This article discusses some common questions about resources and skills. 

 

FAQ:

Is there a way to quickly identify over-allocated resources?

You can select the “No contention” button in case you see a difference between the longest path and critical chain, and then also open the resource load diagram:

If you have inserted buffers, you can in addition also select the “Feeding Chain” filter, to highlight the constraint resources:

 

If I assign a skill to a task and LYNX automatically assigns a resource to that skill (soft assignment), is that resource notified that they’ve been assigned to a new project/task?

 

You can set up email notifications to the different users and towards different changes/information. Please see Working with notifications. Unfortunately, the direct notifications are currently not working, so scheduled notifications need to be set up. You can see the report via the “Reporting” tab:
Lynx > Notification reports > Project: weekly updates or Task: Weekly updates

You can automate sending these (or custom) reports at any time interval (e.g. daily) to different users (e.g. PM, task manager, resource manager). Therefore, you can create a report summarizing current tasks for task managers, updates for project managers, or any specific notification you want. This feature allows you to decide what to get notified about and the frequency, so the users don’t get overwhelmed with the amount of notifications at every change. The information for how to set up the notification is linked above, and the information for creating custom reports can be found here.

The project owners can see the buffer changes to their project in the “Project portfolio” tab. The main impact comes from the buffer index, which is the relation of buffer consumption to the progression of the project, and can be seen on the fever chart. CCPM priority can be shown to access the impact, as well as the fever curve. This chart can be seen in the “Project Portfolio” tab when clicking on the “Progress chart” button.

The tasks and their priorities are shown to the assigned users when the project is released. They are able to see and filter on active, “ready to start”, or all tasks. The ready to start tasks are those where their predecessors (direct or upstream) have the status “completed”, and the active tasks are those that started or are ready to start. Therefore, the users can always see the tasks assigned to them in their “my activities” tab. This list is sorted by priority, which is also clearly visible by color (red, orange, and green). This priority is dynamic so as the project progresses, the priority changes, and this is operational priority as the project is “released”.

 

Which skill type do I use and when?

In LYNX, there are 4 the skill types: normal, virtual, team, and global. Skills are essential for effectively managing resources and tasks within projects. You can configure and use the skill types, each serving a unique purpose in project management. Here's an overview:

1. Standard Skills (Normal or Virtual): These are the basic building blocks for assigning tasks. Standard skills can be either normal or virtual. A normal skill is typically tied to specific resources or employees who possess that skill, allowing for tasks to be assigned based on the availability and skill set of team members. Virtual skills, on the other hand, are used to represent external resources or roles that do not correspond to a single individual, such as a supplier or a marketing team. This allows for flexibility in planning and resource allocation by abstracting the specific individuals involved.
2. Team Skills: Team skills enable the grouping of multiple resources under a single skill set, facilitating the assignment of tasks to teams rather than individuals. This is particularly useful for tasks that require collaborative effort or when the task's workload is meant to be shared among several team members. Configuring a team skill involves setting parameters such as team output or productivity, which can be adjusted to reflect the combined efforts of all team members assigned to that skill. This approach allows for dynamic updating of task durations based on the team's productivity and the work package size, enhancing the accuracy of project schedules.
3. Global Skills: Global skills as skills that are universally applicable across various projects within an organization. These skills might not require specific configurations like team skills but are essential for identifying and allocating resources that can work across multiple projects due to their broad or highly demanded skill sets.

When to use each skill type:

• Normal Skills: Use when you need to assign tasks based on specific individual capabilities or when tasks require specific expertise that can be attributed to individual resources.
• Virtual Skills: Use for tasks that involve external parties or when you want to plan for roles rather than specific individuals. This allows for flexibility in resource planning and allocation.
• Team Skills: Ideal for tasks that require a collaborative effort from a group of individuals with complementary skills. Use team skills to effectively manage workloads that are shared among team members and to optimize team productivity.
• Global Skills: Although not detailed in the sources, global skills could be used for skills applicable across projects, facilitating resource allocation in a multi-project environment.

Each skill type offers distinct advantages and should be selected based on the nature of the task, the composition of your team, and the requirements of your project. The configuration and management of these skills in LYNX are crucial for optimizing resource allocation, ensuring project efficiency, and achieving timely project delivery.

 

What is the best way to set up skills for external resources, e.g. suppliers, where I assume these resources are unlimited as they are handled externally and should be able to run in parallel with different projects?

You should set these up as “Virtual” Skills", and assign the relevant external skill to a task. This is because virtual skills do not correspond to a single individual resource, thus representing an 'unlimited' supply.

If you would look the resource load diagram, you will than also see all work grouped by (external) skill . You can set the availability for a virtual skill to a “threshold” representing an approximate max of tasks that would run simultaneously for a an external skill, for example like 10. Some customers set it to 99, however, the downside is that the scale of the resource load diagram becomes very small.

 

Related Articles:

• Resource Load Diagram for Virtual Skills
• User Roles and Adding Users by Invitation
• Team Skills and Resource Load Monitoring
• Get Started - Team Skill
• Skill and Resource Configuration