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Function documentationDistribution of Demand over Periods

 

You use this function to distribute the demand of a role or role staffing over a number of periods.

Integration

If Workforce Deployment (WFD) is active, the system receives information about the availability of resources from here. If WFD is not active, the availability is determined as follows:

  • From the resource availability or location (see Customizing for Project Management under Start of the navigation path Resource Management Next navigation step Business Partner Next navigation step Employee Overview End of the navigation path).

  • From the calendar or hours per day (see Customizing for Project Management under Start of the navigation path Resource Management Next navigation step Basic Settings for Roles Next navigation step Make General Settings for Distribution End of the navigation path).

Prerequisites

  • You are editing a role whose role type supports distribution (see Customizing for Project Management under Start of the navigation path Resource Management Next navigation step Basic Settings for Roles Next navigation step Define Role Types End of the navigation path).

  • You are on the Resources tab page in the General or Staffing view.

    Note Note

    For staffing, the system only displays the Demand Distribution over Periods area in the General view if you have selected a resource.

    End of the note.

Features

General

If you use distribution for a role, you can plan the demand for each individual period. In this case, you do not enter the total demand yourself; it is calculated by the system from the total of the individual demands you entered. The system displays the distribution of demand over periods. The demand must be within the validity period of the role.

Once distributed values exist, fixed dates must also exist for the role or resource. If there are no fixed dates, the system sets them automatically.

You can enter a period type and a distribution unit for the distribution at project definition level. You do this on the Structure tab page in the Additional Data view. If you select a generic interval as the period type, you can plan the periods as you choose. There must not be any gaps between the periods and they must not overlap. You can check the intervals. For more information, see Generic Interval Check.

If you do not enter any data here, the information you entered in Customizing for Project Management under Start of the navigation path Resource Management Next navigation step Basic Settings for Roles Next navigation step Make General Settings for Distribution End of the navigation path applies.

In addition to the table display, you can display the distribution of demand over periods as a chart.

A chart is available on the General tab: The red curve shows the demand of the role; the yellow bar shows the total of all soft-booked demand from the role staffings; the green bar shows the total of all fixed role staffings.

Two charts are available on the Staffing tab page:

  • Demand: Here you compare the availability of a staffed resource with your existing staffings for this and other roles. The red curve shows the available capacity of the resource; the gray bar shows the other hard-booked capacity; the yellow bar shows the other soft-booked capacity, and the green bar shows the demand of the role.

  • Free Capacity: Here you compare the remaining demand of the role with the capacity the staffed resource still has available. The blue curve shows the free capacity and the red bar shows the remaining demand of the role.

    If you make changes to entries in the table and then choose Enter, the system updates the chart.

Note Note

You can determine the dates and demand of a distributed role from the assigned tasks. To do this, choose Update Role According to Tasks. The system then recalculates the demand from the role-task assignments.

Note, however, that this pushbutton is not available if the automatic update function is active for a role. In this case, the system triggers the update whenever you create, change, or delete the assignment of a task to the role or the resources it is staffed with. You activate the automatic update function for all roles or specific roles, such as roles of a specific role type or project type by implementing the method AUTOMATIC_UPDATE_ROLE in Customizing for Project Management under Start of the navigation path Resource Management Next navigation step Business Partner Next navigation step BAdI: Performance and Usability in Resource Management End of the navigation path.

End of the note.
Distribution

You choose the Distribution pushbutton if you want to make the same changes to the demand in several different periods. You can use this function for the following types of changes:

  • Adding demand to the existing demand of a period

  • Subtracting demand from the existing demand of a period

  • Setting the demand as a new demand for a period

For more information, see Distribution for Resource Management.

Resource Distribution Subviews

Alternatively, you can display the distribution of roles and business partner efforts by opening the Staffing Overview subview or the Resource Overview subview of the Resources view and selecting the Distribution radio button. For more information, see Staffing Overview: Distribution and Resource Overview: Distribution.