Allocating Resources to Work Items

Enterprise Architect not only helps you to define the work items for a Kanban diagram or workflow but also acts as a sophisticated platform for the allocation and management of resources and the flow of items through the board. This functionality uses both Kanban diagrams and the Resource Allocation features.

Resources are the people who work on a project; they can be assigned roles and allocated tasks, and these roles and tasks can be visualized on a Kanban diagram.

This example shows a number of Kanban work items, one with three resources allocated to it. The tasks performed by the resources are at varying stages of completion, represented by the green progress bars that show the percentage of the work completed.

When a resource allocation is set to 100% complete, it will no longer be displayed in the Kanban object. When all tasks have been set to 100%, it might be time to move the task to the next Kanban lane, changing its status so that the next resources can be allocated. In this example, that might be resources with a 'Review' or 'Testing' role.

Resource Allocation

To allocate a resource to a Kanban object, you must first open the Resource Allocation window ('Construct > Task Management > Resource Allocation'). You then select the object on the Kanban diagram or in the Project Browser and click on the 'New' icon in the Resource Allocation window. Add these details as necessary:

Resource
Role or Task
Start Date
End Date
Complete %
Expected Time
Allocated Time
Time Expended
Description
History

Click on the Save icon to create the resource allocation - a progress indicator will instantly appear on the work item in the Kanban diagram. This is an important visual cue to show that a resource has been assigned to work on this task or has chosen it themselves. Other team members will immediately be able to see the allocation on the Kanban diagram and make decisions about what work items they will work on. Therefore, it is important not to allocate resources too early as this could slow down the workflow.

The resource allocations for the Kanban Work Item in the previous diagram are shown in this example:

Completed Tasks

Once you have completed a task, you set its 'Complete %' value to 100. This has the effect of preventing the task's progress bar from being drawn in the object in the Kanban diagram. As well as setting the completion percentage on the task, you might also want to fill in other information, such as the end date and time expended. It might also be time to move the object into the next Kanban lane.

Resource Tracking

The Kanban features in Enterprise Architect can be used with any project management method. How the features are used will depend largely on what works best for individual teams; the teams might be self organizing without any formal project management controls and other teams might work with a more formal structure. Either way Enterprise Architect provides a number of facilities that will assist with visualizing resources and their allocations to work items.

Enterprise Architect provides searches to allow you to track resources. You can get a list of tasks that each resource is working on, overdue tasks, recently completed tasks, summaries, and more. A team or individual can also write their own custom searches to retrieve any required information from the repository.

Access

Ribbon

Construct > Task Management > Active Tasks

Construct > Task Management > Completed Tasks

Construct > Task Management > Track Resources

Resource Tracking Searches

Search	Description	See also
Active Tasks	Searches the project for elements with assigned resources, where the end date is in the future and the percentage completion is less than 100. The output lists all elements with currently active tasks, and shows the details of the resource allocation to each task.
Tasks Ending Today	Searches the project for elements with assigned resources, where the task end date is today. The output lists all elements with tasks ending today, whether the task is complete or not, and shows the details of the resource allocation to each task.
Tasks Starting Today	Searches the project for elements with assigned resources, where the task start date is today. The output lists all elements with tasks starting today, and shows the details of the resource allocation to each task.
Overdue Tasks	Searches the project for elements with assigned resources, where the end date is in the past and the percentage completion is less than 100. The output lists all elements with overdue tasks, and shows the details of the resource allocation to each task.
Recently Completed	Searches the project for elements with assigned resources, where the end date is in the recent past and the percentage completion is 100. In the 'Search Term' field, specify the number of days over which to check back. The output lists all elements with tasks completed within the specified period, and shows the details of the resource allocation to that task. The output does not include tasks that have already been finished in advance of a future completion date.
All Completed	Searches the project for elements with assigned resources, where the percentage completion is 100. The output lists all elements with completed tasks, and shows the details of the resource allocation to each task.
30 Day Task Summary (Brief)	Provides a brief summary of the tasks performed by resources over the previous month. The output groups tasks with similar project role and calculates for each resource: the count, the sum of expected time, and the sum of expended time for all tasks that have started in the last 30 days. To look at or change the master list of project roles that this search uses for grouping tasks, select Configure > Reference Data > Project Types > People > Project Roles. Grouping by similar project role means that, for example, 'Review 1' and 'Review 2' would be grouped together under 'Review' if and only if the current project's list of project roles includes one called 'Review'.
30 Day Task Summary (Full)	Provides a full summary of the tasks performed by resources over the previous month. The output groups tasks by project role and resource, and lists the count, sum of expected time, and sum of expended time for all tasks that have started in the last 30 days.
30 Day Resources	Searches the project for tasks that have started in the last 30 days where the resource name matches (fully or partially) the text in the <Search Term>.
30 Day Roles	Searches the project for tasks that have started in the last 30 days where the role name matches (fully or partially) the text in the <Search Term>.

Charts and Dashboards

Enterprise Architect has a sophisticated charting facility that allows a wide range of charts to be created through which you can visualize and analyze repository information. This is particularly useful with Kanban diagrams and resource allocations and provides an alternative view of the of Kanban cards, allowing a Product Owner, Project Manager or other team member to get a visual image of things like the Number of Active Tasks by developer and the Phases the Work Items are in by developer, the Number of Work Items at each stage of a Kanban Board and much more. The charts can provide powerful information that will help improve the teams performance and ultimately result in high value product or service features being available to customers in the shortest possible time frame. Any number of charts can be created from built-in Patterns but a team is also free to create user defined charts, dashboards and reports.

Example - Active Work Items by Team Member

This bar chart shows the number of active tasks by team member. The names of the team members are listed on the vertical axis and the Number of Tasks on the horizontal axis. A small numerical value indicates the number of active tasks allocated to each team member.

Example - Completed Work Items by Team Member

This compelling bar chart shows the number of work items completed by the members of a team in a particular phase of the process. The team members are represented on the vertical axis and the number of completed work items on the horizontal axis. Color has been used to help visualize the work items completed in a given phase; a diagram legend lists the relationship between color and phase. A small numeric indicator indicates the number of items completed in each phase for each team member.

Example - Weekly Work Item Summary by Phase

This expressive bar chart provides a weekly summary of the number of Work Items completed by phase. The Phases are represented on the vertical axis and the Number of Work Items on the horizontal axis. The chart can provide powerful information that will help improve the teams performance.

Learn more

Pre-defined Searches