The What-if Planning module in EnterpriseTrack allows you to view, with the use of extensive filters, projects that are underway and the impact that these projects have on roles/resources. As Portfolio Managers you can use this module for Capacity Planning of Resources and also as a convenient way to see Resource utilization reports, which are similar to heat maps. Using this key module you can now view the effort (demand) associated with projects and the availability (or utilization) of the corresponding Resources (or Roles) side by side on the same screen. The What-if screen allows you to create scenarios where you can try out numerous "what-if" edits, in a dynamic and interactive way, to gauge the impact these changes will make on your projects or resource availability. The changes you can make include shifting delaying the projects/proposals; canceling projects/proposals and changing the required effort for a particular time period. These changes can be done at the Project level, the role level or at the resource level.
Each scenario starts off with setting filters that you can use to select a set of projects and proposals that are of interest. On the What-if screens you can view a comprehensive list of all resources associated with the projects that met you filter criteria. The resource requirements (effort, costs) of these projects and proposals (by month or week) are displayed in aggregate. You can drill down by expanding the lists.
Two views are shown – one by Resource at the bottom level and one by Role at the top level. Note that the What-if module only shows the efforts from the Allocation slots on the Projects and not from the efforts on resources assigned to activities in the WBS. You can create multiple such scenarios for comparison and you can share them with other team members. You can also refresh the scenario to reload real-time proposals/projects and role/resource allocations.
Note: The changes you make to projects in the What-If screen will not affect your actual projects.
The following list describes the menus, and control options you will see on the What-if View Scenarios screen:
- Select Scenario: From this pull-down menu, you can select from your saved or shared scenarios.
- Scenario: From this menu you can create, delete, save as, or refresh your scenarios. The Save As option makes a copy of your scenario. The Clear All Changes option clears all changes you have made. The Refresh functionality allows you to re-load real-time proposal/project and resource data as needed into an existing scenario, without losing the shifts that have been added.
- Edit: From the Edit menu you can make changes to the General, Sharing, Filters, and What-if tabs.
- View: From the View menu, you can display toolbars at the Top banner, and the Left Navigation bar. You can also save your settings.
- Data: From the Data menu, you can select the columns you want to view. You can also print and save to Microsoft Excel.
You will see the tabs listed below on the What-if View screen when you create or edit a scenario. The active tab is highlighted, and when you are in the Edit mode, the tab you are editing is highlighted. You can navigate to the other tabs but you can only edit the highlighted tab. The cells you can edit are highlighted in pink.
- General Tab: You can view and edit the name and description of the scenario. You can also select a default scenario.
- Sharing Tab: You can share the scenarios you have created with other team members using the Sharing tab.
- Document Tab: You can upload documents from this tab.
- Filters Tab: On this tab you can view and edit the filters used to create a scenario. You can use the extensive set of filters provided on this tab to narrow the projects and proposals you want to use to build your scenario. You can also select the time frame you are interested by selecting the dates and by selecting the time unit to display (months or weeks). You can also choose to include requested allocations and committed allocations while building your scenario. On this tab, you can set the columns you want to view on the What-if tab (effort, total capacity, the total utilization as a percentage, resource availability, the availability percentage, and the associated cost). You can also select what you want to see on the bottom grid of the What-if screen: availability by resource or availability by roles.
- What-if Tab: On this tab you can view and manipulate your scenarios by excluding projects, and by editing or shifting hours that a resource uses on a project. The columns you see on this tab are based on the options you selected in the Filters tab. When you are in the edit mode, the cells you can edit are highlighted in pink and the cell you are editing is also highlighted. As you make changes to the top half of the grid, you will notice instant changes to the bottom grid showing the impact of these changes. The Utilization, Utilization %, Availability, and Availability % columns are color coded (red, yellow, and green) based on built-in ranges. The scroll bar under each grid scrolls left to right within a page. Any changes you make on this tab will not affect your original projects.
Parameters/Controls | Description |
|---|---|
Select date | You can select the date you want to view from within the time frame you set in the To and From Date filter. |
| Expand and collapse a row. |
| Provides additional information on the project. |
Priority | The priority number of the project. This number comes from the evaluation score of the proposal. |
Exclude | Shows projects or resources that are excluded. In the edit mode you can check this column to exclude a resource out of a project. |
Shift | Allows you to shift a project by weeks or months. |
E | The Allocation Effort. It is determined by the filters Include Requested Allocation and Include Committed Allocation. You can set it either one or both these filters. |
CP | The total capacity. |
U% | The total utilization as a percentage. |
A | The resource availability. |
A% | Availability percentage. |
Cost | The associate cost. |
- Availability Tab: You can view the resource and role availability from this tab. If the cell is highlighted red, it indicates that the resource is overbooked. A green highlighted cell indicates that the resource is under-utilized.