End User Guide

Version: 1.03
Last updated: 20 May 2015

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Copyright notice

Copyright © 2015 ProSymmetry

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law.

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Table of Contents
Copyright notice............................................................................................. 2
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 5
Who is this guide for? .................................................................................... 5
What will users learn?.................................................................................... 5
Examples and illustrations ............................................................................. 6
Getting started ................................................................................................................. 7
Logging in ....................................................................................................... 7
Admin settings ............................................................................................. 10
Direct data entry ............................................................................................................ 15
Resources .................................................................................................... 16
Projects ........................................................................................................ 18
Managing resources and projects in bulk ..................................................... 21
Modelling and forecasting .............................................................................................. 24
Building a model .......................................................................................... 25
The model optimizer .................................................................................... 27
The Model dashboard .................................................................................. 30
Managing models ........................................................................................ 34
Editing models ............................................................................................. 34
Viewing current resource allocation ............................................................ 36
Allocation changes ....................................................................................... 40
Undoing changes ......................................................................................... 43
Next Best Move and Model Score ................................................................ 43
Opportunity Map – Delving deeper.............................................................. 45
Model history............................................................................................... 46
Model notes and assumptions ..................................................................... 47
‘What-If’ Analysis ........................................................................................................... 48

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 Deciding what to test ................................................................................... 48
Project timing .............................................................................................. 49
Project contraction ...................................................................................... 51
Adding additional resources ........................................................................ 53
Project expansion ........................................................................................ 54
Project cancelation ...................................................................................... 56
Simulating changes to task timing ................................................................ 60
Headcount increase ..................................................................................... 61
Decreasing resources ................................................................................... 62
Get in touch ................................................................................................................... 65
About ProSymmetry..................................................................................... 65

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Introduction
This is the end user manual for Tempus Resource.

Who is this guide for?

This document is intended to be a beginner’s guide to Tempus Resource, with

enough information to get end users started with the broad feature set. It
consists of three key sections:

 Direct data entry

 Modelling and forecasting
 ‘What-If’ analysis

What will users learn?

Direct data entry

This section provides an understanding of how to add resources and projects,
using the core direct data entry features.

 Create and manage resources

 Create and manage projects
 Use the bulk project allocation tool
 Use the bulk resource capacities tool

Modelling and forecasting

This section offers a general introduction to the modelling features of Tempus
Resource. Users will come away with an understanding of the core Resource
Management features of Tempus Resource.

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‘What-If’ analysis
After reading this section, users will be prepared to carry out ‘What-If’ analysis
on their own projects. These scenarios include:

 Experiment with data

 Carry out multiple analyses
 Clone projects
 Test hypotheses
 Undo these changes

Examples and illustrations

Throughout this guide, the reader will encounter the fictional IT firm Rosapp.
They are used to provide simple examples of how Tempus Resource can be
used.

Rosapp has two projects to prepare for, both of a fairly similar scale and
timeframe, which begin around the same time. The firm uses Tempus
Resource to plan its operations, which go through a number of stages. The first
project is the ‘Government Project’, the second is the ‘Legal Firm Project’. Both
projects involve building software applications for clients.

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Getting started
Tempus Resource is accessed via a web browser, and is powered by Microsoft
Silverlight. As a result we recommend you use the most recent version
Microsoft Internet Explorer, and update to the latest version of Microsoft
Silverlight. You can find out more about Microsoft Silverlight here.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-
explorer/download-ie

Silverlight

https://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/Get-
Started/Install/Default.aspx

Logging in

Your system administrator or IT department will have provided you with a

username and password, along with the location and URL of the main Tempus
Resource login page. Contact them if you do not have this information. The
login screen looks like this:

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Once you have successfully logged in you will see this screen:

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From here you can access the various data entry screens of Tempus Resource,
along with the main application itself – ‘Go to Tempus’.

Use the onscreen ‘back’ arrow to navigate out of the various data entry
screens.

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Admin settings

Admin settings give users control over a wide range of administrative tools,
useful to help make the most of Tempus Resource:

Figure 1

Access Rights lets administrators define what access different users have to
configure and edit different projects. The options for each role type (on
editing one for a particular project) are controlled within Role Management
 Project Permissions.

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Figure 2

In Role Management administrators can define what different users can and
can’t edit. It is also possible to prohibit selected users from logging in:

Figure 3

User Management lets users filter through and edit and even delete different
Resources:

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Figure 4

The Active Directory Import tool allows users to import data from existing
Active Directories. This will typically be setup and managed by an IT
administrator:

Figure 5

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Admin Time Type:

Figure 6

Calendar Management lets users build calendars for individual resources. For
instance, when adding part time workers to the resource catalog, the
calendar allows users to define the days and hours these workers will be
available. Once applied, the resource’s base capacity to do work on projects I
reduced by the hours listed in the calendar:

Figure 7

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In the Project tab of Attribute Management, users can create custom fields
and associate them with projects:

Figure 8

In the Resource tab of Attribute Management users create custom fields and
associate them with resources, such as job, nationality and skillset:

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Figure 9

Direct data entry

Tempus Resource supports direct integration with many popular PPM tools,
allowing project and resource data to be easily imported, and detailed models
quickly constructed. Contact your local IT administrator or department to
understand how your instance of Tempus Resource has been configured.

Tempus Resource also supports direct data entry via a separate component.
Check with your local IT administrator or department to see if you have this
component configured.

These rest of this section refers to instances of Tempus Resource using the
direct data entry component.

Using ‘Excel style’ controls the Tempus Resource interface allows users to
quickly and accurately enter data, use ‘Drag to fill’ to populate values, and
apply filters and sorting to grids. The interface means that not having an

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established PPM tool, or existing integrated dataset, is no barrier to using
Tempus Resource.

Resources

From the Navigation Screen, select the Resource Management tile:

Figure 10

Select Create Resource and begin adding resources. Simply fill in the required
and optional fields for each resource and click Create. Admins can determine
(in the Attribute Management screen) which fields are optional or required.

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Figure 11

It is possible to set the schedules of resources, including any particular

calendars they have, vacations (other types can be defined by Admin users)
they have planned or any other changes in their availability.
Just like in Excel, you can
Figure 12 drag and drop to fill in large
amounts of information
rapidly

Selecting from the various time views allows users to drill down in detail
when building out resource data:

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Figure 13

Once the team of resources has been built, it will look something like this:

Figure 14

Filtering and ordering

resources by various factors
couldn’t be simpler – simply
click on the column header.

Projects

The first step in building a project, or series of projects, is to select the Create
New Project tile on the Navigation Screen:

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Figure 15

Filling in the required and optional details is straightforward. Admins can

determine (in the Attribute Management screen) which fields are optional or
required. Details include:

Figure 16

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It is possible to ‘drag and drop’ to quickly fill in large amounts of data. In the
case of Rosapp, 60% of their resources’ time will be spent on the
‘Government Project’. The rest will be spent on the ‘Legal Firm Project’.

Figure 17

Changing views allows users to visualize how much resource costs will
amount to:

Figure 18

Using the schedule screen it is possible to review project tasks:

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Figure 19

Managing resources and projects in bulk

It is very easy to change, add, delete or move resources and projects using the
bulk allocation tools.

Bulk Project Allocation is intended to simplify the process of moving

resources between projects. See how this works by selecting the Bulk Project
Allocation tile.

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Figure 20

After selecting the relevant dates, it is easy to move resources to different

projects:

Figure 21

Select the individuals to move and choose

the projects to move them to

It is also easy to change the quantity of time different resources spend

working on different projects.

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Figure 22

Changes can be enforced by clicking Apply

Bulk Resource Capacities allows users to rapidly change the available working
hours of resources.

Figure 23

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After updating the appropiate time range, users can easily increase or
decrease the number of hours allocated to a specific resource.

Figure 24

Modelling and forecasting

Once Tempus Resource has been populated with the relevant resource and
project data, models can be constructed. Models are at the core of the Tempus
Resource forecasting functionality.

The Model Listing page is as follows:

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Figure 25

Building a model

First, select the Create New Model icon:

Figure 26

On the Create New Model page, basic information can be added. Begin by
entering the start date of the project you want to use and the appropriate
end date.

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Figure 27

From here you can select Resource Aggregation and Resource Type. You can
also select the projects to import and include resource utilization data from
unselected projects:

Figure 28

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Then save the model:

Figure 29

Save models by clicking Save

Model

Back on the Model Listings page, select a model you want to work with:

Figure 30

Using the Rosapp example, there are now

three models using the projects built earlier.
One for the Legal Firm Project, One for The
Government Project, and ‘Model 1’ which
includes both projects. We’ll mainly be using
Model 1 in this demonstration.

The model optimizer

The Model optimization tool helps users find the best possible use of
resources. It automates the process of finding resourcing solutions and helps
users save time when it comes to trying out different allocation options. It
searches for the best outcomes based on the information users provide.

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From the Model Listing page, select the Model Optimizer tool:

Figure 31

The optimization tool provides a number of factors that users can change to
improve their models.

Figure 32

Prior to optimizing a model, The accuracy/speed slide

it is possible to add
constraints to the model, or
to lock one of the particular
projects. This tells Tempus
Resource to optimize the
model within a specific time
range
bar lets users tell Tempus
Resource how
quickly/accurately they
want the results of the
optimization

The calculation tool will then process all the possible outcomes to optimioze
resources:

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Figure 33

Once the optimization tool has finished running, users will be presented with
an optimized Model:

Figure 34

The Optimization results table lists the

various options for improving models. Select
an optimization to apply the changes.

The project schedule slide bar shows the effect of implementing optimized
changes.

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Figure 35

In the optimized model, the

Government Project has been
altered so the start date is much
later than previously

Select ‘show changed

rows’ to see ‘before and
after’ allocations.

The Model dashboard

The model dashboard provides a set of metrics and views for better
understanding the data behind models. Begin by selecting the ‘dashboard’
symbol from the model homepage.

Figure 36

The Model Data page provides an overview of how resources are allocated
within the model:

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Figure 37

The Resource Analytics page provides detail to represent how resources are
being used over the course of time within the model.

Figure 38

Select one of the

Dragging the time slide resource types to find
bar will show how out more about the
resources are being used individual resources
over time within the field

Selecting a particular resource type – such as System Architects in the above

example - opens up the following page which provides further depth on the
way resources are allocated:

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Figure 38

The final dashboard interface is the Pivot Grid tab. This tab allows users to
select parts of their data set in order to build reports.

Figure 39

Select New Report to

begin

Just like a pivot table in Excel, manipulating the information to illustrate how
resources are being used requires users to build columns, rows, and select the
fields they want to compare and contrast.

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Figure 40

Reports can be saved and exported to different formats:

Figure 41

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 Managing models

The Model interface offers a number of features:

Figure 42

4. Filter and bulk edit options.

5. Undo, Score and Filter. Gain

2. The Heat Map. insights into models
This shows darker
or lighter
1. The project slide depending on how
bars. These can be over or underused
moved right and resources are
left (forwards and 3. View options.
backwards in time) There is a range of
options which can
demonstrate your
resource allocation
in different ways

There are a wide number of features and functions to manipulate models. The
following section goes into a number of the key elements.

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Editing Models
Selecting one of the projects in the model reveals a variety of options:
Figure 31

The Opportunity Map provides recommendations on when it would be best

to start projects in order to most effectively share resources.

Figure 44

Project Constraints

Constraints can be placed in front of or behind any project or forecast. Once

in place, the project or forecast cannot be moved beyond or before the
constraint – depending upon its placement.

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Figure 45

The Project Expand option lets users increase or decrease the length of the
project:

Figure 32

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Viewing current resource allocation

Within a model resources can be viewed using a number of views:

 Heatmap
 Grid
 Graph
 Coolmap
 Delta

The Heatmap is one of the most useful ways to view resource allocation:

Figure 4633

The time/cost icon lets users visualize how overused or underused the
resources are:

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Figure 34

The Grid view provides a series of different views of the resources data.
These can be changed using the buttons shown at the top left of figure 37:

Figure 48

Hovering over a particular cell shows additional detail about each particular
resource:

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Figure 49

The Graph view provides a view of the over/under use of resources in

relation to the capacity of each:

Figure 50

The yellow line represents the

capacity of the resources per month

The Coolmap shows where resources are under-allocated:

Figure 51

Selecting a specific
resource shows how
its time is split
between projects

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The Delta view allows users to compare and contrast the differences in
resource allocation:

Figure 52

Allocation changes

Adjusting resource allocation is one of the key use cases of Tempus Resource.
In the following example, we’ll see how Rosapp would change one of their
resources and replace it with another. The resource Herminio Perez has been
shifted to work on a different project where his skills will be used better. The
firm decides to replace Herminio with Amy Consultant-Smith on the
government project.

First, select the Resource Allocation icon. Then select the resource to change:

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Figure 35

Herminio is currently booked in to

work on the Government Project
from January. To change this, select
the dark blue bar and then click
Replace Resource

The subsequent screen allows users to replace one resource with one or
more other resources. If you select multiple resources you have the option to
select the specific number of hours that each resource will provide:

Figure 54

Find resources by selecting relevant

roles from the Value list

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Rosapp chooses Amy to replace Herminio:

Figure 36

Back on the Model page, the results of this change are now clearly reflected
in Amy’s allocation:

Figure 56

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Undoing changes

Building a model has no effect on actual project data as all models are
implemented in a ‘virtual’ environment. Making and undoing changes to
models is simple and risk free in Tempus Resource.

The Undo function enables changes to be undone in any order, not simply
the last change made:

Figure 37

Next Best Move and Model Score

The Next Best Move tab advises on how resources would be best optimized:

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Figure 38

The Score tab gives a rating of how well or how poorly resources are
allocated. The level of penalisation for under or over allocation can be
controlled through the model settings screen – so for instance organisations
that have a high dependency on resources being allocated may choose to
penalize under allocation more than over allocation.

Figure 59

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Opportunity Map – Delving deeper

Tempus Resource includes a feature to identify when a project can start given
existing resource commitments.

When using the Opportunity Map feature, Tempus Resource excludes the
project from the model and attempts to fit the first month’s resource
allocation for the selected project into each month.

To run the Opportunity Map for a specific project, select the project
properties menu and then select the opportunity map icon.

Figure 60

Select the opportunity map icon from the project

properties menu.

Figure 61

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Model history

As changes are made to a model, a Model History log is updated. This log can
be used to communicate changes to project managers, project schedulers and
others who maintain project plans and resource forecasts.

To access the log, select the Model History icon:

Figure 62

Select the Model History

icon.

The Model History screen contains all current changes to the model:

Figure 63

The project, type of change and change

owner are displayed in the Model
History screen.

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 The Model History can be exported to Excel, CSV or PDF. Select the
appropriate file type and then select the export icon.

Figure 6439

Select the file type for export and then select the export
icon.

Model notes and assumptions

As changes are made to a model, it can be helpful to capture or track notes

and assumptions. They can then be accessed throughout the model’s lifecycle
by the model owner or others. Select the Model Note icon to view existing
notes or enter new notes or assumptions.

Figure 65

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‘What-If’ Analysis
The power of Tempus Resource is that it allows users to carry out detailed
hypothetical analysis of their projects, allowing them to make data driven
decisions on Resource Management.

The key to conducting effective ‘What-If’ analysis is to have a hypothesis,

decide how you wish to test it, and decide what factors to keep constant. We’ll
be testing a number of hypotheses using Rosapp, the example company we
introduced earlier in this user guide.

Deciding what to test

Tempus Resource is very flexible and supports a range of variables, all of which
can interact and impact upon one another. We recommend users take a little
time to think about what they want to find out and why, before diving into the
tool itself.

The kinds of questions users will want to ask depends on the kinds of changes
they need to account for. This can include:

 Budget cuts
 Changing priority of projects being introduced
 Workforce adjustments

For example, a Project Manager might use Tempus Resource to investigate

how many resources a given project needs, and thus the funding it requires.
The Project Manager would therefore want to ask the following kinds of
questions:

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  What happens if I extend the deadline of the project to accommodate
this change?
 What happens if I reduce the number of resources to accommodate this
change?
 How does this affect other projects?
 How does this affect other Project Managers and their resource
utilization?

We’ll begin with very simple tests around project timing, before looking at
more complex scenarios.

Project timing

The slide bar in Tempus Resource allows users to explore the impact of
changing the start or end date of the project. The simplest project timing
‘What-If’ analysis is to explore the impact of shifting a project forward or
backward in time.

The Rosapp model interface currently looks like this:

Figure 66

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The firm are told there will be a delay in funding for the Government Project,
and so they shift the deadline back three months. Exploring the impact of
these changes is simple.

Figure 67

The impact of these changes are clear to see on resource allocation. While
Rosapp might initially have assumed shifting the project back would free up
resources, it actually causes real clashes in some departments.

Figure 68

Rosapp could begin by shifting the Legal Firm project forward which
improves resource allocation a little:

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Figure 69

They move the Legal

Firm Project start
date to January 1st

With this data Rosapp would be able to see where there are problems in their
preparations – they are clearly lacking in UX designers and will need to hire
System Architects in early 2016.

Project contraction

Another common area to explore is what happens to resource allocation if the

length of a project is reduced. Looking at Model 1 for Rosapp, we can see there
are currently no major over-allocations of resources

Figure 70

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However, while projects have been planned perfectly internally, Rosapp
can’t control everything. The Legal Firm who have asked Rosapp to build
their app have asked Rosapp to bring the deadline forward from October
2016 to February 2016. Rosapp’s first move is to shift the start date back,
then contract the project deadline.

Figure 71
Select the project to edit then
select the Expand/Contract
icon

As a result, the Heatmap is now showing darker than before, with some
teams (notably the UX Design team) over-used.

Figure 72

The Legal Firm Project has

contracted and this has led to
over use in some departments

By visualizing these changes in the Graph view, and filtering by cost, we can
see clearly how much more Rosapp will need to pay its resources and charge
the Legal Firm (or, how much extra it will cost to pay additional resources).

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Figure 40

We can see from here how much

over the planned cost allocation
the above changes are going to
cost.

With this data, Rosapp can then make data driven intelligent decisions. They
can consider things like:

 Charge the Legal Firm more money

 They can ask their current resources to work longer hours
 They can hire a new resource to fill in the gaps

Adding additional resources

Rosapp decide to hire new resources to alleviate their issues – specifically a

new UX designer. They decide to test the impact this might have in Tempus
Resource, before committing to the outlay.

The first step is to enter the Bulk Assignment screen and add a new resource
to the model. Since Rosapp are looking to only hire someone part time and
for a limited period (one year – to cover the additional labor on the
contracted legal project) the firm feeds this into the model before clicking
Update Preview

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Figure 74
Enter the number of resources,
dates and quantities required

With the additional help, we can easily see that the UX Design team are no
longer over-allocated in terms of time.

Figure 75

The UX Designer row is now much

less over-commited

Project expansion

Occasionally, project deadlines are extended. Project Managers can either

push back the start data as seen above, or keep the start date the same but do
less work over the same period of time. This will of course have an impact on
resource utilization.

Rosapp are told that the Government Project deadline will be extended by 6
months. Many of Rosapp’s employees are working close to, or over 100% of

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their full time hours. Maintaining the same start date, but extending the
deadline will free up some of these resources. To visualize the impact of
these changes, we’ll be using the Cool Map.

At present the Cool Map shows many resources are close to 100% of usage:

Figure 76

Dark blue indicates low use of

resources, white indicates high use

To extend the project, select the project slider icon and choose the
Extend/Contract button

Figure 77

Expanding a project is simple:

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Figure 78

Simply drag the expansion bar to

the new deadline

Extending the project by six months has had a big change on resource
allocation. Compared to the figure above where UX Designers where being
used to 100% from March 2014, pressure has now reduced to around 85%
(on average). The company now has the information it needs to make a
proper decision on how best to redeploy this resource.

Figure 79

Project cancelation

Another scenario that Tempus Resource lets users test is to the possible
impact of project cancellation.

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Again, this is how Rosapp’s model looks to begin with. The firm receives the
bad news that the Legal Firm may have to cancel their project. Rosapp’s
Project Managers begin exploring what impact this will have on their
resources.

Figure 80

The scheduled model dashboard

looks like this

Cancelling a project is easy – simply select the project you wish to cancel and
choose the Exclude Project button

Figure 81

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 The impact on the Heatmap is instant:

Figure 82

Almost all resources are now

working below capacity

Rosapp can either lay off all the additional staff on the remaining project, or
experiment with contracting the Government Project’s deadlines. It would
be possible to reduce the time to complete the project by half – although
some parts of the business would come under additional stress:

Figure 83

Contracting the project end date is

one means of improving resource
usage

Splitting a project

Sometimes it might be desirable to split a project. To simulate splitting a

project into two separate projects, right-click on the project name and select
the Split the Project option.

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Figure 84

Right click on the project and then select

Split the Project.

From the Split Project screen, drag the vertical splitter between two tasks.
The splitter must be moved to a position between tasks. You cannot split a
project when the splitter overlaps a task.

Figure 85

Position the splitter in a valid location

In the model, the project will now appear as two separate projects

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Figure 86

Split projects

Simulating changes to task timing

To simulate changes to task timing, right-click on the project name and select
the Split the Project option.

Figure 87

From the Split Project screen, click and drag tasks to the right or left to
simulate changes to their timing. Once adjusted, select Save Changes to
implement the simulated changes:

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Figure 88

Click and drag tasks to simulate changes

in timing.

Headcount increase

As seen above, it is sometimes necessary to bring new resources on board to a

project. Tempus Resource allows users to easily simulate the impact of
headcount increase on the project.

In the below model for Rosapp, the quality analysts team is clearly over
stretched between May and October 2014 - working over 200% of agreed
hours.

Figure 89

Select the pencil icon by the job

type to begin editing

From this screen it is possible to increase or decrease resources:

61
Figure 90

As a result of the changes made, the quality analyst resource is no longer

overused:

Figure 91

Decreasing resources

Tempus Resource lets users easily simulate removing resources. In this model,
Rosapp’s Government Project has been extended. As a result, a number of
resources are being underused:

62
Figure 92

The Coolmap shows Business Analysts are being underused. What would
happen if Rosapp decided to make Vlad Koshenko redundant?

Figure 93

Select Decrease and select the resource(s) to remove:

63
Figure 94

As a result, the remaining Business analysts is now working much closer to

capacity:

Figure 95

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Get in touch

For more information about Tempus R from ProSymmetry please contact:

Phone: 877-880-8788
Fax: 866-495-1734
Email: info@prosymmetry.com
Web: www.prosymmetry.com/
Twitter: @ProSymmetry

Address:
Corporate Place
25800 Science Park Dr., Suite 140
Beachwood, OH 44122

About ProSymmetry

ProSymmetry offer a number of innovative Project and Portfolio Management

tools, and are a Microsoft and Nintex Partner.

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