Introduction to Hive Resourcing
Resourcing is a Premium Add-on that allows teams to staff projects, plan work, and manage team workload.
Accessing Resourcing
Resourcing can be accessed by clicking 'Apps' in the left-hand navigation panel. Clicking the pin icon will create a shortcut to the app in your land-hand navigation panel.
Note that access to Resourcing can be restricted under settings. This will be discussed further below under the Settings section.
Navigating Resourcing
When navigating to the Resourcing Application, buttons along the top row allow you to create new resource allocations and assignments, toggle between the user, teams & projects view, change the timeframe displayed, toggle between hours and percentages, toggle between estimates and allocations, switch between density, apply present saved filters, access the capacity finder, apply filters, and access the Resourcing settings page under the 'More' menu.
Create Button
Clicking Create will allow you to create a Project-level Allocation, Action-level Assignment, or Time-Off entry for a user. Clicking any of these three options will open the creation window.
You must select the relevant project, resource, date, and time for your entry. Assignment notes and Leave Types are optional but helpful for context.
Day, Week, Month Toggle
The toggle to the right of the creation button allows you to switch views between seeing Users by Project or Project by Users which are discussed below. The 'D, W, M' toggle allows you to increase or decrease the granularity of your view between Day, Week, and Month.
Clicking any of these options will change the date range picker to the right and allow you to customize your view.
Filters
Filters are key to using Resourcing and can be found on the right-hand side of the top navigation panel.
Want to save your filters for the team? Click 'Preset' to save your filters for easy access in the future.
Hours and % Toggle
This toggle changes how data is presented in the Resourcing grid. In previous versions of Resourcing this was workspace-wide but now this is user-based.
Estimate Toggle
This toggle dictates how the calculation in the resourcing grid is being performed.
When set to 'Estimate', this is looking at estimated time over a user's total capacity.
Each project row shows estimated time for that project over a user's capacity. If the user's time is divided across multiple projects, you can now easily see how this breaks down.
Allocation Toggle
This toggle again dictates how the calculation in the resourcing grid is being performed.
This looks at the user's allocated hours over their available capacity.
Like the estimated toggle, this also shows breakdown at the project level for easy comparison.
Compare Toggle
This checkbox looks for the relationship between allocated and estimated hours.
With this toggle enabled you will see different data types in the grid that may not have been present before.
0% indicates that a project has an allocation but no estimate present.
Hours without coloration indicate that there is an estimate but no allocation present.
This allows you to see everywhere where data is present on the grid while also being able to see the relationship between data.
You cannot adjust the previous toggles when in compare mode.
Remember that these toggles and compare checkbox are user specific so it will not impact another resource manager looking at the same data.
Density
This option allows you to switch between Compact & Extended density of your Resourcing view.
Extended - each project & its data are listed out underneath each user.
Compact - the view does not include project or user-level sections and instead combines all Estimates to one section and all Allocations to another.
Capacity Finder
Capacity Finder is a more advanced filter that allows you to quickly sort through your data. Do you have a last-minute request and need to find out who is available? Use Capacity Finder.
More Menu
Access the Resourcing settings page and the Resourcing reporting page.
The Resourcing Settings page contains the location for defining how data is shown as well as where placeholders, user tags, project tags, and roles can be created. See below for more details on the Resourcing Settings page.
The resourcing app chart shows the designated allocated time and the assigned time that a user is expected to be booked on a project or action. More to come on the differences between allocated and assigned time later in this guide.
When allocations are made at the project level and assignments are made at the action or project level they will be reflected on the Resourcing chart as horizontal lines detailing the span of the assignment and the total number of time (hours or percentage of total capacity). The color coding helps to distinguish between allocated time and estimated time as well as identify when someone is over capacity:
Purple: Allocated time
Dark Purple: Hard Allocations
Light Purple: Soft Allocations
Blue: Assigned Estimated Time
Dark Blue: Confirmed Assignments
Light Blue: Unconfirmed Assignments
Pink: User is overstaffed; assigned time is over their threshold (i.e., over 8 hours per day)
Views in Resourcing
There are three data views available within Resourcing that can be toggled using the button to the right of Create. This toggle allows you to choose whether Users, Teams or Projects are at the top of your hierarchy for sorting.
Users View
When 'Users' is selected, Users will be the top level with each project they are working on as the second level of the hierarchy. Actions and Resource Assignments will be organized by project, with Time Off in its own row.
The purple numbers in this view represent the project’s consumed allocation in a percentage. When that percentage is exceeded for a given time frame, we see the change to dark purple and the percentage exceeding 100%.
So let’s say, for example, we sold “Product Roadmap” for 40 hours of design work over the course of a week. We can set that allocation for the project, and then begin building out our project plan in action cards or resource assignments. As we estimate action cards and assignments, they are compared against the allocation and are shown as a percentage. As a Resource Manager, I know that I can keep my projects within budget and within a timeline as long as I don’t exceed my set allocations.
Projects View
When 'Projects' is selected, Projects will be at the top level with each user within the project making up the second level of the hierarchy.
In this view, the percentage of consumed allocation totaled for the project is shown in purple. This allows you to answer the question "Across the whole project, are we staying within our available hours?"
This view will also let you answer "Am I maintaining the total number of hours available to spend by role or resource?"
Teams View
When 'Teams' is selected, Teams will be at the top level with each user within the team making up the second level of the hierarchy. Expanding each user dropdown will allow you to see the list of projects & actions assigned to them.
The purple numbers in this view represent the team's consumed allocation/estimates.
Note: If the user is part of multiple teams, their name will be displayed under each team accordingly.
Getting Started
Adding An Allocation (Project-Level Only)
To add an Allocation, you can click 'Create' or drag-and-drop within the allocation field for the selected project and user.
Adding a Resource Assignment
To populate estimated time in Resourcing, you will need the following items:
Estimated Time
Assigned User(s)
Date or Date Range.
You can create individual action-level estimates by turning on Time Tracking in Apps and adding estimates to your Action Cards as seen below.
You can also create more general estimates on a project level. Simply click 'Create', or drag-and-drop within Estimated for the relevant date range. You can also double-click on a date to open the 'Create Assignment' window.
Allocation vs Estimate
When discussing Resourcing, it is important to distinguish between what is an allocation and what is an estimate for your user or project.
Allocation refers to the number of hours available for a user for a project. Allocation refers to how much a resource is "planned" or "allowed" to work on a project, based on who is available and/or most capable of performing the work.
The allocation capability is commonly used for planning purposes where a user's total availability is allocated across projects
When you think allocation, think about what was sold or committed to.
Allocations can be made to specific users at the project level.
These are "Purple" in Resourcing.
There are two main types of allocation - hard and soft - which are denoted by a checkbox when creating the allocation.
Hard Allocation: The team member has been "confirmed" or "booked" to work on the project.
Soft Allocation: The team member or unnamed resource is tentatively 'penciled in' to work on the project.
The "Estimated" Row in the Resourcing grid is the collection of action cards and Resource Assignments
Assignments refer to the booked and estimated time a user has been assigned to work within a project.
Assignments can be made at both the project and action level.
Assignments in Resourcing are powered by the estimated time that a user is assigned to work on a project or a tasks within the project
Resourcing Reporting & Exports
Resource Reporting can be found under the 'More' menu in the top right corner by clicking 'Reporting'.
There are three key reports contained within Reporting:
Total Hours Performance
Project Breakdown
Staffing Breakdown
Filters
Resourcing Reporting comes with in-app filtering available by clicking 'Filters' in the top right corner.
This will allow you to flex the data based on the time period, projects, roles, and assignees. Project Status refers to the status set on the overview page of each project.
Resourcing Terminology
Utilization
Utilization is the measure of how much of your available resources you are currently using. This can be best seen as a formula:
Utilization = All hours logged (excluding [PTO] projects) / Total capacity (workweek)
Capacity
Capacity is the maximum level of output that someone is capable of delivering
Example: 8 hours/day of availability = 8 hours of capacity for a given day
Allocation
Allocations are project-specific units of measure. They refer to how much a resource is "planned" or "allowed" to work on a project, based on who is available and/or most capable of performing the work. There are two main types of allocation - hard and soft - which are denoted by a checkbox when creating the allocation.
Hard Allocation: The team member has been "confirmed" or "booked" to work on the project.
Soft Allocation: The team member or unnamed resource is tentatively 'penciled in' to work on the project. An unnamed resource or placeholder is always soft-allocated.
Assignment
The amount of work [time] assigned for a user.
Estimate
The estimated amount of work [time] an action will take to complete
Placeholder
Placeholders are unnamed resources used to 'pencil in' who will work on a project or activity. Like your users, placeholders are assigned roles (i.e Copywriter) and can be used to assign work without knowing who on your team will take it.
Settings & User Profiles
To make the most out of Resourcing, it is important to review Resourcing Settings.
Found by clicking ‘More’ in the top right corner, the settings panel allows you to set thresholds, define how data is shown, and create placeholders, which are a key function of Resourcing.
The following sections will give an in-depth overview of each tab and how the settings can be used.
Resourcing Settings
General
The ‘General’ tab allows you to set defaults for the workspace. By default, working days are 8 hours and the threshold (the division between blue (in-range) and red (over-indexed)) is set to 8 hours per day.
If your team works weekends or another configuration of days, you can note it from this screen.
On-screen numerical figures can be shown as hours or utilization percentages. 100% utilization is defined by your threshold. This can be adjusted by the toggles as well.
Lastly, permissions determine who can see and interact with the Resourcing applet. If you set permissions to 'Specific Users', other users will not see Resourcing under Apps.
Placeholders
Do you know a Project Manager needs to take the work but are unsure which one? Use a Placeholder!
Placeholder roles are defined in Resourcing and allow you to assign or resource work when the exact resource is not yet known.
Note that you will need to assign a corresponding role to your Placeholder like you would with a regular employee.
Projects
The Projects tab allows you to add Project Tags to your projects for further filtering in Resourcing.
Project Tags are optional and different from Project Custom Fields.
Project tags are useful to align filters within the Resourcing and Time Applets where you can filter the grid and report views based on the same project tag values.
People
The people tab allows you to assign your team Roles and User Tags (discussed below).
Both of these items can also be assigned to a User’s profile by an Admin.
Roles
Roles generally follow job titles in an organization. Each user will only hold one role in Hive.
You will need to create corresponding roles and assign them to your employees (and placeholders if applicable).
When you are ready to staff your projects, you can filter by role and see availability.
User Tags
User Tags can be used to identify unique attributes your teammates may have that are useful when staffing projects.
Maybe you need a Spanish-speaking Designer or an Engineer who can code in Crystal.
As needed you can create and add User Tags to your users either in the Resourcing settings panel or in their user profile.
Project Tags
Similar to User Tags, Project Tags allow you to add unique identifying criteria to your projects.
Note that these tags are only used for filtering Resourcing, Time, and Analytics so they will not appear in your Project Navigator.
An example of a Project Tag would be Geographic Region as seen in the example here. Maybe your team members can only work on EMEA client projects, so you would filter by this tag.
User Profiles
User Profiles can be accessed by clicking the user’s name in Resourcing. As mentioned above, you can alter Role and User Tags from this screen. Only Workspace Admins can update User Profiles in Resourcing.
The User Profile also contains important availability data used in Resourcing, utilization targets used in Reporting, and Financial information (bill and cost rate) used in tandem with the Time app.
If you plan to utilize Resourcing and Placeholders, you must define your user’s roles.
Placeholders have very limited User Profiles compared to actual users. Please note the following fields which can only be updated by Admins.
Availability is best used for contractors or employees with set first and last days of work. They will not be available for Resourcing before or following these days if set.
Start and End Date allows employees to identify unique work weeks. You can create multiple entries in this area. An example would be if I can only be allocated 3 hours on Wednesday for the next 3 weeks.
Utilization Target allows you to set a target utilization for the percentage of an employee's working hours that should be spent on billable activities.
Cost Rate refers to the internal cost of the resource used to calculate labor cost.
Bill Rate refers to the hourly bill rate when logging time. This is the resource’s default bill rate but can be changed on a project-by-project level.