Resource Skills
A skill is an attribute of an individual resource, which can have any number of skills.
In general, the skills assigned to different individual resources will be different but overlapping. Furthermore, skill sets can cross hierarchical boundaries within an RBS. Thus, an individual resource may have a different set of skills than other resources in its pool while sharing skills with resources belonging to another pool.
Just as you can define resource assignments for an activity, Open Plan allows you to define skill assignments as well. These assignments can be satisfied by any individual resource that possesses the required skill.
For example: Assume that JANE is a drafter, MARY is a mechanical engineer who can also draft, and FRED is an electrical engineer who can also draft. If a certain activity requires a skill of drafting, either JANE, MARY, or FRED could be assigned to that activity.
Like the resources themselves, skills are also stored in a resource file. Before you can assign skills to a resource, these skills must first exist in the resource file.
To use resource skills in Open Plan, perform the following steps:
- Step One: Define the skills in a resource file.
- Step Two: Assign skills to individual resources.
- Step Three: Define skill assignments for activities.
To define skills for a resource file, use the Skills command from the Edit tab. Open Plan displays any skills assigned to resources at the bottom level of the resource breakdown structure.