PeopleSoft Resource Management 9.1 PeopleBook

Fulfilling Generic Resource Requests

If you do not use service orders to manage your resource requests, and if you also have PeopleSoft Program Management installed, use the information in this chapter. If you manage your resource requests by using service orders, use the information in the "Fulfilling Service Orders" chapter.

This chapter provides an overview of generic resource requests and discusses how to manage generic resource requests.

Understanding Generic Resource Requests

When project managers plan their projects, often they don't know the extent of the resource requirements, such as the number of resources they need. A generic resource is a labor resource who does not have an employee ID. These generic resources hold resource pool capacity and serve as role-oriented placeholders for resources during the project-planning phase.

You must have PeopleSoft Program Management installed to use generic resource requests in PeopleSoft Resource Management. In PeopleSoft Program Management, a project manager builds a team by using the Project Resource Plan component (PGM_RESOURCE_LIST). If your organization does not use service orders to create resource requests through the Manage Generic Resources functionality in PeopleSoft Program Management, then a pool manager builds a team based on generic resources.

You create a generic resource request in PeopleSoft Program Management by selecting a resource status of Requested on the Resources page or Resource Detail page. This action sends the generic resource request to the Pool Manager Workbench in PeopleSoft Resource Management with a status of Pending Approval if the Pool Manager Approval required check box for the Generic Resource Approval required option is selected on the Resource Management Options page for the business unit. If that option is not selected, or if the user who is requesting the resource is the required approver, the generic resource request is sent to the Pool Manager Workbench with a status of Allocated. The system populates the qualifications, keywords, and notes on the generic resource request with the qualifications, keywords, and notes from the Update Generic Resource Qualifications page for the generic resource.

You can either fulfill the generic resource request with a named resource, or you can simply allocate capacity.

The Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page is the starting point for managing generic resource requests, approval, and fulfillment. Using this page you can:

Approve or reject a generic resource request.
Perform a search using Resource Matching.
View resources who are already associated with the resource requests.
Search for specific resources to evaluate their fit scores for a generic resource request.
Drill down to details about generic resource requests, resource profiles, assignments, and schedules to enable you to finalize staffing decisions.

Managing Generic Resource Requests

Pool managers can approve and fulfill generic resource requests easily and efficiently using the Pool Manager Workbench component (RS_GRR_WKBNCH).

Upon entering the Pool Manager workbench, the Pool: <Pool Name> scroll area displays a summary-level, collapsed row for each open generic resource request that is assigned to the pool manager. For each request, you can:

Approve or reject a request.
View visual indicators that depict how close the current date is to the requested start date for requests.
View generic resource request fulfillment progress.
View summary information about the generic resource request.

This section discusses how to:

Approve and fulfill generic resource requests.
View open generic resource requests.
Filter and expand generic resource request lists.
Identify and add resources to fulfill generic resource requests.
Confirm actions.

Pages Used to Manage Generic Resource Requests

Page Name	Definition Name	Navigation	Usage
Generic Resource Request	RS_GRR_APPRVL	Click a link in the IDs column on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page. Click a Details link in the Link column on the Pool Manager Workbench - Worklist page for a worklist item with an action of Generic Resource For Approval.	Fulfill a generic resource request.
Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request	RS_GRR_WKBNCH	Resource Management, Pool Manager Workbench, Fulfill Request	Find resources to fulfill generic resource requests.
Select Resource - Resource Search	RS_RESRC_SRCHM_SEC	Click the Add Resource button in an expanded row in the Pool: <Pool Name> scroll area on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page.	Directly associate resources with resource requests on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Requests page. Note. You can also directly associate a named resource with the resource request on the Generic Resource Request page by clicking the Lookup Employee icon in the Assignment Information group box.
Staffing Changes Confirmation	RS_GRR_WB_CONF_MSG	Save an action for selected rows on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page.	View assignment actions before committing changes. Add comments for assignment activity.
Update Confirmation	RS_GRRWB_CONF_MSG	Click OK on the Staffing Changes Confirmation page.	Confirm assignment actions.

Approving and Fulfilling Generic Resource Requests

Access the Generic Resource Request page (click a link in the IDs column on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page).

Qualification Information

Expand the Qualification Information group box on the Generic Resource Request page to specify the desired competencies, flexible qualification factors, keywords, and notes for the requested resource. You can specify qualifications based on a predefined qualification profile, or look up specific qualifications from a list, or select competencies from the Competency tree. Resource Matching uses qualifications to find qualified resources.

When you create a generic service order from the Resources page or Resource Detail page in PeopleSoft Program Management, the system populates the qualifications, keywords, and notes on the generic resource request from the Update Generic Resource Qualifications page for the generic resource. You can change the qualifications, keywords, and notes on the generic resource request; however, these changes are not reflected in PeopleSoft Program Management.

Assignment Schedule

Schedule	Displays the schedule sequence.
Status	Displays one of these generic resource request statuses: Pending Approval: Indicates that pool manager approval workflow is activated for generic resource requests, and the pool manager has not yet approved the resource request. Allocated: Indicates that the generic resource request is approved, and that a named resource is not assigned.
Project Role	Displays the project role that is associated with the resource request.
Start Date and End Date	Displays the start and end dates for the resource request.

Current Approval Status

Routing	Displays the approval type: Originator or Approver.
Name	Displays the name of the originator or approver.
Request Status	Indicates completed steps in the generic resource request approval process.
Date	Displays the date on which the approval status was assigned.

Assignment Information

Name

Select a named resource from the requesting resource pool. This field is not editable once you create the assignment.

After you select a named resource, click the Approve button to change the Request Status in the Current Approval Status grid to Fulfilled. This action creates the assignment and fulfills the generic resource request.

Note. You can approve a generic resource request without providing a named resource for it.

Comments

Enter information regarding the generic resource request, such as why you rejected the request. The comments appear on this page when the project manager reviews the request. Pool managers must enter comments when they reject a request.

Viewing Open Generic Resource Requests

Access the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page (Resource Management, Pool Manager Workbench, Fulfill Request).

Hello , <User Name>

Displays the name that is associated with the user ID.

You currently have <number> unworked items in your worklist!

Click to access the Worklist page and view or process items that are routed from PeopleSoft workflow.

Note. The number of unworked items on the Worklist page does not necessarily correspond to the number of unfulfilled generic resource requests on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Requests page.

See Processing Worklist Items.

Pool: <Pool Name>

One or more collapsible group boxes display all the resource pools that are owned by the current pool manager. There is a separate group box for each active resource pool for which the user is the manager. Each group box contains all of the generic resource requests for that pool that are not fulfilled.

Each resource request row has a visual indicator that depicts how close the current date is to the requested start date for the request. This helps you determine which requests need your attention first. The visual indicators behave the same as the ones on the Staffing Workbench - Fulfill Orders page.

See Viewing Open Resource Requests.

Resource Request Summary Rows

Rows in the Pool: <Pool Name> group box are collapsed when you enter the page. These rows provide resource request summary information.

Request Status	Displays generic resource request fulfillment progress. Pending Approval: The request has not been approved yet. Allocated: The request is approved and is waiting to be fulfilled with a named resource.
IDs	Displays a concatenation of the business unit ID, project name, and resource name. Click a link in this column to access the Generic Resource Request page.
Project Role	Displays the primary project role ID that is specified on the generic resource request.
Personnel Status	Displays the personnel status that is requested on the generic resource request. If the value is blank, employee and non-employee resources may appear in the search results if you allow non-employees to be established as PeopleSoft Resource Management resources.
Region	Displays the region that is requested on the generic resource request. If the value is blank, resources from any region may appear in the search results.
Dates	Displays the start and end dates of the request. If multiple date ranges are indicated on the request, this column displays the earliest start and latest end dates of those indicated date ranges.
Request Action	Select the generic resource request action to take on the selected pending approval request. Available options are: Approve: Select to approve the generic resource request. This action allocates the requested resource capacity of a resource in the corresponding pool. Reject: Select to reject the generic request. This action does not allocate any resource capacity in the corresponding pool for the request. No data appears in the Request Action column if the generic resource request is already allocated.

Resource Rows

Expand the generic resource request summary rows to view basic information about resources who are associated with the generic resource request and the resource's factor fit scores for the request.

A resource may appear in the expanded row if:

You are considering the resource for the resource request.
You add this resource to the resource request row.
Resource Matching returns the resource in a search.

A more detailed discussion of the information that appears for each resource row is discussed in the Evaluating Candidates section of this chapter.

See Evaluating Candidates.

Filtering and Expanding the Generic Resource Request List

You can view subsets of the unfulfilled generic resource requests that are assigned to you. Four filters control the generic resource requests that appear in the Pool: <Pool Name> scroll area. Only requests that meet the particular filter criteria appear in the scroll area.

View All Requests	Click this link to view all open generic resource requests that have a value of Pending Approval or Allocated, and are associated with a resource pool that is assigned to you.
View Pending Approval Requests	Click this link to view a subset of generic resource requests that are pending approval.
View Allocated Requests	Click this link to view a subset of generic resource requests that are allocated. Allocated requests are requests for which the pool manager has allocated resource capacity from the pool to the requestor, but for which the pool manager has not yet assigned a specific resource.
View Selected Requests	Click this link after selecting the check box beside the generic resource requests that you want to appear in the Pool: <Pool Name> scroll area. To remove another resource request from this filter, deselect the request check box and click View Selected Requests again.
	Click Select All to select all generic resource requests that appear in the Pool: <Pool Name> scroll area.
	Click Deselect All to deselect all generic resource requests.
	Click Expand All to expand all generic resource request summary rows.
	Click Collapse All to collapse all generic resource request summary rows.

Identifying and Adding Resources to Fulfill Generic Resource Requests

There are two ways to find resources to fulfill generic resource requests on the Pool Manager Workbench:

Retrieve resources for the selected rows based on each resource's factor family fit scores for the generic request.
Add a resource that belongs to the requested resource pool to a generic resource request row.

These toolbar icons invoke a search for resources. The visual indicators appear when a resource matches the search criteria:

Click the Search icon to retrieve resources for the selected rows based on search options and each resource's factor fit scores for this request. Specify search options at search time. Resource Matching calculates factor fit scores for each combination of resource and generic resource request.

The system returns resources who meet this criteria for a generic resource request to the Pool: <Pool Name> group box with the resource request row expanded and a visual indicator that the resource is a result of a Resource Matching search.

A message appears for each selected row stating the number of resources that the system found in the search results for the request.

Add Resource

Click this button to add a resource to the list of candidates. This button appears for each expanded resource request row. Use this option to directly associate a resource to the generic resource request. Select the resource and return to the workbench to select the appropriate action. The resource selected must belong to the requesting resource pool.

Search for Resources Based on Factor Fit Scores

Expand the Search Settings collapsible group box.

Note. The search is limited to the resource pool that is specified on the generic resource request.

To populate the workbench with resources based on the resource's factor fit scores for this request:

Assign the relative priorities to the Availability, Preferences, and Qualifications factor family fit scores for this search session, and identify the Max Candidates (maximum candidates) for the system to return.
Select the generic resource request rows for which you want to search for resources.
Click the Search icon.

If selected generic resource requests are matched with resources based on resource factor fit scores, the resources appear with the row expanded and a visual indicator that the corresponding resource was returned in the search results from Resource Matching.

The priorities that you specify during the search session are included in each resource's overall fit score calculations. The resources appear in descending order of their overall fit score, which measures how well a resource fits the specified qualifications, availability, and preferences; accounting for the organization's priorities; and the priorities that you specify during the search session. If you change the priorities and search again, Resource Matching recalculates overall fit scores, which potentially changes the order of resources.

When the system returns scores, click the score to access the Job Scorecard for <Resource> page.

Note. Because the qualification score is a combination of the resource's qualification and preferences fit scores, changing the relative priorities of qualifications and preferences may result in a change in the resource's qualification score that appears the workbench. If you only want to see the qualification score in the workbench, you can set the preferences search setting to 0 - Not at all important. The actual Qualifications, Preferences, and Availability values will appear in on the Job Scorecard for <Resource> page. Those values are not affected by the search settings.

See Overall Fit Score.

Add Resources to the Work Space

Click Add Resource on a corresponding resource request row in the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page to access the Select Resource - Resource Search page.

To directly add resources to a generic resource request row in the Pool: <Pool Name> group box:

Search for a resource by employee ID or name by selecting the appropriate option in the Search by drop-down list box.

Resources appear for selection that are assigned to the pool as of the current date, and that have a future start date in this pool. This enables pool managers to assign a future-dated resources to generic resource requests with corresponding future dates.

Note. If the pool manager selects a future-dated resource for a request, and resource manager assignment approvals are activated, the system sends the assignment approval workflow to the resource's current resource manager.
Click the resource Name link to add it to the Selected Resources grid.
Click OK to add the resource to the Pool: <Pool Name> group box on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page.

Note. Search settings that you specify on this page do not impact the scores of the resources that you add to a generic resource request row by using the Add Resource button.

Evaluating Candidates

Select a generic resource request row and click the Search icon for the system to retrieve resources with factor fit scores based on specified search options.

If selected resource requests are matched with resources based on the specified search options and the resource's factor fit scores, the resources appear in the Pool: <Pool Name> group box with the row expanded. You can click the View Selected Requests link to hide all other resource request rows from view.

Expanded rows display basic information about resources, the resource's factor fit scores for the request, the assignment status (if applicable), and a link to the resource profile and job scorecard.

Qual. (qualification) and Avail. (availability)	Displays the Qualification and Availability factor family fit scores, which indicate how closely the resource's profile and schedule match the resource request. The qualification fit score is made up of the Qualification and Preferences factor family fit scores. Click either fit score link to access the Job Scorecard for <Resource> page and view details about requirements that are included in the resource's fit score calculation for each factor family. Note. The qualification, preferences, and availability scores represent the actual scores of the resource for the request. The scores that appear on the workbench may vary from the Job Scorecard. The scores that appear on the workbench are based on the specified search settings and may vary depending on the relative weights that you define for the settings. See Viewing the Job Scorecard.
Name	Click the resource name link to open the resource profile in a new browser window. See Reviewing Resource Profiles.
Role	Displays the resource's project role from the resource profile.
Status	Displays the assignment status of Considering or Pending Approval. For assignments that are pending approval, click the status link to access the Assign Resource page to view or update the assignment. Note. If a resource status is Assigned or Pending Approval, the status appears when you return to the workbench from the Update Confirmation page immediately after you create the assignment. If the pool manager refreshes the workbench, the pending approval or assigned generic resource requests no longer appear in the workbench because the generic resource request is fulfilled, and therefore is no longer in the pool manager's queue. Note. The search settings that you specify on the workbench do not impact the scores of the resources that appear in the grid with a value in the Status column.
Action	Select an action to assign this resource to the generic resource request when you save the page: Assign: The assignment appears on the confirmation pages for you to edit and verify. At that time you can modify the days of the week, hours per day, and start time, and make comments. Based on assignment approval workflow options that you specify at implementation, the system automatically routes the assignment to the resource manager or project manager for approval after you save and confirm the actions on the workbench. The resource's assignment status changes to Pending Approval, and remains in a pending status until it is approved or canceled. The next time that you refresh the Pool Manager Workbench, this request will not appear in the Pool: <Pool Name> group box. If assignment approval workflow is not enabled, or if the user that is logged into the system is the resource's manager, the assignment can be saved in a status of Assigned without triggering assignment approval workflow. You can assign only one resource to one generic resource request. Consider: Associate the candidate with the resource request as someone whom you are considering as a possible match. This is not an assignment status. Note. When project manager approval workflow is enabled for the business unit, you must assign a project manager prior to assigning resources to the project. If a project manager is not assigned to the project and project manager approval workflow is enabled, the resource that is selected on the Pool Manager Workbench will be associated with the project with a resource status of Considered and no PeopleSoft Resource Management assignment will be created. The generic resource request no longer appears on the Pool Manager Workbench because the pool manager has provided a resource for the request. You can view the resource's Considered status on the Resources page or Resource Detail page in PeopleSoft Program Management. You cannot change this resource's status to Assigned until after a project manager is assigned to the project. See Assignment Statuses.
Personnel Status	Displays the resource's personnel status from the Personal Data record (PERSONAL_DATA). This column appears only if you allow non-employees to be established as resources.
Region	Displays the region of the resource from the resource profile.
Rate	Displays the resource's bill rate and currency as specified for the resource's employee ID. If no bill rate is specified for the employee ID, the value is the rate that is associated with the job code in the Job Code Rates table (PC_RATE_JOBC). If neither value exists, the bill rate value is 0.0000.
	Click the Assignment icon to access the Assignments for <Resource> page in a new browser window and view the resource's current assignments, bids, recommendations, and assignment history. This information is useful when evaluating the true availability of candidates, as there may be assignment activity that does not appear on their schedule or that impacts their availability score. See Accessing Additional Assignment Options.
	Click the Monthly Calendar icon to access the resource's monthly schedule in a new browser window and view the assignments and appointments schedule. See Working with Resource Schedules.

When you save the page and accept the confirmation:

If there is no existing assignment for this combination of resource and project, and if you selected an Action status of Assign, the system:
- Creates a new assignment with the indicated status if assignment approval workflow is not enabled.
- Automatically routes the assignment to the resource's manager, the project manager, or both, for approval if assignment approval workflow is enabled.
If you selected an Action status of Consider, the system saves the record to associate this resource with the generic resource request as a possible candidate.

An assignment is not created for an action status of Consider.

Note. Resources that have a status of Consider are associated with the resource request only on the Pool Manager Workbench and the Generic Resource Request page. These resources appear in the Pool: <Pool Name> group box each time the generic resource request appears until their status changes or the generic resource request is closed or canceled.

Viewing the Supply Category Analytic Report

Click the Supply Category Analytic Report icon to view the supply category availability analytic.

See Conducting Consolidated Scenario Analysis.

Confirming Actions

Access the Staffing Changes Confirmation page (save an action for selected rows on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Request page).

When you save the actions on the Pool Manager Workbench - Fulfill Requests page, the Staffing Changes Confirmation page appears and explains the changes to be made for every selected generic resource request. You can modify the assignment values that appear on the Staffing Changes Confirmation page. When you accept the changes, the Update Confirmation page appears and confirms that the changes were successful.

Use these pages to confirm that:

An assignment is created for the resource selected.
If assignment approval is required, the status of the assignment changes to Pending Approval.
Assignment history is updated when you confirm the request changes.

The fields on the Staffing Changes Confirmation page and Update Confirmation page behave the same as the confirmation pages on the Staffing Workbench - Fulfill Orders page.

See Confirming Actions.