What is the difference between Resource OBS and Staff OBS field?

Products

• Clarity PPM SaaS
• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

Description:

Users are getting confused between a Resource OBS and Staff OBS function.

Please explain the differences, as filtering by them produces different results on the Classic 'Resource Workloads' portlet.  

Environment

Release: Any supported release 
Component: Classic & Clarity 

Resolution

Solution:  

1. What is the difference between the various Resource OBS fields and 'Staff OBS Unit' field?
   • This applies to BOTH Classic and Clarity functionality.  
   • Staff OBS Unit field
     • The Staff OBS field is part of the Staff Member's properties and allows the Staff member to have different OBS Units per investment allocation record. 
       • In Classic, go to the Project, Team tab, and click the Properties icon for a Team Member. 
       • In Clarity, go to any Investment that has a Blueprint with the Staff Module visible and display the 'Staff OBS Unit' field in the layout. 
   • The Staff OBS Unit can be manually entered and have a different value from the Resource properties and a different value between investments.  
   • The Staff OBS Unit can get automatically populated with the Resource properties OBS Unit using the Investment-level field - 'Default Staff OBS Unit'. 
     • Selecting a value here will set a default value for any new resources that are added to the team after this default is set; existing member allocation records are not updated.    
     • Depending on which OBS Type is selected for 'Default Staff OBS Unit', when the Resource is added as a Staff member, the 'Staff OBS Unit' field will get populated with the Unit that is on the Resource record for that OBS Type if that OBS type has a value selected on the Resource properties. 
     • Example:  
       • An Investment 'Default Staff OBS' field is set to use one of the 'Resource Pool' OBS units - i.e. Resource Pool:/All Groups/Internal. 
       • Resource 1 has the 'Resource Pool' unit = 'Resource Pool:/All Groups/Internal/Operations'. 
       • When Resource 1 is added as a Staff Member to this investment, the 'Staff OBS Unit' gets automatically set to 'Operations'. 
   • 'Resource OBS fields  
     • When an OBS Type is associated with the Resource Object, an OBS Unit can be set for the Resource properties record. Therefore, the Resource properties record could have multiple OBS fields. 
     • Examples:  
       • Financial 'Department' OBS
       • User-Defined OBS Types - such as 'Resource Pool', 'Corporate Org', 'Geo Org', etc. 
     • The Resource OBS field is set at the Resource level versus setting it on the Investment Staff allocation record. 
   • The options on the Filter browse for either of these two fields comes from associating an OBS Type to the Resource object. 
2. How does filtering work for the Classic 'Resource Workloads' portlet? Will they provide same results set while using them one by one using the same search filter criteria? What is the expected results if the Staff OBS is left blank?
   • This ONLY applies to the Classic 'Resource Workloads' portlet. Clarity (MUX) provides direct filtering applied to the records as expected in the Staff Module grid, without the special logic explained here for this Classic portlet.   
   • If the Staff OBS Unit is left blank for filtering, the results will include resources from all Staff OBS Units.
   • If a value is selected for the Staff OBS Unit on the filter, the results will include all resources that meet the rest of the filter Criteria. However, only resources that are in the selected Staff OBS  will display any values for ETC, Actuals, Allocation and Total Usage. These values will be adjusted to meet the Staff OBS criteria. 

Here's an example regarding how the Staff OBS filter parameter works on the Classic 'Resource Workloads' portlet:  

Resource Properties:
Res1 and Res2 are added to Resource OBS:OBS1
Res3 is added to Resource OBS:OBS2 
Res1 is added to two projects, Proj1 and Proj2 

On Proj1, Res1 is added to Staff OBS: Staff1
For the month of January, Res1 has Alloc=ETC=60 hours on Proj1 
On Proj2, Res1 is added to Staff OBS: Staff2
For the month of January, Res1 has Alloc=ETC=80 hours on Proj2 
Res2 has Alloc=ETC=20 hours on other Projects for the month of January
Res3 has Alloc=ETC=10 hours on other projects for the month of January 

In Classic, go to the Resource Workloads Portlet

***Filter: No Filter parameters set
Total Results is 3 Resources.
Allocation, ETC, Total Usage displays for all resources 
Res1: Alloc=ETC=80+60=140
Res2: Alloc=ETC=20
Res3: Alloc=ETC=10 

***Filter only by Staff OBS: Staff1 
Total Results is 3 resources. 
Res1: Alloc=ETC=60 (only shows values meeting the Staff OBS: Staff1requirement)
Res2: Alloc=ETC=blank
Res3: Alloc=ETC=blank

***Filter only by Staff OBS: Staff2
Total Results is 3 resources. 
Res1: Alloc=ETC=80 (only shows values meeting the Staff OBS: Staff2requirement)
Res2: Alloc=ETC=blankRes3: Alloc=ETC=blank 

***Filter only by Resource OBS: OBS1
Total Results is 2 resources. 
Res1: Alloc=ETC=80+60=140
Res2: Alloc=ETC=20 

***Filter only by Resource OBS: OBS2
Total Results is 1 resource. 
Res2: Alloc=ETC=10 

***Filter by:- Resource OBS: OBS1 AND- Staff OBS: Staff1 
Total Results is 2 resources. 
Res1: Alloc=ETC=60 (only shows values meeting the Staff OBS: Staff1requirement)
Res2: Alloc=ETC=blank

 

In Summary:

1. If the 'Resource Workloads' list is only filtered by the Resource OBS, this changes the number of Resources listed.
2. If the 'Resource Workloads' list is filtered by the Staff OBS, the number of Resources remains the same, just the values on the TSV fields change.
3. If the 'Resource Workloads' list is filtered by the Resource OBS AND Staff OBS, the number of resources on the list will be determined by the value on the Resource OBS parameter, the values on the TSV will be determined by the Staff OBS selected. (Similarly, if the filter parameters are any other parameter and the Staff OBS, the number of resources on the list will be determined by the other parameter, and the Staff OBS parameter will only dictate the values on the TSV for those resources.)  
4. In Clarity (MUX), filtering works as expected in the Staff Module grid.