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I'm particularly interested in how people are supposed to put in resources that work across multiple programs or portfolios or who don't work at the requirement level but who work on tasks that are at a program or portfolio level. i.e. do you track a task in a dummy requirement level for activities like General Meetings, Project Management or Architecture Review etc (if working in waterfall methodology?) or do you reduce your number of hours per project to only include pure test/dev effort and have everything else tracked outside Spiraplan/Spirateam?
Hello,
To effectively manage resources working across multiple programs or portfolios in Spira, three-tiered approach looks convenient:
1. Use the Program/Portfolio 'Resources' View: Instead of looking at resource availability within a single project, navigate to the Program or Portfolio level. In the 'Planning > Resources' section, Spira aggregates a user's total workload across all projects they are assigned to. This is the only way to see if a developer is 100% allocated in Project A while simultaneously having 50% allocation in Project B.
2. Define 'Project-Specific' Work Hours: In each product, you can define how many hours per week a user is dedicated to that specific project. For example, if a Lead Architect works across 4 projects, you might set them to 10 hours/week in each. Spira's capacity engine will then show them as 'Over-allocated' if their total tasks exceed those specific bounds.
3. Create an 'Overhead/Admin' Project for Non-Project Work: For resources that don't work 100% on specific deliverables (e.g., Management, Architecture, or General Support), it is a best practice to create a permanent 'Operational Support' project. Assign these users there and create 'Administrative Requirements' or 'Support Tasks.' This ensures their 'invisible' work is accounted for in the overall Portfolio capacity and doesn't appear as 'free time' to the PMO.
By centralizing these views at the Portfolio level, you avoid the 'silo' effect where each PM thinks they have the developer's full attention.
Regards,Victoria -
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