Managing Project Resources in Kantata OX

Overview

There are two types of resources in Kantata OX:

• Named Resource:
  • A resource to which an individual, named team member has been assigned.
  • Named resources can either have soft or hard allocations.
  • When rate cards are not in use, the projected budget is calculated based on the member’s bill rate.
• Unnamed Resource:
  • Think of an unnamed resource as a placeholder—a way to indicate a need/demand for a certain role before knowing who will fill that need/demand.
  • Can only be soft allocated.
  • When rate cards are not in use, the projected budget is calculated based on the average bill rate of all members with the same default role.
  • Can be used to fill resourcing needs by allowing users to submit requests.

From the Resource Center or a project's Resourcing tab, you can perform the following actions for these resources:

• Add named and unnamed resources to projects
• Change the role of a team member assigned to a particular project
• Assign a different team member to a project role
• Update the resource label for unnamed resources
• Duplicate an unnamed resource
• Delete an unnamed resource
• Remove named resources from projects

When you need to quickly create unnamed resources for a project, you can copy an existing unnamed resource. If desired, you can even copy their allocated hours and other attributes—skills, custom fields, and organization designations—to each new resource. This action can be completed from anywhere in the application that you can open the Resource side panel.

How to Add Named and Unnamed Resources in Resourcing Areas

Depending on your Access Group settings and Project Permissions, you can add people to your projects from various places in the application. You can:

• Add people and unnamed resources during project creation
• Invite specific people from the project workspace
• Add unnamed resources from the project workspace
• Add unnamed resources via a template
• Add team members and unnamed resources from the Resource Center and a project's Resourcing tab

When you add named and unnamed resources from the Resource Center, you only need access to edit resources in the Resource Center through the Resource Management Access Group set.

1. Navigate to one of these Resourcing areas in Kantata:

   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   •  
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project row, expanding rows if needed.
   
3. On the right side of the list, click the Add  icon and select Add Named Resource or Add Unnamed Resource.
   
   Note: In the Team Members tab, clicking the Add  icon will provide you with a list of projects to add the named or unnamed resource to.
4. As you start typing a name or a role, a drop-down will appear below the field, populated with a list of available members. Select the person's name or the unnamed resource role to add them to the project.
   

Editing Named and Unnamed Resources

You can update information for a named or unnamed resource, such as the role, after the resource has been created. You can also change a named resource to an unnamed resource or—when you are not using staffing tools like Resource Requests or Team Builder—to change an unnamed resource to a named resource.

How to Edit Named Resources (Team Member or Role)

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to make edits for, then expand the top-level row.
   
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. In the expanded resource or project row, click the More (“   ”) icon and select Edit Resource.
   
4. When the Edit Resource modal appears, clear the current Team Member or Role by clicking the Remove (“   ”) icon to the right of their name.
5. If Rate Cards are not in use, start typing the new member name or role in the Team Member or Role field; a drop-down will appear below the field, populated with a list of available options for you to select from.
   Note: Regardless what role the team member is currently assigned for this project, you can find their default Account Role just below the Role field.
   
6. If Rate Cards are activated for your account, the Role drop-down may be limited to roles that are available on the Rate Card.
   
   Note: An Account Administrator can update your account settings to allow you to add any account role to a project.
7. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to Edit Unnamed Resources (Resource Label or Role)

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. From the respective Resourcing page, locate the project or resource you want to make changes for, then expand the top-level row.
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. In the expanded resource or project row, click the More (“   ”) icon and select Edit Resource.
   
4. To change the Resource Label when the Edit Resource modal appears, delete the current label and start typing the new label.
   Note: A resource label is short, descriptive text used to identify unnamed resources in a project. Although the label is automatically populated with an incremented Account Role name, you can change it at any time.
5. To change the current Role, first click the Remove (“   ”) icon to the right of the name.
6. Next, start typing the new role; as you type, a drop-down will appear below the field, populated with a list of available options for you to select from.
   
   Note: Remember that if Rate Cards are activated for your account, you may only see Roles associated with the Rate Card on the project. An Account Administrator can update your account settings to allow you to add any account role to a project.
7. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to Change an Unnamed Resource to a Team Member

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:

   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. Select Unnamed in the toolbar to display unnamed resources.

   

3. From the respective Resourcing page, expand the project or resource row for the unnamed resource you want to staff demand for.
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
4. On the right side of the list, click the Side Panel (“   ”) icon to open the Resource side panel for the unnamed resource that you want to staff, then select the 
   Note: If any custom fields are required for staffing and they have not been filled out, you will be unable to change an unnamed resource to a team member.
5. In the Details tab, click in the Team Member field; as you start typing the member name or role, a drop-down will appear below the field, populated with a list of available options for you to select from.
   
   Tip: If these hours are now confirmed for the project and you are using allocated hours, you may also want to change all soft allocations to hard allocations.
   
6. In the modal that appears, click OK to confirm that all task assignments, scheduled hours, and allocations will be assigned to the new team member.
   

How to Change a Team Member to an Unnamed Resource

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata:

   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. Unless you are in the Team Members tab, expand the project row for the team member you want to change to an unnamed resource.
   Note: Depending on where you are in Kantata, the order of these rows may vary. For example, the resource row is the top-level row in the Team Members tab.
   
3. On the right side of the list, click the More (“   ”) icon in-line with the team member's name and select Convert to Unnamed Resource.
   
4. You’ll be notified that your team member is about to be changed to an unnamed resource and the bill and cost rates for all of the resource’s assignments will be refreshed.
   
5. In the modal that appears, click OK to confirm that all tasks, assignments, and scheduled hours will move to a newly created, unnamed resource. The original team member, however, will not be removed from the list. To learn how to remove a resource from the list, see Delete a Resource.

How to Duplicate a Resource

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata OX:

   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center >Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
   Note: If you are accessing the Resource side panel from another area of Kantata OX, skip to step 4.
2. Select Unnamed or All in the toolbar to display unnamed resources.

   

3. If you are in the Projects tab, locate the project you want and expand the project row to reveal the project's resources.
   
4. Locate the unnamed resource you want to duplicate and click the Side Panel (“   ”) icon on the right side of the list to open the Resource side panel.
   Note: You must be able to edit unnamed resources to open the Resource side panel.
5. In the top-right corner of the Resource side panel, select the Duplicate (“   ”) icon to open the Duplicate Resource modal.
6. To update the Resource Label, enter the new name.
   
   Note: The Resource Label for each unnamed resource in a project must be unique. If the new name is not unique, a number will be added to the name with that number incrementing based on how many resources with the same label already exist in the project (e.g. “Software Engineer 2”, “Software Engineer 3”, etc.).
   

7. To duplicate additional information for each new resource, keep the following options selected:

   • Duplicate Allocated Hours—Copies all allocations (including past allocations) for the current resource and creates them for each new resource
   • Include Resource Attributes—Copies all entered skills, custom fields, and Organizations information and applies them to each new resource.
   Note: You must be able to edit allocations for unnamed resources to duplicate allocated hours for the new unnamed resource.
8. In the Resources to Create drop-down, choose how many unnamed resources you want to create.
   
9. Select Duplicate. Each duplicated resource appears in the project.
   Tip: If you want to remove any of a resource’s past or future allocations, you can clear any allocations before, after, or between a specific date range.

How to Delete a Resource

People can remove named and unnamed resources from projects via Resourcing areas of Kantata if they have access via the Resource Management Access Group to:

• View the Resource Center
• Edit named and/or unnamed resources

The Edit Resources permissions in Access Groups are based on Project Permission levels. The selections you make determine what project access an Access Group member needs in order to remove named or unnamed resources for different projects from within Resourcing areas:

• Their projects with financial permissions—Checked by default for all Access Groups, this option allows Access Group members to remove other members via the Resource Center from projects where they have View / Edit Financials or Project Administrator Project Permission levels.
• Their projects—This option allows Access Group members to remove other members via the Resource Center from any project they are participating in.
• Their projects and joinable projects—This option allows Access Group members to remove other members via the Resource Center from any project they are participating in as well as any projects that are Open to All Account Members.
• All projects—This option allows Access Group members to remove other members from any project via the Resource Center.
  
  Note: Accounts that have Organizations enabled do not have an All Projects option. That option is replaced by All projects accessible to their organization, which allows them to edit only named resources that are on projects in their organizations.

To remove resources in a project’s Resourcing tab, project members must have Project Permissions to Schedule Hours for Team.

1. Navigate to a Resourcing area in Kantata OX:
   
   • Projects > select a project > Resourcing
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Team Members
   • Resourcing > Resource Center > Projects
2. If you are in the Projects tab, locate the project you want and expand the project row to reveal the project's resources.
   
   
   Tip: Before deleting a resource, make sure to reassign allocations and scheduled hours if there are any hours and task assignments that you plan to assign to someone else. Otherwise, those hours and assignments will also be deleted.
3. Inline with the resource you want to remove, click the More (“   ”) icon, then select Delete Resource.
   Note: If this is a named resource, you may see Remove from Project instead. If a named resource has multiple roles in the project, you will see the Delete Resource option until they only have a single project role.
   
4. In the modal that appears, click OK to confirm that you want to remove all their assignments and allocations for the project.