This post is part of a series I’m creating connected with Project Service Automation (PSA) for Microsoft Dynamics 365. This time I will review centralised resource management on projects.

In many organisations, the Project Manager will not be empowered to hard book resources themselves. In these scenarios, the Project Manager would make a resource request then a centralised resource function would find and book the team members.

Below you can see that I have added a generic resource of developer to my project. I then select the resource and use the SUBMIT REQUEST button.

When I submit the request, I can optionally add a comment to my request.

After the Project Manager has submitted the resource request the resource manager can see and maintain these in the Resource Requests option of Project Service.

The typical life cycle of a booking request is that it is “Submitted” by the Project Manager. The Resource Manager will review and will suggest a resource, so the status of the request moves to “Proposed”. The Project Manager will then accept or reject the proposed booking. Once accepted the booking request is then fulfilled.

When the resource proposes a resource they may pick one person for the entire request but they can also split the request and propose multiple resources.

On occasional the Resource Manager may propose a resource with less capacity than requested by the Project Manager. If the project manager accepts a request like this then the balance of outstanding time is added as a generic resource.

When the Resource Manager options the booking request they can use the FIND RESOURCES option to try to fulfil this request.

Below you can see that the screen they will use to book this resources is very similar to the one used by the Project Manager when hard booking. It is possible that the Resource Manager will simply select the BOOK option to immediately hard book the resource. But in the centralised situation it will be more typical that they will use the PROPOSE BOOKING option.

In my example below notice that the project manager has requested one developer from Jan to March. The Resource Manager has actually selected two developers. One for Jan and one for Feb. They haven’t identified who will complete the work in March.

When the Resource Manager proposes these resources they will be prompted to enter an optional comment. Because it is an under booking.

Back on the resource request against the project the Project Manager can see the comment entered by the Resource Manager. They then have the ability to accept to reject this proposal.

And on the resource request they can see the suggest resources and the amount of resource that has been proposed.

Assuming the Project Manager accepts this proposal, two developers would be added to the project. Plus, a third generic developer resource for the unassigned time will be created. You can see this on my team view below.

The capabilities of PSA to handle a centralised resource situation should help make it a useful tool in the largest of organisations. Also features supporting splitting resource requests and under allocation will hopefully make it a flexible and therefore useful application. J