Use case for resource forecasting

This section describes common resource forecasting use cases that you encounter as IT managers. Calbro Services user personas help to illustrate the user scenarios. The typical steps described by these use cases are in keeping with BMC best practices.

The use cases do not refer to specific Calbro Services sample data. To follow the use cases, in some instances, you might need to create your own sample data (for example, projects, staff scenarios). In addition, you might need to grant additional permissions to certain users.

Managing portfolio of projects for new Calbro product releases for next fiscal year

Paula is the portfolio manager at Calbro Financials. She is planning to roll out the next generation of Calbro Financials's flagship product line in the fiscal year 2013. There are six products that comprise the concerned productline with number of interdependencies. Paula envisions 6 projects next year to help manage the development and rollout. Mary Mann and Allen Allbrook are project managers assigned to manage three projects each. Tony is the IT resource manager who manages staff availability and requirements.

As a portfolio manager, Paula needs to perform the following tasks:

• Create a portfolio of planned projects for next year.
• Nominate tentative project managers to outline expected demand for the projects in terms of job categories or IT Staff (both current and planned)
• Forecast resource requirements.
• Create what-if staff scenarios with varying project priorities and resource allocation to analyze and plan using best possible staff scenario.

As a resource manager, Tony needs to perform the following tasks:

• Create an inventory of actual and planned resources.
• Partner with portfolio manager and project managers to determine best possible allocation of resources.

As project managers, Mary Mann and Allen Allbrook need to perform the following tasks:

• Determine project priorities and milestones.
• Estimate resource requirements for each project.

Calbro Financials uses BMC IT Business Management Suite to manage projects and portfolios. The resource forecasting feature of BMC IT Business Management Suite help the project and portfolio managers to efficiently plan and forecast staff requirements and allocations. Managers at Calbro Financials use BMC IT Business Management Suite as follows:

1. Tony uses the Staff Availability window to create an inventory of IT Staff. He can add the time the resources are available for project and non-project work.
   The following figure shows the Staff Availability window:
   
   Tony can also add planned resources in this interface. This ensures that the planned resources are available for allocation planning of resources.
2. Mary Mann uses the project lifecycle to plan and execute the projects. She uses the Estimate Resources option in a project lifecycle to plan for resource requirements for her projects.
   The following figure shows the Estimate Resources window:
   
   Mary estimates resource requirements for all three projects that are assigned to her.
3. Similar to Mary, the other project manager, Allen, uses the Estimate Resources option to project the resource requirements for his projects.
4. Paula, the portfolio manager, creates portfolio of projects created by Mary and Allen.
5. Paula uses the Project Portfolio Details window to analyze the portfolio details such as adjusting the priority of the projects, perform value analysis and set project statistics.
6. Paula then uses the Staff Scenario tab in the Project Portfolio Details window to create staff allocation scenarios for allocation of resources for various projects.
   The following figure shows one of the allocation scenarios that Paula creates for allocating the resources:
   
   
   Paula gathers the following information from the Staff Scenario window:
   • The total requirement for resources characterized by job family and job category.
   • The total available resources for the selected organizational unit(s).
   • Possible staff allocations with available staff using the Auto Allocation feature.
   • Identify areas where staff is not available to meet the requirements.
     
7. Based on staff allocation analysis, Paula can adjust one or more of the following parameters and create multiple staff allocation scenarios:
   
   • Change the relative priority of the projects in the Scenarios tab of the Portfolio Details window.
   • Manually allocate resources in the Staff Scenario window.
   • Use resources available from different organizational units.
     
8. After creating multiple staff scenarios, Paula can perform the following tasks:
   
   • Generate a business case justification for the priority of the projects.
   • Work with Tony for planning of additional resources.
   • Work with Mary and Allen to analyze staff estimates and plan staff allocations.
   • Escalate staff requirements for high priority projects.