Availability Factor

The Availability factor is a ratio of a resource's unscheduled time during the future dated resource request time frame to the amount of work on the request. At a high level, the factor compares the requested start date, end date, total days of work, and number of hours per day on a resource request to the resource schedules. Resource schedules track the amount of time that resources are working on assignment and appointment tasks. Each task has a start date, end date, and number of hours per day to indicate the amount of time during the task period that the resource is working on that task.

When using Express Search, the availability calculation uses the number of requested hours per day to determine the resource's true availability. If the resource request is for a time period of less than 8 hours (or less than the defined standard number of hours per day), you can define the number of hours per day. In addition, you can specify multiple date ranges and hours per day.

Here's an example of how availability is calculated if there is an express search for an assignment that lasts 10 days for 4 hours per day, and the standard hours per day is 8:

  • If there is a resource in the system that is already assigned to a project for those same 10 days for 4 hours per day, the resource is therefore still available for 4 hours each of those days, and the availability calculation determines that the resource is 100 percent available for the requested 4 hours per day in the search.

  • If there is a resource in the system that is already assigned to a project for those same 10 days for 6 hours per day, the resource is still available for 2 hours each of those days, and the availability calculation determines that the resource is 50 percent available for the requested 4 hours per day in the search.

  • If there are multiple date ranges involved, the availability score determines an availability percent for each range and then uses a weighted average of the ranges to determine the overall score.

At a more detailed level, the Availability factor fit scores are the result of complex algorithms that are impacted, positively or negatively, by:

  • Start and end dates on the resource request.

  • Days of work on the resource request.

  • Resource standard weekly work days on the resource profile.

  • Standard work days on the Resource Setup - Common Installation Options page.

  • Standard hours per day on the Resource Setup - Common Installation Options page.

  • Resource standard day percentage calculation (identifying part-time and full-time workers).

  • Task flexibility.

  • Partial days acceptable option on the resource request.

  • Hours per day specified on the resource request.

  • Eligibility dates.

The Availability factor objective fit score ranges from 0 to 100. The score is:

  • 100 for resources who are available for the requested time period.

  • 0 for resources who have no availability for the requested time period.

Note:

Resources can be assigned to multiple tasks on the same day, even if it results in the resource being overbooked.

Resource Request Period, Period Days, and Days of Work

The resource request period is the date range between the first start date and last end date on the request. Period days are the number of days in the resource request period. The days of work are the specified number of work days that are required to complete the assignment during the resource request period.

The days of work can equal the period days, or there can be fewer days of work than period days. The more unscheduled time the resource has during the resource request period, the higher the Availability factor fit score.

The availability score of a resource also takes into consideration of the number of days a resource is ineligible to be staffed. For example, assume a resource request is for 10 days, September 7th – September 18th, and the resource is made ineligible to be staffed from September 14th – September 18th, when a search is conducted, the availability score for the resource will be 50%.

If you specify a start and end date on a resource request and do not enter a value for days of work, the resource request calculates days of work as the number of work days between the start and end dates (the period days). In this case, there is no free time between the days of work and the start and end dates (the resource request period). This results in a lower Availability factor fit score for resources who are committed to other tasks during that period, even if their other tasks are small.

If you specify a start date and days of work, but no end date, the resource request calculates the end date as the start date plus the days of work. This also results in no free time between the days of work and the resource request period.

If you specify multiple, non-contiguous date ranges, you can only specify the start and end date of each date range. The days of work is equal to the period days for each date range.

Note:

Resource Matching does not include non-work days in the Availability factor fit score calculation, regardless of whether the resource is available or unavailable on that day.

The standard weekly work days are defined during implementation on the Resource Setup - Common Installation Options page.

Part-Time and Full-Time Resources

Full-time resources can be scheduled up to 100 percent of the standard work week before they are considered overbooked. Part-time resources work less than the standard number of hours per week. For example, a resource that works half days is unavailable on any day that is already at least 50 percent scheduled. To support this functionality, Resource Matching needs to know the standard day for each resource. The resource standard day defines how much time the resource has available for tasks on any given workday. The number of hours in a resource standard day is included in the Availability factor fit score calculations for the resource.

The resource weekly work hours represents the number of hours per week that the resource is expected to work. This value is taken from the resource's Job record. Not all resource work hours are stored at the week level, so the stored value is adjusted using the following formula:

Resource weekly work hours = (annualization factor * resource standard hours) / 52, where annualization factor is the number of units per year (such as 52 if already stored at the weekly level, 12 if stored at the monthly level, and so on).

The number of days per week that a resource is expected to work is specified on the Resource Profile - General Info page. The number of hours per day that a resource is expected to work is calculated as the resource weekly work hours divided by the number of days per week that a resource is expected to work.

The resource standard day percentage is the resource hours per day divided by the standard hours per day. The formula is:

(resource weekly work hours / resource standard work days per week / standard hours per day),

which is specified on the Resource Setup - Common Installation Options page.

Resources with a standard day of 100 percent who work a full standard workweek are considered full-time resources. Resources with a standard day less than 100 percent are considered part-time resources. Note that a resource with a standard day of 100 percent who doesn't work on all standard work days is not a full-time resource. For example, a resource who works Monday through Thursday when the standard workweek is Monday through Friday is not a full-time resource.

Task Flexibility

Resource schedules contain assignment tasks that can be internal or external, and billable or non-billable. Schedules also contain appointment (non-assignment) tasks such as meetings, vacations, company events, and training. You may want to consider resources for assignments if the resources are already committed to nonessential appointment tasks, but not if the resources are already committed to scheduled assignments. For example, you may consider a resource with two weeks of scheduled training to be more available than a resource with a two-week billable assignment.

Each resource schedule task belongs to a task category that is assigned a flexibility percentage, which is used by Resource Matching to identify how easily a task in that category can be rescheduled. Tasks that are in a category with a high flexibility percentage are considered more likely to be rescheduled. Resources with high flexibility tasks on their schedules will have a higher Availability factor fit scores than resources with low flexibility tasks for resource requests during that period.

PeopleSoft Resource Management delivers twelve standard task categories and the ability for you to add your own task categories. You specify the category's flexibility during implementation on the Task Categories page. Flexibility is a percentage between 0 and 1, where 1.00 indicates that a task of this category is completely (100 percent) flexible and can be rescheduled. A value of 0.00 indicates the task is completely inflexible and tasks in this category should not be rescheduled. For example, a value of 0.90 (90 percent) for task category Vacation indicates that scheduled vacations only slightly reduce resource Availability factor fit scores.

You can also specify a reserved status flexibility for assignment task categories, which assigns a different, usually higher, flexibility for assignment tasks of that category that are in a status of Reserved.

Full-Day Assignments

A full-day assignment requires that a resource is available to work on the assignment for at least the standard hours per day each day of the assignment. Resources with fewer demands on their time during the resource request period receive a higher Availability factor fit. Resources with a standard day less than 100 percent always receive a score of 0 for full-day assignments. A full-day assignment is specified on the resource request by clearing (not selecting) the Partial Days Acceptable option on the request.

For full-day assignments, Resource Matching compares the number of days that a resource is available to the number of days of work on the request. The Availability factor fit score is:

  • 100 for resources with no tasks scheduled during the requested period for a full-day assignment.

  • 100 for resources with scheduled tasks in a category that has a flexibility of 100 percent.

  • 100 for resources that have assignments in the requested date range but that are available for the requested hours per day.

  • 0 for resources with no available days during the requested period for a full-day assignment.

  • Between 0 and 100 for resources with some, but not all, days available during the requested period.

  • Between 0 and 100 for resources with scheduled tasks in a category that has a flexibility greater than 0 percent during the requested period.

  • 0 for resources with partially-scheduled days during the requested period for a full-day assignment.

Partial-Day Assignments

If you enable the Partial Days Acceptable option on the resource request, it has an effect on availability for two reasons:

  • If enabled, it allows part-time workers to be matched for the resource request.

  • It indicates greater flexibility in the assignment, which means that the resource can be scheduled partial days on the assignment.

A partial-day assignment does not require that a resource work on the assignment for the entire workday. This option is used if you care less when the resource actually performs the work as long as it is completed during the requested period. A partial-day assignment is specified on the resource request by selecting the Partial Days Acceptable option on the request.

For partial-day assignments, Resource Matching compares the number of hours that a resource is available to the number of hours of work on the request. The Availability factor fit score is:

  • 100 for resources with more total free hours during the resource request period than the number of hours requested for the partial-day assignment.

  • 0 for resources with no free time during the resource request period.

  • Between 0 and 100 for resources with fewer available hours during the resource request period than the number of hours requested for the partial-day assignment.

  • Between 0 and 100 for resources with scheduled tasks that have a flexibility greater than 0 percent during the requested period.

Resource Availability Cache

Any change to the resource schedule triggers the Resource Schedule application message (RS_SCHED_TASK) to update the Resource Availability Cache table (RS_DF_WRKR_DATE). The Resource Availability Cache table stores resource schedule data that the Resource Match engine uses to calculate Availability fit scores when you search for resources to match resource requests.