Using Resource Manager

Resource Manager allows you to allocate and manage the workloads for certain tasks flagged as being resource managed. Updates to information in any of the panes will be reflected in the other two.

Capability and Functionality Applies to

Core Application and NANO

Before you start

Your system must be using the Alemba API. This is installed by default for all systems running versions higher than 9.7.

You must have View Resource Manager selected in the Shared tab of your Workflow Management security role. For more information, see Workflow Management Security Role: Shared Tab.

You must be identified as a Resource Manager for the relevant workflow group(s) in the Workflow Management Groups window.

To Access Resource Manager from NANO

Accessing Resource Manager from Core

From the main menu, select View, and then Resource Manager.

Using Resource Manager

Resource Manager Screen Details

The Resource Manager window consists of three panes:

  • Resource Allocations Pane lists your resource managed teams and analysts, and a calendar view of all of the analysts' currently allocated tasks

  • Unallocated Tasks Pane shows the resource managed tasks that have been allocated to your team(s) and are awaiting allocation

  • Task Details Pane shows the details of the task currently selected in either the Unallocated Tasks or the Resource Allocations pane

Resource Allocations Pane

This pane lists your resource managed teams and analysts down the left hand side, and a calendar view of all of the analysts' currently allocated tasks.

The calendar view displays the current month by default, with the current day/time in the middle, and indicated by a vertical blue line. Saturdays and Sundays are grayed out (but can still be used).

One week is considered to be 168 hours, and tasks can be allocated for all of those hours.

You can click on any column header to center this date/time in the display.

Resource Allocations Toolbar

You will see a number of buttons and controls at the top of the Resource Allocations pane. They perform the following functions:

Analysts

All teams for which you are identified as a Resource Manager are displayed, broken down by analyst. The Resource Managed tasks that are allocated to each of the analysts are also displayed.

Allocated Tasks

When the task is allocated, it is represented by a colored bar in the analyst's calendar row. You can view a summary of the task details by hovering over it, or click on it to see more details in the Task Details pane. You can also double click on it to open the Task Details window in a separate tab.

Allocation Key

You may also observe some background patterning of cells, indicating one or more of the following:

Hover over the Info icon in the top toolbar to see a key to the different pattern styles used in the calendar.

Unallocated Tasks Pane

The bottom pane in the window shows tasks that:

  • have been identified as resource managed in the Task Details, either at workflow template level or within the specific request. See Creating a Standard Task for more information.

  • have been assigned or forwarded to the resource manager's team(s)

  • have not been allocated to an analyst

  • are not yet complete

It shows the following details, ordered by the task's Planned Start date. The information shown reflects details held on the Task Details window. Scroll across if all of the columns are not visible on your screen.

You can manipulate the information that is displayed in the columns by clicking on the column headers and selecting from the drop down options.

You can also group the details by the details in a particular column by dragging the column header to the space between the Unallocated Tasks heading, and the top of the browse table -

This can be useful if you want to, say, group all of the tasks in the same request.

You can group by multiple columns, and sort the information within the groups by clicking the small arrows to the left of the name in the group tile -

To cancel the grouping, just click the x in the tile.

Task Details Pane

When a task is selected in the Unallocated Tasks or Resource Allocations pane, the Task Details pane shows the task details.

The following information is shown: