Lab

Guide

PPM 202: Increase Resource
Utilization with Better Planning

Spencer Beemiller & Christopher Laws

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Lab Goal
For this lab, you impersonate company users/resources in Lab 1
your ServiceNow instance and set up their schedules
accordingly. The admin uses the Weekend schedule; the rest Setting Up
of the team works standard 8 to 5 hours with an hour lunch
break.
Your
Schedule

Log on to Your Training Instance and Set Your Schedule

1. Your instance URL is on the cover page.

2. Login using the admin credentials provided on the cover.

3. Scroll down to the Resource application or type Resource in the Type Filter text bar.

4. Click on the Groups module.

5. Click New at the top of the table.

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6. Enter Superstars for the Group Name. Right-click on the top bar to Save.

7. Click Edit on the Group Members Related List.

8. Add the following people to the Superstars Group: Alex Linde, Michael Robert, Mohan Das,
Fred Luddy, and yourself (System Administrator).

Note: These users come with Resource Management Demo data, if not present please load.

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9. Click the Users module in the Navigation menu.

10. Search for *admin (yourself) in the table and click the System Administrator record.

11. Associate yourself with the Weekend schedule in your user profile (you hard worker you).

12. Note: By default, all users and groups follow the Resource Management Schedule, Monday
through Friday 8 to 12, 1 to 5. This can be adjusted in the Properties Module of the Resource
Management Application. Individual users can adjust which schedule they adhere to in their
User profile as we just demonstrated.

13. Return to Groups under the Resource Management application and select the Superstars
group you made in Step 6.

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14. Enter the rate of 500 dollars per hour (after all, this is the Superstars team) and Update the
record.

Progress Report
1. Navigate to Lab Management> Report Lab Progress.

2. Click I am done!

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Lab Goal
This lab explains how to block off a portion of our Lab 2
day/schedule to allocate for recurring operational tasks that
do not necessarily have a start and end date. It also explores Allocate
other types of events that we can reserve from an allocation
point of view.
Recurring
Tasks

Allocate Time for Operational Tasks

1. Go to the Incident application and Create New.

2. Create a dummy Incident for Reporting purposes that any User or Group can reuse for general
Service Desk Operational use. Enter INC1111111 for the number and fill out the short
description as shown.

Note: For now, this is the best way to block operational time for allocation and reporting
purposes. Actuals can be rolled up via Time Cards to give the exact time worked for the User
on the exact Task.

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3. Impersonate Fred Luddy and block out two hours a day (weekdays) for him to work Incidents
(Fred still likes to get his hands dirty in ServiceNow). Click the Impersonate User icon next to
System Administrator in the menu bar and type Fred Luddy for the user.

4. Now that you are impersonating Fred, click My Calendar in the Resource Application.

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5. Select the white block representing the 8 to 9 Monday timeslot on the calendar by clicking it.

6. Add 2 hours a day to Freds calendar for Service Desk work by selecting Type Task, changing
the to time to 10:00:00, repeating the event Weekly every workday until 2015-08-31 and
associate it with the Dummy Incident task created in step 2. It should look like the example
when completed.

Note: User field may not appear until you save the form.

7. You should now see a repeating blue Task in Freds schedule from 8 to 10 every weekday.

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8. Also add in an end of week status meeting for Fred from 4 to 5 every Friday. Click the 16:00 to
17:00 timeslot on Friday in Freds calendar and type End of Week Status Meeting.

9. Select Meeting for the event type. Notice users can also block off Time off, Appointments, and
Phone Calls as event types. Remember, you saw type Task in step 6.
10. Fill out the rest of the Event to match the example above.
11. Small Challenge: Add an Event of Type Phone Call to repeat weekly every Wednesday from
13:00 to 14:00.
12. When you finish, double check to make sure Freds calendar displays like the example.

13. Log back in as the System Administrator by clicking the impersonate icon again and choosing
System Administrator. The section of allocating operational tasks is now complete!
Progress Report
1. Navigate to Lab Management> Report Lab Progress.
2. Click I am done!
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Lab Goal
In this lab, you impersonate Michael Robert, a Resource User Lab 3
on our Superstar team. While acting as Michael, you submit
an idea for a project through the global Service Catalog and Create
allocate a Resource Plan for that project against the
Superstars group.
Resource
Plan from

PPM

Set up Group Privileges and Adjust Project Form

1. First, give the Superstars group access to the Project Application. Click Groups under the User
Administration Application. Search for *Superstars and click into the record.

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2. On the roles tab of the record click Edit and add in Project Manager, Project User and Project
Portfolio User roles.

3. Save the Related List and Update the Superstars group record accordingly. *Anyone in the
Superstars group should now have access to the Project application.

4. Now ensure a field is on the project form that auto-populates a field in the Resource Plan later
(Eureka and prior instances may need to add this when upgrading to Fuji). Go to the Project
application and click All Projects.

5. Click any Pending Project in the list.

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6. Right-click the Project menu bar and select Configure -> Form Design.

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7. From the Form Design page, filter on Planned Effort on the left side, drag and drop the field
under Planned Duration, and Save the form.

Note: This should already be present in your Lab instance but may not be in your companys
instance on the default Project Form.

8. Refresh the project page to see the newly added Planned Effort field.

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9. Also ensure the Resource Plan related list displays at the bottom of the Project Form. This
should also be there by default in you lab instances but may need to be added after upgrade
for pre-Dublin customer instances.

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Submit a Project through Service Catalog & Add a Resource Plan

1. Impersonate Michael Robert by clicking the Impersonate User icon.

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2. Click Service Catalog under the Self-Service application and Propose a New Project in the Can
We Help You? category section.

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3. Fill the fields out as follows and click Submit.

Name: Implementing Coaching Loops with ServiceNow

Estimated start date: 2015-04-27 08:00:00
Estimated end date: 2015-05-01 17:00:00
Estimated cost: 2000
Description: Coaching loops will be an easy way to ensure employees are following the
companies best practices.

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4. Go to All projects under the Projects application.

5. Search for the Project just submitted by typing *Implement in the search bar. Click into the
newly submitted project record.

6. Since the project is going to take a week to build, test and implement, enter in 40 hours for the
planned effort and save the form.

Note: For more information on building out the different areas of Project, sit in on the PPM
labs and visit https://wiki.servicenow.com/index.php?title=Project_Management.

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7. Scroll to the Resource Plan related list and click New. You are welcome to change to Tabbed
Forms.

8. This is the Resource Plan form. Notice that the Task, Start/End Date, and the Planned Hours
are brought in automatically from the Project.

9. Since the Superstars team handles everything ServiceNow, plug them in as the Group
Resource to allocate to this Project.

10. Right click at the top to Save the resource plan.

Challenge: Notice any fields change?

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11. Spoiler Alert: The Planned Cost for the resources was automatically calculated based on the
Groups Resource hourly rate and the Planned hours or effort that this plan is going to take.

12. Click the Request button to place the plan in a Requested state (which you see from the
process flow formatter at the top of the form) for the Resource Manager to allocate the
Superstar team accordingly later.
13. The user you are currently impersonating, Michael Robert, only has the resource_user role. He
still has access to view the resource availability of the plan he is submitting, but will not be able
to allocate the Users because he does not have the resource_manager role (later steps cover
this role change process).
14. Click the View Resource Availability related link on the plan form.

15. This opens a Resource Console in a separate tab or window with the users in the Superstar
group listed and their current allocated hours. Notice the following:
There are Green and Red bars encapsulating the timespan of the resource plan. If the
resource manager tries to schedule a user outside the given span, he/she will get a popup
notifying them to allocate the user within the required dates.
Fred has some recurring red areas of his calendar. Perfect! That is what you blocked off in
his calendar earlier in Section 2. The resource manager will be able to drill down in to these
red areas to get more detail.
The System administrator has a different schedule than everyone else. Perfect! You
associated the admin with the Weekends schedule in Section 1.

Progress Report
1. Navigate to Lab Management> Report Lab Progress.
2. Click I am done!
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Lab Goal
The beauty of the ServiceNow platform and by nature the Lab 4
applications within platform (for our purposes Resource) is
the seamless integration throughout all the applications. The Create
previous lab gave you an example of creating a Resource Plan
for a Project, where Resource allocation is a natural fit, but
Resource
what about other apps on the Platform? Plan from
This lab explains how to create a Change Record and then Change
submit a resource plan to check the allocations of the
Superstars team to complete the Change at the requested
time.

Add Resource Plans to Change (if not already there)

1. Log back in as the System Administrator by clicking the Impersonate icon and selecting
System Administrator.

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2. Go to the Change application, click the All module and select any change record with the type
Comprehensive in the associated table.

3. Once in the Change record, right click top menu bar and navigate to Configure -> Related Lists.

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4. Bring the Resource Plans from the Available list to the Selected List and click Save. If it is
already displayed on the Change record in your system, no need to bring it over .

5. Verify that the Resource Plan related list shows up at the bottom of the Comprehensive
Change record.

6. Impersonate Michael Robert again.

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Submit a Change and Allocate a Resource Plan to it

1. Go the Change application and hit Create New.

2. Set the configuration item to SAP ORA01, the short description to say Update Patch on Oracle
Database and the assignment group to our beloved Superstars. It should look like the example
when completed. Right-click and Save the form.

3. Now might be a good time to admire the new Business Service Map in Fuji if you have not seen
it already. Click on the BSM icon next to the Configuration item field and admire its beauty.

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4. After you familiarize yourself with the new BSM, return to the change record and adjust the
change schedule to match the example.

5. Hit the Check Conflicts related link and ensure it displays NO CONFLICTS at the top in Green.

6. Now examine what Resources on the Superstar team can help at this time.

7. Go to the Resource Plan related list at the bottom of the Change record and click New.

8. Notice again that the Resource Plan automatically populates with Information from the
change.

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9. If you update the Group Resource with the Superstars team, what would you expect when you
Save the plan?

10. If you guessed a Planned Cost of $500 bucks, you guessed right!

11. Click the Request button to submit the Plan and View Resource Availability once again.

12. Depending on when you are taking the lab, you may have to adjust the Dates displayed on the
Resource console by scrolling the timeline on the upper-right portion of the screen. Adjust
accordingly until you see the start date of the Change visualized by the Green bar.

13. That is how easy it is to create Resource plans in another application besides Project within
ServiceNow. Next you explore the Resource Managers process and workflow.

Progress Report
1. Navigate to Lab Management> Report Lab Progress.

2. Click I am done!

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Lab Goal
This lab explains what it takes to allocate users to multiple Lab 5
resource plans. You learn what the Resource Process flow
looks like and get familiar with how a Resource Manager Resource
would use the application.
Plan
Workflow

Getting to Know the Resource Application and Flow with Project

1. Return to impersonating the System Administrator. This user has resource_management
access to the Resource application.

2. Type resource in the type filter text area to narrow down the
application list to just Resource.

3. Here you see some Modules you are already familiar with
including Users, Groups and My Calendar, which you edited
earlier for Fred Luddy.

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4. Under the Resource Plans section, click Requested to see the resource plans in the requested
state.

5. Within this list, you should see the two plans requested while impersonating Michael Robert.

6. First click in to the plan associated with the Project. It should have a value of 40 Planned hours
in the list view (numbering may vary).

7. This form is already familiar to you because you viewed it as Michael when submitting it. Click
the View Resource Availability related link to open up the Console.

8. Notice because you have resource_manager privileges, you can now see the Resource Plan
allocations at the bottom of the Console view. You also can click on the individual users
calendar to check their availability.

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9. Furthermore because of the resource manager role, you can view more details on the
individuals that you are trying to schedule. Click the 2 hours of red time for Fred Luddy on
2015-04-27.

10. Observe that the Resource Manager can now see why Fred is unavailable for 2 hours during
that day and further can see the types of Events Fred is already allocated to. He is slotted for 2
hours of Service Desk work in the morning (which you configured earlier), so he cannot be
allocated to work on this Project for that time.

11. Close out Freds calendar when you are finished viewing it.

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12. Now start allocating the resources for this task. Click on the green sections of 8 for Michael
Roberts (since he is the one who submitted the project) for 2015-04-27.

13. The Resource Console automatically fills in the maximum numbers you can schedule that
individual that day for you. Click OK on the dialog box.

14. Notice what happens to that 8 hour day for Michael. It turned blue in the Console.
Challenge: Why is it not Red?

15. Also notice what happens to the percent allocation of plan tracker down at the bottom of the
Console. It automatically calculates the % of plan we are currently at after that first 8-hour
allocation.

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16. Repeat the allocation process for 6 hours of Freds time on Monday, 8 Hours of Alexs on
Monday and 4 hours of Mohans Monday through Thursday. When you are done, the
Resource Console should look like the example and it should display 95% utilization of the plan.

17.Now try to schedule the System Administrator on the Saturday of 2015-05-02. What happens?
You should receive a dialog box similar to the example.

Note: By default, the system does not allow you to allocate a resource outside of the plans
start and end date. This can be adjusted in the Resource Management -> Properties section.

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18. What happens if you want to account for a few extra hours as part of the plan? Try it! Allocate
Michael Robert for 4 hours on Friday 2015-05-01.

19. It works! The Resource application allows you to over allocate a Resource Plan. It does not
however allow you to over-allocate an individual user if his or her schedule is maxed out for
that day/week/month.

20. Right-click on the Resource Plan state at the bottom of the Console and click Approve.

21. Close the window or tab and return to the main ServiceNow window.
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Getting to Know the Resource Console with Change

1. For the Resource Plan created for this change, work it from the global Resource Console. Go to
the Resource Management application and click Resource Console.

2. Now you can view all the Plans and Resources from a single pain of glass. Right-click on the
group resource of Superstars and click Show Matching. You still have filtering capability in this
view.

3. After filtering, you can see the two plans that the Superstars team is assigned. If you click
between them, do you notice a difference in the displayed user resource calendars?

4. Besides the fact that the start and end dates differs between the two, the Project Plan contains
some blue portions of the Users schedules. This explains the challenge question from earlier.
Resource time allocated to the current plan you are working on is displayed in blue. If you are
working in a different plan but accessing those same users, it appears in red.

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5. Right-click on the State of the change Resource Plan and click Reject.

6. Notice that this bounces you back to the Resource plan record and sets the process flow back
to Planning. The state shows up as Rejected in the list view (click Resource Plans -> All) but this
allows the user who initially submitted the plan to edit the record and request a change.

7. Go back in to the Resource Plan for the change record, type This Change needs to be 2 hours
into the notes and click Request Change.

8. Go back to the global Resource Console, right-click to do a show matching on the Plans in the
state of Change (there should only be one), and allocate to the Sys Admin (you) on that
Saturday.

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9. The final result should look like the example with the change Resource Plan 100% allocated.

10. Right-click the Change state and Approve the plan.

Progress Report
1. Navigate to Lab Management> Report Lab Progress.

2. Click I am done!

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Lab Goal
Do you have the visibility or the information today to Lab 6
provision users and groups accordingly for Urgent Business
Demands? This lab simulates a high-priority Demand requiring Dealing w/
immediate resources and demonstrates how Resource
Management can help you justify your teams time to the
Conflict on
business and position Contractor resources as an alternative. High
Demands

Getting to Know the Resource Application and Flow with Project

1. Navigate to the Workbench module in the Demand Application menu. In the plot, you notice a
crucial demand in the Resource sections of the graph.

2. Click the Demand to view the Record.

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3. Scroll to the bottom of the Demand to the Resource Plan related list and click New.

4. Since this Demand has a high Business Criticality and an Urgent timeline, try to get the
Superstars team dedicated to get it done. Fill out the Resource Plan for the Demand as follows
and click Request.

5. Notice the Planned cost Calculated again as expected. But what happens when you view
Resource Availability?

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6. Everyones booked up!!! Good news, now you can bring this information back to the business
to let them know the internal team simply does not have the Resources to be able to complete
this project with its given load.

7. What could we do here to keep our Superstar team working on the tasks they need to be but
still meet the Urgent Demand of the Business?

8. Try allocating a Contractor group at a higher rate. Reject the plan for the current request by
right clicking the record at the bottom and clicking Reject.

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9. Change the Group Resource to the Contractor Group. Enter in the Notes field the reason for
the Change.

10. Click Request Change when completed.

11. Note the automatic adjustments made to the Planned Cost based on the new groups hourly
rate and the log of why the change was made in the Form.

12. Click View Resource Availability again,

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13. Since the Contractors are allocated on an ad-hoc basis, schedule Contractor Bob the full 8
hours on Friday to complete the Demand in short time given.

14. Last, return to the Resource Plan form to verify that the Allocated cost matches Planned cost.

This concludes one example in which a Resource Manager may solve conflicting allocations for last
minute, high priority business demands.

Progress Report
1. Navigate to Lab Management> Report Lab Progress.

2. Click I am done!

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Lab Goal
Do you have a good handle on cost forecasting and tracking Lab 7
actual labor costs?
Planned,
This lab explains how to allocate accurate labor costs to a
project based on rate cards and tracking actual costs through Allocated
time card management. and
You make a change to Fred Luddys labor rate card, allocate Actuals
some additional time to the project, and submit a time card to
show how you can track your actual labor costs automatically.

Differentiate Planned, Allocated, and Actual Hours of Resources

1. Type Rate Cards in the filter text box and click Labor Rate Cards.

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2. Open the rate card for Fred Luddy. Rate cards can be for groups of or individuals. In this case
you modify his individual rate card.

3. Modify the rate card for Fred Luddy from $500 to something like $1000. This is what drives the
allocated and actual cost calculations for a resource plan or project.

4. Click Update to save the changes for Fred Luddys rate card.

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5. Type Project in the filter text field and click All to show the list of the projects.

6. Type Implementing in the Search for text field box. Click the project link to open the project
named Implementing Coaching Loops with ServiceNow.

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7. Scroll down on the form. Click the Resource Plan tab. Then Click the Resource plan link to
open it for the Superstars group.

8. Click Request Change to reopen the resource plan.

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9. Click the View Resource Availability link to make changes. You add some hours for Fred Luddy
based on his new rate.

10. Click the green bar and allocate an additional 4 hours for Fred Luddy.

11. Close the Resource Availability window.

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12. Reload the Resource Allocation form to refresh the Allocated Cost. This should go up based on
the number of hours and the rate you entered for Fred Luddy.

13. Note that the Allocated Cost increases by the appropriate amount based on the rate card
change and number of additional hours you allocate to Fred. In this case, $4,000.

14. Click Approve for the resource plan and then Click Update to go back to the project record for
the Implementing Coaching Loops with ServiceNow.

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15. Click the Time Cards tab. Click New.

16. Change the Time Card User to Fred Luddy if necessary and enter 4 hours each day of the week
Monday through Friday. Change the state field to Approved. Click Submit.

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17. Click the Expense Lines tab to view the automatically generated expense line. The amount is
based on the number of hours entered multiplied by the rate card for Fred Luddy.

18. Click the Financials tab and note how the Actual cost went up based on the automatically
generated line item expense.

This closes the loop on cost allocation, time tracking, and actual labor cost tracking. With a little up
front setup it can be completely automated. Next you explore some of the reporting.

Progress Report
1. Navigate to Lab Management> Report Lab Progress.

2. Click I am done!

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Lab Goal
Last part of resource management is to view the outcome of Lab 8
the hours allocated and plans made in the reporting module.
Reporting

/ Metrics

Report on Resources
1. Open the Resource Application. Type Resource in the filter text.

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2. Click on the Resource Reports (Monthly) module in the resource management application.

This displays a Dashboard with the Resource Utilization (%) by Month, Availability (hrs) by
Month, Allocation (hrs) by Month, Capacity by Month (hrs) and Actuals (hrs) by Month.

3. Click the Refresh the Report button at the top.

4. Enter the start and end date to span the entire 2015 calendar year.

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5. Add the Superstars group to the Selected list. Click the All groups check box to show all groups
and select from the available select box.

6. Click the Run Report button. It may take a moment to load and should look like the example.

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7. Click Michael Robertss 13% utilization in the month of April to see the 100% (or 8 hours) we
scheduled him for 3 days.

8. Feel free to explore the other report sections at your own pace, the general principal applies of
the rolled-up numbers and the drill down feature into the daily view of that users month.

9. Notice that the System Administrator does not have a number filled in for Resource Utilization
in the first chart even though we assigned him two hours of the change task to be completed.
This is because the reports will only round up to whole numbers and he is currently utilized
below 1%.

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10. Challenge: Create a new Resource Plan of 4 hours of work for the System Administrator in the
Month of April. Allocate the admin to the Plan and refresh the report to reflect the Admins
Utilization.

11. Your end result should now contain 2% Utilization for the System Administrator in the month
of April.

Progress Report
1. Navigate to Lab Management> Report Lab Progress.

2. Click I am done!

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