Create and manage task resources

What do you want to do?

Your map can contain tasks for one or more projects. You can create and define a set of resources that are available to work on the projects on this map, and then assign them to tasks.

You can manage resources and their availability, and find under- or overutilized resources using options in the Resources task pane.

 

 

Create resources

You can create resources in three ways:

by entering resources for tasks in the Task Info pane. Or by adding a new resource marker to a topic from the Resource drop down in the Task ribbon. Or by defining them in the Manage Resources dialog.

The last method allows you to specify the availability for the resource. You can add or remove resources and change their Availability in the Manage Resources dialog.

Resources are automatically added to your map when you:

Read Hint

Note: You may not have access to MindManager's online features. However, if you have a MindManager Plus, Mindjet for Business, or ProjectDirector account, you can turn on MindManager's online features using Options.

When you create a new resource, the availability for the resource is automatically defined as 40 hours per week. You can change the resource's availability in the Manage Resources dialog in the Resources task pane.

Enter resources in the Task Info pane

You can enter a resource for a task in the Task Info pane. If the resource does not already exist, a new resource is automatically created.

Add a resource marker to a topic

  1. Select one or more topics.

  2. On the ribbon's Task tab, in the Tasks group, click the Resources arrow, and then click Add New Resource Marker.

  3. Enter the marker name, and then click Add. You can now add another resource Marker or click Close.

  4. The new resource is automatically assigned to the selected topic(s).

The availability for the new resource is automatically defined as 40 hours per week. You can change the resource's availability in the Manage Resources dialog in the Resources task pane.

 Define Resources in the Manage Resources dialog

  1. In the Resources task pane, click Manage Resources.

  2. In the Manage Resources dialog, enter the Resource name, and Availability (the total number of hours per week that this resource can work).

Top of Page

Manage Resources

  1. In the Resources task pane, click Manage Resources.

  2. In the Manage Resources dialog, you can change a resource's Availability, assign a cost to the resource, add more resources, or delete resources.

See Utilization definitions and calculations for more information on how Availability is used in utilization calculations.

Top of Page

Assign Costs to Resources

  1. In the Resources task pane, click Manage Resources.

  2. In the Manage Resources dialog, choose the time increment to use when managing a resource's cost.
    You can choose to calculate costs using hours, days, weeks, or usages.

  3. Type the cost per time increment in the Standard Rate box.

Top of Page

Resource utilization

The Task Info on your map can display shading to alert you to resource utilization issues. You can enable or disable the shading on the map.

Resource utilization is automatically calculated by using Task Duration, Work Hours per Day, resource Availability, and resource Loading for each resource used on the map, on both a daily and weekly basis.

To see details about these issues, you can do an analysis to find over- or underutilized resources in the Resources pane.

See Utilization definitions and calculations for more information on how utilization is calculated.

Shading for utilization

You can choose whether to display shading for overutilized and underutilized resources in the map.

On the map, task info is shaded:

  • Red indicates that one or more resource assigned to the task is overutilized (on either a day or week basis) at some point between the Start and Due date. The overutilized resource names are bolded.

  • Tan indicates that all the resources assigned to the task are fully utilized (nether under- nor overutilized).

  • Green indicates that one or more resource assigned to the task is underutilized (on either a day or week basis) at some point between the task's Start and Due date, and that no resources are overutilized at any point. (If it is a mixed case of under- and overutilization, overutilization is indicated.) The underutilized resource names are bolded.

Change the length of a work day

This is the number of hours per day that you expect all resources to work, and the length of a workday for tasks.

  1. On the ribbon's File tab,  click the Options, and then click Task Info.

  2. In the Work hours per day box, and set the number of hours per workday.

Usually, this is set to 8, but you can set it to any value between 1 and 24.

 See Utilization definitions and calculations for more information on how this is used in utilization calculations.

Resource loading

When you assign a resource to a task, the resource loading is automatically set to 100%. This means that you expect the resource to spend the full task duration working on this task: 5 hours for a 5 hour task, 40 hours for a 40 hour task, etc.

If you change the loading to 50%, this means you expect the resource spend half the task duration working on it: 2.5 hours on a 5 hour task, 20 hours for a 40 hour task, etc.

To change the resource loading for a task:

  1. On the map, right-click the resource name in the topic's Task Info.

  2. In the shortcut menu, click Edit Resource Effort, and then select or enter a load value.  
    Read Hint

See Utilization definitions and calculations for more information on how loading is used in utilization calculations.

Analyze Utilization

Analyzing resource utilization can help you to arrange tasks and resources to ensure a successful outcome. Utilization is analyzed over full weeks that occur during the time period you specify, on a weekly and daily basis. It is possible for a resource to be underutilized for a week, but overutilized on specific days, and vice-versa.

  1. In the Resources pane, enter the dates for the period you want to analyze in the From and To fields. If you do not enter dates here, the analysis is conducted for all the weeks that the tasks on the map span.

  2. Check the analysis you want to conduct: Find overutilized resources or Find underutilized resources, or both.

  3. Click Find.

The results are reported in the bottom part of the pane, and shown with special shading in the map and on the Gantt chart (if it is displayed).  
Read Hint

Top of Page

Utilization definitions and calculations

Utilization is determined on both a weekly and daily basis for each resource on the map.

Weekly utilization for a resource

For each week, we calculate the number of hours the resource must work on tasks. We use the resource loading and duration (within this week) for each task to calculate the work required.

work required for a task =  task duration this week  * resource loading

We total the work required for all the tasks to find the work required for the week. We compare the work required this week to the Availability for the resource to arrive at a weekly utilization percentage:

weekly utilization = [ work required this week / availability ]  * 100%

Overutilized resources are those whose utilization is greater than 100%. Their work required for the week exceeds their Availability.

Underutilized resources are those whose utilization is less than 100%. Their work required for the week is less than their Availability.

Daily resource utilization

For each day, we calculate the number of hours to be worked for each task. We use the resource loading and duration (for this day) for each task to calculate the work required:

work required for a task =  task duration today * resource loading

We total the work required for all the tasks on that day to find the work required. We compare the work required for the day to the Work Hours per Day to arrive at a daily utilization percentage for the resource:

daily utilization = [ work required for the day / work hours per day ]  * 100%

Overutilized resources are those whose utilization is greater than 100%. Their work required for the day exceeds the Work Hours per Day.

Underutilized resources are those whose utilization is less than 100%. Their work required for the day is less than the Work Hours per Day.
 

Top of Page