Understanding Resource Scenario Optimization Calculations

The Optimization tool simulates different project selection scenarios to determine the optimal selection of projects that meets your desired objective values. After running the tool, two points are generated:

Optimal Selection - 0% Overallocation: This point represents the optimal selection of projects that maximizes your portfolio value without overallocating project roles.
Optimal Selection - n% Overallocation: This point represents the optimal selection of projects that maximizes your portfolio value given an acceptable amount of role overallocation. Use the % Overallocation Allowed field in the Options section to specify an acceptable percentage increase of the weekly Availability value of each role. Use this point to determine the amount of additional role demand or allocation units that are necessary to achieve a greater portfolio value.

The following example demonstrates how the resource planning Optimization tool generates an optimized project selection result. The example optimizes against role demand units, but you can also choose to run optimization against role allocation units.

In this example, a portfolio contains three projects, each with the same assigned roles. Each assigned role has a weekly role demand of 120h, 40h for each project. Weekly role availability values specify the total amount of work each role can perform without being overallocated. Each role has a weekly role availability of 80h. The objective of the optimization is to select projects that maximize total value without overallocating project roles.

	May 1st	May 8th	May 15th	May 22nd
Project A - Value: $100
Architect	40h	40h	40h	40h
Carpenter	40h	40h	40h	40h
Plumber	40h	40h	40h	40h
Project B - Value: $50
Architect	40h	40h	40h	40h
Carpenter	40h	40h	40h	40h
Plumber	40h	40h	40h	40h
Project C - Value: $75
Architect	40h	40h	40h	40h
Carpenter	40h	40h	40h	40h
Plumber	40h	40h	40h	40h

Role Availability
Architect	80h	80h	80h	80h
Carpenter	80h	80h	80h	80h
Plumber	80h	80h	80h	80h

Scenario 1: 0% Allocation Allowed

Given the total availability of the roles assigned to the projects, an optimal selection scenario with 0% overallocation is as follows:

Project A
Project C

This scenario maximizes overall portfolio value ($175) without overallocating any roles. The total weekly role demand of the selected projects is 240h. The total weekly role availability of the selected roles is 240h.

Scenario 2: 50% Overallocation Allowed

If you consider a % Overallocation Allowed value of 50%, an optimal project selection scenario is as follows:

Project A
Project B
Project C

This scenario maximizes overall portfolio value ($225) by allowing for a 50% increase in the weekly Availability value of each role. This means that the Optimization calculation uses a weekly Availability value of 120h for each role. In this scenario, the total weekly role demand of the selected projects is 360h (three projects each with 120h of total weekly role demand). The total weekly role availability of the selected roles is 360h (120h + 120h + 120h). Increasing the role availability allows for a greater potential portfolio value.

You can use the Optimization tool to identify areas in your portfolio where hiring additional roles may help you realize greater portfolio value.

Next: Understanding Resource Scenario Optimization Results