Using the Preferred Resource Filter During Staffing

During staffing, you can narrow down the pool of potential resources by using the filter criteria Role, Region, Practice, Group, Worked With Customer, and any resource search fields in your org. You can also filter for a particular resource by using the Preferred Resource filter. When you specify a preferred resource it is compared to other resources in the pool, and if no other resource ranks higher it is returned as the most suitable match.

You can filter for a preferred resource in the following ways:

  • When using the Resourcing tab on a resource request, or the Assign Multiple Resources to Project action on a project, click Filter to open the Filters panel then select one or more resources in the Preferred Resource filter.
  • When using auto-staffing, Resource Request Staffer, or the Resourcing tab on a resource request, you can allow a resource request's suggested resource to be set as its preferred resource. On the Resourcing tab, the suggested resource is then automatically pre-populated in the Preferred Resource filter.

The Preferred Resource filter is weighted in the same way as other filter fields. Weightings determine how important it is that resources match the filter criteria. For example, your weightings might specify that matching Role is essential, matching Preferred Resource is ideal, and matching Region, Practice and Group is suggested. A resource that matches Preferred Resource will therefore rank higher than a resource that only matches Region, Practice and Group. However a resource that matches Role will rank higher than a resource that only matches Preferred Resource. For more information about weightings and ranking, see Intelligent Staffing Overview.

Note:

If the Preferred Resource filter is weighted as essential but a preferred resource cannot be matched, no suitable resource will be returned. This can happen, for example, if the preferred resource has no availability or lacks essential criteria.

Setup Required to Filter by Preferred Resource

You can set default options for filtering by preferred resource, and you can override the default options for resource requests that are linked to staffing preferences. For example, your default setup might use suggested resources as preferred resources, but you might use staffing preferences for certain types of resource requests that have their preferred resource entered manually.

To set the default options:

  1. In the Resource Search Service custom setting, set the Preferred Resource Weighting to Essential, Ideal, Desirable, or Suggested as appropriate. It defaults to Essential.
  2. In the Resource Request Settings custom setting, select Use Suggested Resource as Preferred if you want resource requests to default to using their suggested resource as the preferred resource. Leave this field deselected if you want a resource request's preferred resource to be entered manually via the Resource Filter on the Resourcing tab.

To override the default options for resource requests that are linked to staffing preferences:

  1. Edit the staffing preference to select or deselect the Use Suggested Resource as Preferred checkbox as required.
  2. Edit the resource search settings record linked to the staffing preference record and set the Preferred Resource Weighting set as required.
Note:

If Use Suggested Resource as Preferred is selected and the Preferred Resource filter is weighted as essential, you should ensure that the Suggested Resource field is populated on resource requests. If blank, the filter is not applied and resources will be considered based on how well they match the other filter criteria.