Factors, Factor Families, and Objective Fit

Resource Matching evaluates several different factors, such as availability, competencies, and interests, when deciding if a resource is a good fit for a job. It adjusts the fit assessment by considering which factors are important to your company.

Manually assessing how well a given resource fits a resource requirement is a complex task. It's difficult enough to obtain in-depth knowledge about the assignment's requirements and logistics and the resource's capabilities, interests, and schedule. The real challenge, though, lies in evaluating all the ways that a resource can be right or wrong for an assignment. Perhaps the resource has the necessary skills but is not interested in doing that kind of work. Maybe the resource was recommended for the assignment but is already booked for that period of time. Resource Matching accomplishes this task by evaluating various factors, such as competency proficiency, resource interests, and availability, and assessing how well the resource matches the requirement for each factor. This assessment is captured as a fit score, which indicates how well a specific resource matches a specific resource request for that factor.

In the context of Resource Matching, a factor is one way to evaluate the fit between a resource and a resource request. A factor can usually be presented as a question. For example, the Availability factor asks the question, "Is the resource available during the requested time frame?" The Competency Proficiency factor asks the question, "Does the resource have the requested proficiency in the requested competencies?" Resource Matching generates a quantitative, objective answer to the questions posed by each of the factors.

When you install PeopleSoft Resource Management, you immediately have nine of the most common matching criteria available to match resources and resource requests. You can also define optional flexible factors. Resource Matching assesses each resource based on these standard factors and any optional flexible factors that you define. You can establish the importance, or weighting, of each factor to be applied within factor families. At search time, each user can further refine their search by adjusting the relative importance of each of factor family.

Resources who have the requested values for a factor are considered a good fit for the resource request based on that factor.

This table describes the nine standard factors:

Factor	Description
Accomplishments	Compares a resource's degrees, licenses, languages, and memberships with the requested degrees, licenses, languages, and memberships on a resource request.
Competency Proficiency	Compares the requested competency proficiency on the resource request with the competency proficiency of the resource.
Competency Experience	Compares the requested competency years of experience on the resource request with the number of years of experience that the resource has in the requested competencies.
Resume	Compares resume data with keywords that are specified on a resource request. Resource resume documents are attached to the resource profile and the default resume attachments are indexed by Search Framework.
Project Experience	Compares the work experience description with keywords that are specified on a resource request. Work experience entries are stored in the resource profile. The work description is indexed by Search Framework.
Manager Recommendations	Evaluates whether a manager recommended a resource for a resource request. Recommended resources are considered a good fit.
Competency Interests	Compares the requested competencies on a resource request with the competency interests of the resource. Resources who have expressed interest in the requested competencies are considered a good fit.
Resource Bids	Evaluates whether the resource expressed interest in the resource request. Resources who submit a bid for a resource request are considered a good fit.
Availability	Compares resource schedules against the requested start and end dates of a potential assignment on a resource request. Resources who have more unscheduled time during the requested time frame are considered a better fit. By acting as a repository for tasks, the resource schedule reflects the availability for each resource. Assignment statuses and task categories are used to calculate the Availability factor for each resource.

Factors are further grouped into factor families to provide three key scores to evaluate for each candidate—Qualifications, Preferences, and Availability. This table lists the standard factors and optional flexible factors that make up each factor family:

Factor Family	Included Factors
Qualifications	Resource Accomplishments, Competency Proficiency, Competency Experience, Resume, Work Experience, Manager Recommendations, and Flexible Qualification factors.
Preferences	Competency Interests, Resource Bids, and Flexible Preference factors.
Availability	Availability factor.