Resource manager guide (Project Service)

Applies to Project Service app versions 2.x and 1.x

The Project Service capabilities in Dynamics 365 for Customer Engagement help you find the right resources at the right time for the right project and make sure all resources are utilized efficiently.

Deploy your company’s consultants efficiently and effectively with the Project Service. These provide you with the tools you need to schedule resources based on the requirements and schedules of consulting projects and on the skills and availability of your consultants. You can quickly find the most qualified consultants who are available to work on projects, and you can easily see how to better schedule them during the course of each project.

Resource scheduling helps you do the following:

• Match resources to projects, based on how well their skills and proficiency levels match the project resource requirements.

• Match a resource’s schedule to a project calendar, based on their availability and scheduled time off. The color-coded calendar gives you visual cues about resource availability.

• Review the capacity of each consultant and determine how that capacity is currently used. This can help you find where a consultant might be under- or over-utilized, or if they’re working at capacity.

• Assign a percentage or a specific number of hours for a worker’s capacity to a project.

• Make group resource bookings.

• Soft book or hard book resources, and convert soft-booked hours into hard-booked hours in one step.

• Automatically form a project team based on resources defined in a work breakdown structure for a project.

• Fulfill resource requests (book, propose, find substitute resources).

• Assign resources according to a central (resource manager assigns) or hybrid model (resource manager and other managers can assign). For more information about setting a central versus hybrid resource management model, see Configure additional parameters settings (Project Service).

  You can manage resources efficiently across projects and ensure that projects are staffed appropriately. You’ll need to perform the following tasks:

• Manage resource requests. Match the skills and proficiencies of your consultants to the right projects.

• View resource availability. Check consultants’ availability in a calendar view.

• View resource utilization. See the percentage of time that your consultants are currently booked.

• Schedule resources for a project. Schedule consultants for a project.

  For more information about submitting resource requests for individual projects, see Submit resource requests.

See Also

Overview of Project Service
Administrator Guide
Account Manager Guiden
Project Manager Guide
Time, Expense, and Collaboration Guide