Scheduling resources

Scheduler is an app in Diligent One . You can schedule resources to projects and phases to gain oversight over your team's work commitments and availability, and ensure that teams are not over-committed or under-resourced ahead of time.

How it works

The People tab within the Scheduler provides a comprehensive view of who is available to work, who is scheduled and when they are scheduled, and the length of each commitment.

Resources (users)

Resources are users in your organization. Only users assigned the following roles are listed in the Scheduler:

• Professional Manager

• Professional User

If a user was previously scheduled to a project or phase, and later has their role demoted, a Professional Manager must re-assign them a higher role so that they can access and conduct work in the project.

Projects , phases, and non-project commitments

You can schedule users to projects and phases to ensure you have adequate capacity to complete planned projects . You can also schedule users to a non-project commitment to account for absences that are not based around project functions.

Component	Description
Project	a planned undertaking that can include multiple phases
Phase	a significant stage that is part of a project : Planning activities associated with preparing and consolidating project planning information Fieldwork activities related to gathering, evaluating, and documenting evidence Results activities associated with project reporting
Non-project	an activity that is not based around a project function

Dates

Project dates are shared across users as the dates are set in the project settings (as the Fieldwork Start Date and Target Completion Date).

Phase dates can be independent from project dates, and are individually assigned to users. This means you can schedule multiple users to the same project or phase. You can also schedule phases outside of the project dates.

Overlapping schedules

An overlapping schedule means that the start date of one commitment begins before the end date of another commitment.

Overlapping schedules are automatically displayed in the Schedule details side panel as you schedule users. This allows you to avoid double bookings associated with multiple projects and phases, or booking on top of absences.

Working days and hours

Project Admins can configure the default working days and full-time hours for users in their organization. They can also set individual hours if they need to specify different work hours for certain users. For more information, see Configure working days and hours for all users.

This information is used to calculate how many hours a user is expected to work, and how much of the user's time can be spent on project work.

Limitations

• a maximum of 50 users can be scheduled per project
• a single user can be scheduled to a maximum of 100 phases

Use cases

Permissions

Only Project Admins can configure Scheduler settings.

Professional Managers can schedule and unschedule users. Only Professional Managers or Professional Users can be scheduled to projects and phases.

Oversight Executives have read-only access to the Scheduler.

Navigate to the Scheduler

Navigate to the area where you can manage schedules across multiple projects .

1. Open the Scheduler app.
2. Click the People tab.

   Result The Gantt chart displays a list of Professional Managers and Professional Users in the Diligent One instance.

Filter users

From the People tab in the Scheduler app, see how each user is being occupied by project and non-project activities. By default, only users associated with active projects display, but you can create your own custom views, which are visible to everyone in your organization.

1. To apply or modify an existing view, choose a view from the dropdown list. By default, the Active projects only view is applied.
2. To change the applied filters, click x filter(s) applied. The Saved view pane opens.
3. If you want to modify an existing view, under Name, choose a view to modify.
4. Filter your user list by users, project names, statuses, and tags. The user list updates as you apply filters.
5. Choose to apply your filters without saving them, or save your changes to a new or existing view.
   • To apply your filters without saving them, click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the Saved view pane. A note appears indicating that you have unsaved changes applied to your current view.
   • If you have a saved view open, to update the view with your current filters, click Save.
   • To save your filters as a new view, click Save view as. If you have a saved view open, click the ... button to access the Save view as option, or to rename or delete the current view.

   Result The Scheduler app displays the users that match your filters.

Customize the chart view

In addition to filtering the users that appear in the list, you can also customize the time frame you want to view:

• Choose the time increments on the Gantt chart select one of the following options: Week, Month, Quarter, or Fiscal year.

  Note

  The default fiscal year end date is December 31. System Admins can define their organization's fiscal year end date in Launchpad .

  For more information, see Updating organization settings.

• Jump to a specific date or scroll through time click Today or Jump to to jump to today or a specific date, or click the forward and back buttons to scroll through the Gantt chart by your chosen time increments.

Configure working days and hours for all users

Configure the default working days and full-time hours for users in your organization.

1. From the People tab in the Scheduler app, click Settings.

   The Settings side panel opens.

2. Specify the following information:
   • Full time Enter the number of hours that full-time people are expected to work per week in your organization.

     The default is 40 hours. You can specify a number rounded to 2 decimal places. Example: 37.25.

   • Working days Select the typical days of the week that people are expected to work in your organization.

     You must select as least one working day. Monday to Friday are selected as the default working days.

     Note

     Non-working days are greyed out in the Gantt chart.

3. Click Save.

   Result The default working days and full-time hours for user in your organization are set.

View scheduled and available work hours for each user

The Scheduled per [timeframe] (hours left) column shows how many hours have been scheduled during the time displayed on the Gantt chart, and how many working hours remain to be scheduled, for each user. The name of the column updates based on whether you choose to view weeks, months, quarters, or fiscal years on the Gantt chart.

The numbers of hours are calculated as follows:

• Available hours = Expected working hours for resource - Scheduled project hours - Scheduled non-project hours

• Scheduled time (displayed as a percentage) = Scheduled project hours / Available hours * 100

• Hours left = Available hours - Scheduled project hours - Scheduled non-project hours

These numbers update automatically every time you change the number of scheduled or available hours in the selected Gantt chart timeframe, and every time you change the timeframe.

Specify an individual user's work hours

Specify the total number of work hours per week for an individual user.

1. From the People tab in the Scheduler app, click the name of the user you want specify different work hours for.

   The User details side panel opens.

2. Enter information in the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Full time	specifies the user as a full-time employee within the organization
   Custom	specifies that the user works a different number of hours per week compared to full-time employees
   Hours / week	specifies the number of hours that the user is expected to work per week You can specify a number rounded to 2 decimal places. Example: 10.25 If you selected Full time the default value is based on the full-time working hours configured for the organization. If you selected Custom, you can specify a custom value.
   Hourly rate optional	the amount of money the user earns for every hour worked

3. Click Save.

   Result You have specified different working hours for the user.

Schedule a user

Schedule a user to a project , phase, or non-project related commitment.

Schedule a user to a project

1. From the People tab in the Scheduler app, click Schedule this user next to the user's name.
2.  In the side panel, select Project .
3. Complete the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Project	schedules the user to a specific project Note If the user is not assigned one of the following roles, you are prompted to assign them a higher role: Professional Manager Professional User
   Project dates	defines the start and end dates of the project Start date = Fieldwork Start Date End date = Target Completion Date

4. Do one of the following:
   • To save the schedule and return to the chart, click Save and close.
   • To save the schedule and add another one, click Save and add another.

   Result The user is scheduled to the project . The updated chart displays the blocked off time period.

Schedule a user to a phase

1. From the People tab in the Scheduler app, do one of the following: 
   • Click Schedule this user next to the user's name, and select the appropriate project .
   • Click the arrow next to the user's name, and click project Name next to the appropriate project .
2. Complete the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Phase	schedules the user to one of the following phases within the project : Planning Fieldwork Results Note If there is more than one schedule for the phase, you can click the arrow to navigate to the next schedule, and update any necessary details.
   Dates	defines the start and end dates of the phase Any overlapping schedules that exist automatically display. Tip You can adjust phase dates directly from the chart view by clicking and dragging the end points of the timeline to the appropriate place, or moving a gantt bar.
   Hours / day optional	specifies the number of hours per day the user is scheduled to work The following information is automatically calculated: Hours / day working hours per week divided by working days The default value is based on the full-time working hours configured for the organization. The minimum is 1 and the maximum is 24. You can specify a number rounded to two decimal places. Example: 7.25 Duration number of days between dates Total hours per day multiplied by duration

3. Do one of the following:
   • To save the schedule and return to the chart, click Save and close.
   • To save the schedule and add another one, click Save and add another.

   Result The user is scheduled to the phase. The updated chart displays the blocked off time period.

Schedule a user to a non-project commitment

1. From the People tab in the Scheduler app, do one of the following:
   • Click Schedule this user next to the user's name. In the side panel, select Non-project.
   • Click the arrow next to the user's name, and click Non-project .
2. Complete the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Non-project type	specifies a category to classify the non-project time Non-project time accounts for general administrative tasks, professional development, a vacation or leave of absence, organizational initiatives, or other activities that are not based around project functions.
   Dates optional	defines the start and end dates of the non-project commitment Any overlapping schedules that exist automatically display. Tip You can adjust non-project dates directly from the chart view by clicking and dragging the end points of the timeline to the appropriate place, or moving a gantt bar.
   Hours / day optional	specifies the number of hours per day the user is scheduled to a non-project commitment The following information is automatically calculated: Hours / day working hours per week divided by working days The default value is based on the full-time working hours configured for the organization. The minimum is 1 and the maximum is 24. You can specify a number rounded to two decimal places. Example: 7.25 Duration number of days between dates Total hours per day multiplied by duration

3. Do one of the following:
   • To save the schedule and return to the chart, click Save and close.
   • To save the schedule and add another one, click Save and add another.

   Result The user is scheduled to the non-project commitment. The updated chart displays the blocked off time period in striped grey to indicate the user is unavailable.

Update a user's schedule

If a user already has scheduled time, you can adjust their specific dates and work hours. To update a user's schedule, you can click and drag the start, end, or an entire bar to move it on the visible portion of the Gantt chart, or do the following:

1. From the People tab in the Scheduler app, click the arrow next to the user's name.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Update a schedule associated with a project Click the name of the project or the associated project bar in the Gantt chart.
   • Update a schedule associated with a project phase Click the name of a phase or the associated phase bar in the Gantt chart.
   • Update a schedule that is associated with a non-project commitment Click a non-project category or the associated non-project bar in the Gantt chart.

   The Schedule details side panel opens.

3. Make any required updates.
4. Optional. If you are updating a schedule associated with a project phase, and the user is scheduled to more than one instance of the phase, click the arrow to navigate to the next schedule, and update any details.
5. When you are finished, click Save, and close the side panel.

Unschedule a user

Unschedule a user from a project , phase, or non-project related commitment.

1. From the People tab in the Scheduler app, click the arrow next to the appropriate user's name.
2. Do one of the following:
   • Unschedule a user from a project Click the project name, click Unschedule, and click Unschedule to confirm.
   • Unschedule a user from a phase Click the arrow next to the project name, click a phase, click Unschedule, and click Unschedule to confirm.
   • Unschedule a user from a non-project related commitment Click a non-project category, click Unschedule and click Unschedule to confirm.

   Result The user is unscheduled. The updated chart displays the user as available during the specified time period.