Overview
Resource management helps teams plan who does work on their initiatives. Project Managers record the resources they need - the skills, teams, and people - and how much of their time is required. Resource Managers can then compare that demand against the time the organization's people actually have available.
Demand is recorded on each initiative, in the Resource Demand section. Every entry starts with a skill (for example "Backend Developer"), and can also include the team and the person expected to do the work. For each time period, a Project Manager enters how much work is needed. Demand can be recorded as FTE, days or hours.
The supply and demand overview pulls demand and capacity together across every initiative in the portfolio. A Resource Manager uses it to identify where too much or too little work is planned across the organization, to spot where reprioritization or hiring may be needed.
Permissions
Action | Permission |
|---|---|
View resource demand on an initiative | View access to the initiative |
Create, edit, or delete resource demand on an initiative | Edit access to the initiative |
Open the supply and demand overview | Strategic Portfolio Member or above |
Edit resource demand and action request status across the whole portfolio | Resource Manager |
Configure resource terminology | Strategic Portfolio Administrator |
Fields on resource demand
These fields are available on every resource demand entry in Kiplot.
Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
Skill | Dropdown | The skill needed to do the work, for example Backend Developer. Every entry must have a skill — it's the starting point for planning demand, capacity, and availability. Required. |
Team | Dropdown | The team expected to do the work. Optional. |
Person | Dropdown | The person expected to do the work. Optional, and available when person-level capacity planning is turned on. |
Demand | Number | How much work is needed from this resource in a given period. A value is entered for each period across the timeline. Kiplot supports tracking this as FTE, hours, or days. |
Status | Calculated | When the resource request workflow is turned on, this shows where each value has got to: Requested, Soft Allocated, Hard Allocated, or Rejected. Each row also shows an overall status, making it easy to see which rows still need attention. |
The same combination of skill, team, and person cannot be added twice on the same initiative.
Key terms
Term | Description |
|---|---|
Resource | A combination of skill, team, and person that can do work. Team and person are optional. |
Resource FTE | The total amount of resource employed in a period, measured in FTE, before leave and holidays are taken into account. |
Resource capacity | The actual working time people have available in a period, once leave, holidays, and other absences are taken off. Also referred to as supply. |
Resource demand | How much work an initiative needs in a period, measured in the same units as capacity. |
Resource request | A request for more resource that a Resource Manager reviews and then allocates, rejects, or changes. Only used when the resource request workflow is turned on. |
Resource allocation | The resource a Resource Manager commits to a request once they approve it. Only used when the resource request workflow is turned on. |
Resource Manager | A user with the Resource Manager flag, responsible for reviewing requests and deciding how resource is committed across the portfolio. |
Project Manager | A user with edit access to an initiative, who records demand and raises resource requests. |
Configuration
Resource management is a paid feature enabled by Kiplot. Contact your Account Manager to turn it on for a portfolio.
The resource management feature can be used with or without the resource request workflow. The workflow allows Project Managers to request demand and Resource Managers to allocate or reject requests for their teams. Contact an Account Manager to switch the workflow on or off.
Strategic Portfolio Administrator permissions are required to configure terminology.
Administrators can rename the resource term. The word "Resource" used in actions such as "Add resource" is configurable, so it can be renamed to match the units being planned in - for example FTE or Estimate. This is managed on the Terminology page.
Managing resource demand
Edit access to the initiative is required to create and edit resource demand. View access is required to see it.
Resource demand is recorded on the initiative in the Resource Demand section. Changes are made across the table and applied together on save.
Add a resource demand entry
Open the initiative and go to the Resource Demand section.
Press "Add resource".
Select the skill, and optionally a team and person. Any of the three can be chosen first — each selection narrows the assigned options in the others (see Choosing from an assignment-aware dropdown, below).
Enter the demand value for each period needed.
Press Add.
Assign or change the skill, team, or person on a row
On the resource demand row, open the skill, team, or person dropdown.
Pick the new value — options assigned for the current selections are listed first.
Press "Confirm".
Work can be planned for a team without choosing a specific person. If that combination of skill, team, and person already exists on the initiative, Kiplot shows an error instead of creating a duplicate.
Edit demand values
Click into the cell to change and enter the new value.
Repeat for any other cells.
Press Save to apply the changes, or discard them to revert.
When the resource request workflow is enabled, edits follow the request rules described in the Managing resource requests section.
Delete a resource demand row
On the resource demand row, open the table actions (3-dot menu) and select delete.
Confirm the deletion.
Deleting a row removes it from view. If the row has resource committed to it, that resource is removed too and the time it was using is freed up. A row can be deleted whatever its status, and whether or not it has values in past periods.
Save or discard changes
All changes are made across the table and then applied together with a single Save button. Press Save to apply everything at once, or discard to undo it. If something isn't right, Kiplot shows the error next to the affected value or row so it's clear what to fix before saving.
Choosing from an assignment-aware dropdown
Skill, team, and person are each chosen from their own dropdown. Each one guides toward combinations that have been assigned on the Team Capacity page, while still allowing any option to be chosen.
Select a skill, team, or person
On a resource demand row, or in the Add resource dialog, open the skill, team, or person dropdown.
Review the options: those that have been assigned for the current selections are listed first, under a heading that names the current assignment.
Select an option.
Show options not assigned
Open the dropdown.
Below the options that are assigned, select the "not assigned" link.
Select any option, including one not assigned.
Assignment warnings
When the selected skill, team, and person combination is not assigned to a team, there is an informational warning. On a resource demand row, a warning icon appears at the start of the row. In the Add resource dialog, the warning appears inline beneath the fields.
Only one warning is shown per row or dialog — it describes the whole combination, not any single field.
Show or hide the assignment warning
On the resource demand row, open the table actions (3-dot menu).
Under "View", select "Show missing capacity warning" to turn the warning on or off.
This preference is remembered per user and applies across every initiative and outcome, not just the current one.