Resource planning in UniPhi is a macro level tool that facilitates broad utilisation data and forward workload forecasting based on current and future scheduled activities.
The ability to present the forecast data relies on relevant data being populated in UniPhi for an individual project and the aggregation of all the populated projects to provide support for Resource Planning for the organisation.
Timesheet activity records the actual hours and is regarded as a micro-management aspect of Resource Planning. There are numerous impacts of recording hours on projects with the timesheet system including tracking project costs in terms of value and effort, supporting project profitability calculations, facilitating accurate client charges where invoicing is based on actual effort expended, and supporting forecasting of remaining effort to complete a project. All of which can be aggregated to support portfolio calculations of actual and forecast values.
This document references all the specific aspects of Projects, Schedules, Resources, Contracts, and Reports that impact or relate to the Resource Planning aspects of UniPhi.
It is assumed that the UniPhi system has been established with default configurations and that the other UniPhi manuals can be referenced for topics outside the scope of this manual.
Resource Planning in One Page
In order to ensure you get the most valuable and reliable information out of UniPhi, it is important to ensure that the following key pieces of information are adhered to.
· Ensure that all Internal Resources (staff or team members) have their Profile information of Charge Rate, Cost Rate, and Standard Hours entered.
· Ensure that the Project Schedule dates for all active lifecycle phases are entered. Confirm this by checking the Summary > Schedule.
· Populate the Resources > Resource Planning > Budget view with the project budget in hours.
· Populate the Resources > Resource Planning > Act/Fsct (Actuals and Forecast) view with the remaining hours for completion. (When first setting up a project the remaining hours should = 100% of the project budget in hours unless the project is in a pre-award phase in which case the percentage hours will be risk adjusted according to the forecast Win % and Fee %.)
If preparing Revenue contracts for a Practice Management process, ensure that Contract Deliverables for Time & Materials are assigned where appropriate with the team member selected, contract charges and hours, and schedule dates for delivery. Use the Import from Contract option in the Resource Planning Budget view to automatically populate the budget values from the contract. This process is explained in the UniPhi 15 Practice Management Manual.
Navigation
The key elements of Resource Planning in UniPhi are summarised in this section. Further sections in this manual provide the details of each area that has an impact on Resource Planning.
Selecting a specific Project in UniPhi from the My Portfolio or Portfolio > Resource module > Resource Plan will take the user to where the resource planning is done.
Comments