarios. For example, one forecast might be for increasing contractor supply, another for moving some supply offshore, and another for modeling zero supply change.
New Forecast ID	Enter the ID for the new supply or demand forecast. The forecast ID can be autonumbered or assigned manually. If you assign the forecast ID manually, enter up to 15 characters. Autonumbered forecast IDs are 10 characters long.
New Forecast Name	Enter the name of the new forecast.
Copy from Forecast	Select the forecast that you want to copy.
Copy	Click to access the Supply Forecast page or Demand Forecast Summary page. The system populates the new forecast ID and forecast name on the page. You do not need to click the Save Forecast button, as the forecast is already saved as a result of the Copy Forecast Application Engine process (RS_COPY_FRST).

Creating Demand Forecast Models

This section provides an overview of the demand forecast model and discusses how to:

• Import external demand data.

• Create demand forecasts.

• Search for demand data.

• Review summary demand data.

• Modify the demand forecast.

• View demand forecast charts.

• Analyze demand.

• Add demand.

• Add new roles.

Understanding Demand Forecast Models

In an IT organization, frequent projections of upcoming work are often required in an effort to improve a company’s overall operational efficiency. IT executives need foreknowledge of the potential projects that are coming, to be able to compare the demand on their resources with projections of how much work they can manage given their existing resource constraints.

Whether the demand is as minor as a project to relocate a server (tactical project) or as significant as a system implementation spanning several years (strategic program), the supply of resources must remain adequate to meet the demand for work to be completed. Capacity planning enables management to build supply forecasts based on existing headcount, along with engaging in what-if scenarios so they can determine the effect of adding or cutting resources, obtaining contractor services, and so on. Similarly, the process of collating demand into a demand forecast is also needed.

IT organizations receive demand on their time through multiple methods, ranging from projects to external demand data sourced out of third-party systems. Before creating the demand forecast, the setup of import data and clean up of that data must take place so that it can be used in the demand forecast.

The demand for resources is brought into the demand forecast from the following sources:

• Pending and active projects (from PeopleSoft Project Costing).

• External third-party systems using a generic Excel to Component Interface upload process.

After the preliminary demand forecast is populated with the raw data, you have the ability to add or delete demand from the list, categorize the entries in the list, and prioritize and rank the individual demand’s importance for the organization. When you have verified and cleaned up the demand forecast, you can combine it with a similarly verified and clean supply forecast into a consolidated supply-demand scenario, where you can perform further what-if scenarios to determine the optimal balance of available resources and pending work for the upcoming projected time period.

Note. The maximum range for demand forecasting is 24 months. Although demand itself can span longer (for example, a five-year implementation project), the forecast only concerns itself with a maximum of two years, and will only pull effort data within that two-year span.

You can upload data with the Excel to Component Interface utility. The component interface used in this process is RS_LOAD_EXT_DMD. This component interface contains all the fields that are required to load demand data into the system.

You first load demand-related data into the Excel spreadsheet. After you run the Excel to Component Interface utility to load the data, you use the Load External Demand page to clean up the data and add any additional information that was not specified in the Excel to Component Interface process.

Demands loaded using the utility display in the Load External Demand page. The External Demand Interface staging table (RS_INTFC_DMD) contains all the rows that you entered in the spreadsheet. All rows are validated against the prompts in the External Search table (RS_DMD_SRCH_EXT), which is driven by business unit. Relevant rows that pass all validation tests are moved to the External Search table for more cleanup. You can add any demand, delete any demand, or update existing demands.

You use the Demand Forecast component (RS_FR_DEMAND) to create, view, and modify demand forecasts.

Note. All data in supply forecasts, demand forecasts, and consolidated scenarios is “point-in-time.” This means that if additional resource pools or demand data changes or becomes available on the transactional side, it will not affect any existing forecasts or scenarios—unless you specifically choose to add them afterwards. In other words, forecasts are created based on supply and demand as of the date the forecast was created. If pools and capacity are added a week later, for example, that information does not appear in the supply forecast. You can manually add the supply but it does not automatically appear in the forecast.

Pages Used to Create Demand Forecast Models

Importing External Demand Data

Access the Load External Demand page.

Note. You can load third-party data into a staging table by using the Excel to Component Interface spreadsheet, viewed through the RS_EXT_DMD_SRCH component, and validated so that it contains the proper information for enhanced analysis through the scenario component.

Note. When entering data in the Load External Demand Data component interface (RS_LOAD_EXT_DMD), it is important to ensure that the LINE_NBR field is not selected for input because it is an autogenerated field; do not enter any value in it.

See Also

Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Component Interfaces, "Using the Excel to Component Interface Utility"

Creating Demand Forecasts

Access the Demand Forecast - Browse for Demand page.

Demand

Demand Forecast

This group box displays the forecast ID, name, and date range in MM/YYYY format.

Searching for Demand Data

Access the Demand Forecast - Search page.

This page contains the results of the initial basic search. You can further modify the search parameters, and can search as many times as necessary to find the appropriate demand data.

The fields in the Demand grid on this page are the same as the fields on the Demand Forecast Details page, which is discussed in this chapter.

Reviewing Summary Demand Data

Access the Demand Forecast Summary page.

Continue Selecting Demand	Click to access the Demand Forecast - Browse for Demand page and add demand data to the forecast.
Demand Analysis	Click to access the Demand Analysis page to perform further analysis. Perform these actions for all months (month by month), and one month at a time for each month in the forecast.
Demand Summary Charts	Click to access the Demand Summary Charts page and view graphical representations of the selected demand data.

Demand Summary

View the total effort required (in hours or days) with by application area. The system calculates the number of full-time resources needed.

Total effort is based on the project calendar set for the demand (or for the external demand, using the default project calendar for that business unit), and is calculated using the number of days specified for each role on the project in the Assignment Schedule group box on the Resource Details page in PeopleSoft Program Management, less weekends and holidays. The system calculates full-time resources by dividing the effort by the number of days per month for a full-time resource (as defined during the capacity planning setup in PeopleSoft Resource Management).

Note. The demand forecast first categorizes demand by the Application Area field. On this page, all demand is summarized at the application area. Any demand that does not have application area specified, will not be part of the demand summary; it will not display nor be part of the total full-time resource and capacity.

Demand that does not have application area specified is accessible on the Demand Forecast Details page.

Click Save Forecast to save the forecast, and to populate the lower half of the page with values in these fields:

• Created By

• Updated By

• Created On

• Updated On

Modifying the Demand Forecast

Access the Demand Forecast Details page.

Note. Many of the fields on this page behave the same as fields on the Load External Demand page.

Viewing Demand Forecast Charts

Access the Demand Summary Charts page.

Four pie or bar charts appear on the page:

• Demand by Application Area: Displays the total demand for each application area.

• Demand by Role: Displays the total demand for each role.

• Demand by Release: Displays the total demand for each release.

• Demand by Priority: Displays the total demand for each priority.

Adjacent to each pie chart section is the total effort (in hours or days), full-time resources conversion, and a percent of total field. An example of a pie section label is:

950/45  27%

This example indicates that the effort is 950 days, 45 full-time resources are required, and this effort is 27 percent of the total pie. This label does not appear on the bar chart view.

See Also

Viewing Supply Forecast Charts

Analyzing Demand

Access the Demand Analysis page.

This page behaves similarly to the Supply Analysis page, except that you analyze the data by using these categories:

• Total Effort

• Full Time Resources

• Application Area

• Application

• Program

• Release

See Also

Analyzing Supply

Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Analytic Calculation Engine, "Creating Analytic Grids"

Adding Demand

Access the Demand Forecast - Demand Details page.

Enter demand detail information in the Demand General Information group box.

This action inserts a row into the Demand Detail table for the specified demand. Demand you enter here is automatically split evenly into the months in the start and end date range that you specified in the demand details.

Adding New Roles

Access the Demand Forecast - Add New Role page.

Enter setID, role, and effort for the demand.

Note. The unit of measure for Effort is either in days or hours based on the installation options.

Conducting Consolidated Scenario Analysis

This section provides an overview of consolidated scenario analysis and discusses how to:

• Create and review consolidated scenarios.

• Adjust consolidated scenarios.

• Adjust forecasted or allocated demand.

• Adjust forecasted supply.

• Approve consolidated scenarios.

• Analyze consolidated scenarios.

Understanding Consolidated Scenario Analysis

The consolidated scenario analysis is the final of three primary components in the Capacity Planning process flow. When you begin the capacity planning process, you can choose to build the supply or demand forecasts in any order. Supply and demand forecasts are typically built by different users. Both forecasts must be completed and available prior to performing the consolidated scenario analysis.

The currency code determines how the consolidated scenario displays estimated cost information. For example, if you select USD and the role rates by region are in another currency, the system converts the currency to USD during the calculation of the blended rate, so that estimated costs for supply and demand can be shown in USD.

Note. If the same forecast is included in more than one scenario prior to either forecast being approved, as soon as one of the scenarios is approved, both forecasts are locked. The unapproved forecast can no longer be approved and will have a status of Obsolete.

By using a consolidated scenario analysis, you can:

• View graphs of the combined supply-demand forecasts.

• Project the amount of demand to which your organization can realistically commit based on the supply constraints.

• Perform further modification of supply and demand forecasts to model what-if scenarios.

• Approve a consolidated scenario and track assumptions that are integral to the scenario’s approval.

Use the Combined Scenario component (RS_SCENARIO) to conduct a consolidated scenario analysis.

Pages Used to Conduct Consolidated Scenario Analysis

Creating and Reviewing Consolidated Scenarios

Access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Scenario Summary page.

Scenario ID	Displays the scenario that was either autogenerated or manually assigned when the scenario was created.
Scenario Status	Displays the scenario status which can be Pending, Approved, or Obsolete. A scenario starts in a pending status until it is approved. A scenario can become obsolete if another scenario using either the same supply or demand forecast has already been approved.
Start Date and End Date	Displays the start and end dates from the supply and demand forecasts you selected for this scenario.
Supply Forecast and Demand Forecast	Displays the supply forecast and demand forecast for the consolidated scenario analysis. The date ranges for the supply and demand forecasts must be an exact match to be eligible for analysis. The initial supply and demand forecast prompts return only the supply or demand forecasts that are not approved on another scenario, because approving a scenario locks the scenario and the forecasts.

Supply and Demand Comparison

The supply and demand metrics compare total forecasted supply against total forecasted demand for the selected forecasts.

Supply Summary

Rate Options

Expand this group box to view the blended cost rate that the system calculates for the supply and demand comparison. You can use the calculated rate or override the rate. Any rate changes that you make are valid only for this scenario.

Note. The blended rate is for the supply and demand comparison for all roles and all regions. There is no blended rate by role.

Demand for all Projects

This bar graph shows these three dimensions by month:

• Forecasted Demand

• Allocated Demand

• Forecasted Supply

This data is an aggregate total for the entire supply and demand forecast. The y-axis represents the effort level in days or hours, and the x-axis represents monthly periods.

Adjusting Consolidated Scenarios

Access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Commitment Line page.

	Indicates that allocated demand is less than forecasted demand for the corresponding row. The variance appears as a negative value.
Commitment Line	Select an action to commit or defer the demand. Note. When you create a scenario, the system automatically commits all demand entries in the forecast and modifies allocated demand to match forecasted demand. However, if the value in this column is Defer and you change it to Commit, the system does not override the Allocated Demand field with the Forecasted Demand field value. The system does not assume that you are committing to all the forecasted demand—only what you manually enter for allocated demand.
Rank	Displays the sequential ranking that you assigned to the demand.
Priority	Displays the demand priority of Critical, High, Medium, or Low.
Demand Name	Displays the project or external demand description. Click a demand name to access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Demand Details page to modify the allocated and forecasted demand by role and month.
Forecasted Demand	Displays the total effort for the project in the demand forecast. This total is for the date range specified in the scenario forecasts only.
Allocated Demand	Displays the total demand effort that is set aside for this project. Initially, when the system commits to all demand by default, this field is automatically set to match the forecasted demand values for the corresponding row. Click a demand name to access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Demand Details page to modify the allocated demand.
Variance	Displays the difference of the allocated demand value minus the forecasted demand value for the corresponding row. The initial value is 0 since the system automatically commits to all demand. The system recalculates the value as you adjust forecasted or allocated demand. When the variance is a negative value, an ALERT icon appears at the beginning of the row. This indicates that allocated demand is less than forecasted demand for the corresponding row.
Commit All and Defer All	Click to change the value in the Commitment Line column to Commit or Defer for all rows.
Save	Click to save the scenario data and update the original supply and demand forecasts with the applicable changes.
Approve	Click to access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Assumptions page to log assumptions and approve the scenario. This action locks the consolidated scenario and the associated supply and demand forecasts.
Scenario Analysis	Click to access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis page and analyze consolidated scenario data by supply categories by month.
Scenario Assumptions	Click to access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Assumptions page and enter additional information about the scenario.
Capacity Planning Home	Click to access the Strategic Capacity Planning Home page to view and copy the five most recently accessed scenarios, supply forecasts, and demand forecasts.

Adjusting Forecasted or Allocated Demand

Access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Demand Details page.

Demand General Information

In this group box, you can view information about the forecasted or allocated demand, and modify some of the demand attributes.

Note. Modifying information on this page does not modify the corresponding project.

Demand By Role

The columns that appear in this group box vary based on the View By selection. You can view the demand by <Month/Year>, All Months, or Summarized Demand.

Click OK to return to the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Commitment Line page. The updated demand summary data is reflected on the page.

Adjusting Forecasted Supply

Access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Supply Details page.

Note. You can modify the overall forecasted supply level for the role without drilling down to the region level to adjust supply. Any change to the supply is automatically allocated to the region that is defined on the Installation Options - Resource Management page, and to the Unassigned resource pool. You can adjust supply for each role at the region level by clicking the role link.

Approving Consolidated Scenarios

Access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Scenario Summary page or the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Commitment Line page.

Click the Approve button to approve the scenario.

The Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Assumptions page appears so that you can enter any assumptions that assisted in approving the scenario.

Note. Owner information that you enter on the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Assumptions page is not used for workflow.

Users with security to unapprove scenarios have access to the Unapprove button on the Consolidated Scenario Analysis - Scenario Summary (unapprove) page. Click the Unapprove button to return the consolidated scenario, and the associated supply and demand forecasts, to an editable format.

Note. Approving a consolidated scenario does not trigger workflow, nor does it affect the projects or resources in the system. Approving a consolidated scenario simply locks the scenario and the associated supply and demand forecasts.

Analyzing Consolidated Scenarios

Access the Consolidated Scenario Analysis page.

This page behaves similarly to the Supply Analysis page and Demand Analysis page, except that you analyze the data by using these categories:

• Alert

• Commitment Line

• Allocated Demand

• Rank

• Priority

• Forecasted Demand

• Variance

See Also

Analyzing Demand

Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: PeopleSoft Analytic Calculation Engine, "Creating Analytic Grids"