1. and Forecasting Resources
Usage Behaviour Rules
and Forecasting Resources
January 2015
Tony Batting
Customer Success
Kimble

2. Overview The Purpose of this session is to:
Provide an overview of the deployed Usage Behaviour Rules at 1.19 and later
Understand the difference between Forecasting and Scheduling
Describe how Kimble calculates/recalculates Resource Usage when Schedule Changes are made
Understand the Impact of Preserve Usage

3. Usage Behaviour Rules
Kimble forecasts Resource Usage on an Assignment based on the Usage Behaviour Rule defined for the Assignment. The standard Rules are:
Defined Effort with variable end date - Finish Work as soon as possible
Defined Effort between two dates - Finish Work between two Dates
Defined Utilisation between two dates - Provide Cover between two Dates
Defined Effort with variable end date (Fixed Usage) - Finish Fixed Amount of Work as soon as possible
Defined Effort between two dates (Fixed Usage) - Finish Fixed Amount of Work between two Dates
Your Kimble Administrator may have applied different names than those listed above
Your Org may have more or less Rules configured than the ones listed above

4. Usage Behaviour Rules
When an Assignment is created, dependent upon which Usage Behaviour Rule is selected, some values can be entered by the user and some are derived, as shown in the following table:
* Once the Assignment has been Saved the Remaining Effort cannot subsequently be edited
Usage Behaviour Rule
Start Date
Remaining Effort
Utilisation (%)
Ending On (End Date)
Defined Effort with variable End Date
Entered
Derived
Defined Effort Between Two Dates
Defined Utilisation between two Dates
Defined Effort with variable End Date (Fixed Usage)
Entered*
Defined Effort between two Dates (Fixed Usage)

5. Forecasting
Kimble automatically Forecasts Resource, based on the Usage Behaviour Rule
Certain actions (explained further in following slides), causes Kimble to automatically update the Forecast
Kimble automatically forecasts Resources on Business Days only (Resources may be scheduled on Non-Business Days through the Calendar view)

6. Scheduling
Scheduling is the user manually assigning the Resource to specific days.
This is carried out through the Assignment Calendar screen, or through the Monthly Profiling screen
When days are Scheduled, Kimble will Re-forecast the remaining (unscheduled and unactualised) days against the Assignment, using the Usage Behaviour Rule
Resources can only be assigned on Non-Business Days using the Calendar
Days for a resource can be Scheduled to be at:
%utilisation – N.B. Days scheduled this way will still be re-forecast by Kimble
specific hours (either half or full day)
0 hours usage, by using the off radio button in the Calendar (i.e. De-scheduled)
De-scheduling Usage will prevent the system from Forecasting any usage for those days.
Select the Rate at which you wish to schedule time in the Schedule Days section:
o At % Utilization: Resource will be assigned according to the calculated or specified Utilization for the Resource. These remain as flexible scheduled days and will be automatically adjusted when Kimble recalculates usage forecast on the Assignment.
o At x hours: Resource will be assigned at the specified number of hours or days. These are considered fixed scheduled days and will not be adjusted when Kimble recalculates usage forecast on the Assignment.
o Off: Resource will be descheduled (forecast at 0 hours) on the Assignment (but may still book time).

7. De-scheduling days – “off” days
De-scheduling using the ‘off’ function in the Calendar view will prevent Kimble from Forecasting those days.
De-Scheduled days remain as part of the Assignment, but effectively flagged as not being available for Forecasting. If Kimble updates the Assignment Forecast, it will not Forecast time on those days. If you want to use those days, you have to Schedule them
One impact of this is that it can prevent the Start or End Date of the Assignment being moved. Example:
Schedule the first week of an Assignment as ‘off’ (because of delayed start). Not then able to move the Start Date of the Assignment to later than the first ‘off’ Scheduled day, because the System still sees the days as part of the Assignment. The following error will be displayed:
Days scheduled (at a fixed number of hours) or descheduled (off) are treated as fixed days and will not be adjusted when Kimble recalculates usage forecast or the end date on the Assignment.
Therefore, descheduling should not be used to maintain the forecast usage on an Assignment - if a Resource is scheduled on specific days, Kimble may be configured to automatically reduce the utilization on unscheduled days based on the Assignment Usage Behavior. Exact behavior will be dependent on your configuration - please contact your Kimble Administrator

8. Preserving Usage
Usage Behaviour Rules can be configured to Preserve Resource Usage against the Assignment when specific changes/events occur. Preserve Usage can be set for the following:
Preserve Usage on Resource Change / Apply to Candidate Assignments
Schedule Change – i.e. Assignment is manually updated using the Calendar view
Unavailability (e.g. Holiday) Approved
Actual Time Approved / Tracking Period Forecast Removed - Any difference between the forecast and actual time recorded for a Tracking Period will be carried over to the following periods.
Entitlement based Assignments such as Vacation/Holiday
In the demonstration that follows we are going to look at the impact of preserving Usage on Schedule Change
Specify what happens when user-initiated events occur.
o Preserve Usage on Actualization. Indicates that any difference between the forecast and actual time recorded for a Tracking Period will be carried over to the following periods.
o Preserve Revenue on Actualization. Indicates that any different between the forecast and actual revenue recorded for a Tracking Period will be carried over to the following periods. The carried over revenue is divided by the forecast revenue rate to calculate the Usage. Only applicable to Product Domains where the Revenue is generated from Usage, e.g. T&M projects.
o Preserve Usage On Schedule Change. Indicates that the Remaining Usage on non- fixed days will be calculated when specific fixed days are added or removed from the Resource's Calendar. Note that with this Usage Behaviour Rule in place, removing days from the Calendar does not result in Remaining Usage being reduced, rather the Assignment is extended to preserve the Usage.
o Preserve Usage on Resource Change. Indicates that the Remaining Usage will be calculated when a Resource is changed on an Assignment, to retain the original Usage taking into account availability of the new Resource.
Remove Usage on Period Change. Indicates that the system should automatically remove remaining Usage from the earliest Open Tracking Period up to the number of days specified by Remove Usage Offset. Removing this remaining Usage is treated as actualizing zero Usage, and therefore the remaining Usage beyond this is determined based on the setting for Preserve Usage on Actualization. For example, to model Vacation entitlement setting Remove Usage Offset to 20 days with Preserve on Actualization checked, will remove any vacation which has not been specifically requested, and create a backlog of holiday entitlement.

9. Preserve Usage on Resource Change
Resource Changed
Preserve Usage on Resource Change / Apply to Candidate Assignments
Entry Specification
Preserve Usage on Resource Change No
Yes
Derived End Date
End Date not recalculated.
Usage recalculated.
End Date recalculated as per new Assignment, based on availability of Resource.
Derived Utilisation
Utilisation not recalculated.
Utilisation recalculated as per new Assignment, based on availability of Resource.
Derived Effort
Usage recalculated as per new Assignment, based on availability of Resource.
n/a

10. Preserve Usage on Schedule Change
Calendar Updated
Preserve Usage on Schedule Change i.e. Assignment manually updated using Calendar
Entry Specification
Preserve Usage on Schedule Change No
Yes
Derived End Date
End Date not recalculated.
Forecast Usage will be adjusted by
Scheduled Day Usage – previous Variable Day Usage.
End Date recalculated based on Scheduled Days added/removed from Calendar by adding Days from the last Actual Time Entry for Variable Days at specified Utilisation % until required Usage is reached.
Utilisation % may be adjusted slightly to exactly match Usage. Resource not assigned on Unavailable days, but may be overloaded on partially unavailable days or where assigned to other Activities.
Derived Utilisation
Utilisation not recalculated.
Forecast Usage will be adjusted by Scheduled Day Usage – previous Variable Day Usage.
Utilisation calculated by allocating required Remaining Usage less Scheduled Day Usage to each Variable Day between last Actual Time Entry and End Date. Unavailable days are excluded, but Resource may be overloaded on partially unavailable days or where assigned to other Activities.
If a single Resource, will error if calculated Utilisation exceeds 100%, i.e. there are insufficient days between Start Date and End Date to achieve Fixed Usage.
Derived Effort
Usage calculated by allocating Resource between the last Actual Time Entry and End Date at required Utilisation to Variable Days, and added to remaining Scheduled Days. Resource not assigned on Unavailable days, but may be overloaded on partially unavailable days or where assigned to other Activities.
n/a

11. Unavailability (e.g. Holiday) Approved
Preserve Usage on Unavailability Change
Entry Specification
Preserve Usage on Unavailability Change No
Yes
Derived End Date
End Date not recalculated.
Forecast Usage will be adjusted by number of days unavailability added/removed.
End Date recalculated based on Schedules Days in Calendar by adding Days from CurrentTrackingPeriod for Variable Days at specified Utilisation % until required Usage is reached. Utilisation % may be adjusted slightly to exactly match Usage. Resource not assigned on Unavailable days, but may be overloaded on partially unavailable days or where assigned to other Activities.
Derived Utilisation
Utilisation not recalculated.
Utilisation calculated by allocating required Remaining Usage to each available day between CurrentTrackingPeriod and End Date. Unavailable days are excluded, but Resource may be overloaded on partially unavailable days or where assigned to other Activities.
If a single Resource, will error if calculated Utilisation exceeds 100%, i.e. there are insufficient days between Start Date and End Date to achieve Fixed Usage.
Derived Effort
Usage calculated by allocating Resource between the last Actual Time Entry and End Date at required Utilisation to Variable Days, and added to remaining Scheduled Days. Resource not assigned on Unavailable days, but may be overloaded on partially unavailable days or where assigned to other Activities.
n/a

12. Actual Time Approved / Tracking Period Forecast Removed
Preserve Usage On Actualisation
Entry Specification
Preserve Usage on Actualistion No
Yes
Derived End Date
End Date not recalculated.
Forecast Usage will be adjusted by Actual Time – Forecast Time for current Tracking Period.
End Date recalculated based on new Remaining Usage by adding Days from CurrentTrackingPeriod at specified Utilisation % until required Usage is reached. Utilisation % may be adjusted slightly to exactly match Usage. Resource not assigned on Unavailable days, but may be overloaded on partially unavailable days or where assigned to other Activities.
Derived Utilisation
Utilisation not recalculated.
Utilisation recalculated by allocating required Remaining Usage (based on Actual Usage) less Usage on Scheduled Days, to each Variable Day between start of CurrentTrackingPeriod and End Date. Unavailable days are excluded, but Resource may be overloaded on partially unavailable days or where assigned to other Activities.
Derived Effort
Usage recalculated.
n/a

13. Entitlement based Assignments (Vacation)
Remove Usage on Period Change. Indicates that Kimble should automatically remove remaining Usage from the earliest Open Tracking Period up to the number of days specified by Remove Usage Offset. Removing this remaining Usage is treated as actualizing zero Usage, and therefore the remaining Usage beyond this is determined based on the setting for Preserve Usage on Actualization.
To model Vacation entitlement setting Remove Usage Offset to 20 days with Preserve on Actualization checked, will remove any vacation which has not been specifically requested, and create a backlog of holiday entitlement.
Example:
Vacation year runs from January to December
Initially vacation will be profiled over 11 months February to December?
Overnight job re-forecasts
When Tracking Period changes/is closed ????
Specify what happens when user-initiated events occur.
o Preserve Usage on Actualization. Indicates that any difference between the forecast and actual time recorded for a Tracking Period will be carried over to the following periods.
o Preserve Revenue on Actualization. Indicates that any different between the forecast and actual revenue recorded for a Tracking Period will be carried over to the following periods. The carried over revenue is divided by the forecast revenue rate to calculate the Usage. Only applicable to Product Domains where the Revenue is generated from Usage, e.g. T&M projects.
o Preserve Usage On Schedule Change. Indicates that the Remaining Usage on non- fixed days will be calculated when specific fixed days are added or removed from the Resource's Calendar. Note that with this Usage Behaviour Rule in place, removing days from the Calendar does not result in Remaining Usage being reduced, rather the Assignment is extended to preserve the Usage.
o Preserve Usage on Resource Change. Indicates that the Remaining Usage will be calculated when a Resource is changed on an Assignment, to retain the original Usage taking into account availability of the new Resource.
Remove Usage on Period Change. Indicates that the system should automatically remove remaining Usage from the earliest Open Tracking Period up to the number of days specified by Remove Usage Offset. Removing this remaining Usage is treated as actualizing zero Usage, and therefore the remaining Usage beyond this is determined based on the setting for Preserve Usage on Actualization. For example, to model Vacation entitlement setting Remove Usage Offset to 20 days with Preserve on Actualization checked, will remove any vacation which has not been specifically requested, and create a backlog of holiday entitlement.

14. Definitions (1) Name Definition Scheduled Day
A day that has been forecast at a specific number of hours through the Calendar View for the Assignment. Days that have been forecast in this way are not affected by any recalculation carried out by the Kimble software
Variable Day
A day that has been forecast at a Utilisation percentage by the system
Unavailable Day
A day that the Resource has been assigned 100% to an Unavailable Activity
CurrentTrackingPeriod
Tracking Period from which Forecast Usage is applied. Defaults to first Open Tracking Period, for which no time has been actualised (i.e. is forecast). May be overridden.
RemainingUsageInPeriod
Number of days forecast remaining in Forecasting Period.
IsFixedUsage
Current behaviour replaced by Preserve Usage … indicators, and now means only that the remaining Usage cannot be overridden by the User.

15. Definitions (2) Name Definition Entry Specification
Determines which fields are entered by the user when creating the Assignment, and how the Assignment is constrained. When events occur on the Assignment use the defined fields to recalculate Assignment Usage
Profile Usage
Indicates that the user may override the level forecast produced by Kimble by defining Usage per Month. Although this enables the feature, Kimble will continue to produce a level forecast until the user modifies the monthly usage. At this point the forecast must be manually maintained using this view. The Assignment may be reverted to level forecasting at any point
Fixed Usage
Indicates that the Usage entered when the Assignment is created is always preseved and may not be updated by the user
Adjust Usage
Indicates that the Remaining Usage on the Assignment may not be updated by the user directly, but only by applying Usage Adjustments. This feature may be used to record a log of changes to the Usage, such as when recording changes to vacation entitlement.

16. Usage Behaviour Rules: Examples
Name /
Type of Work
Preserve Usage on Actualisation
Preserve Usage on Resource Change
Preserve Usage on Schedule Change
Preserve Usage on Unavailability Change
Example
Finish Work as soon as possible 
Consultant working full-time on well defined tasks.
Finish Fixed Amount of Work as soon as possible
Finish Work between two Dates
Support staff committed to provide 10 days support over a year.
Provide Cover between two Dates
Project Manager assigned 25% for duration of the project.
Support desk providing reactive support for a year.
Complete as much Work as possible between two dates
Consultants working on long-term projects.