Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Model resources and related attributes

 
IBM Certification Test 992.2 - Modeling
 

How to model resources ()and related attributes

Resources

Resources represent the people, equipment, or material used to perform a project or a task. Examples of resources are Computer and Employee.
 
Resources are not the same as business items. Business item represent objects that undergo changes and are passed from one process step to the next, whereas resources represent the things that are performing the work or are required prerequisites, such as machines, fuel, vehicles, or skilled personnel.
 
You can model two types of resources: individual resources and bulk resources. Individual resources are resources where a specific instance is required, whereas bulk resources are resources where any instance of a type of resource from a pool can be used. Individual resources include people and computers, and bulk resources include power and water.
 
Bulk resources can represent the material used to perform a project or a task. They can be non-consumable (such as employees, vehicles, or equipment) or consumable (such as fuel or printer paper). Consumable resources are diminished, or perhaps even used up, during the process.
 
You can define bulk resources as resources that are not uniquely identified, but whether resources need to be identifiable may depend on how they are being used. In a car rental agency, the cars can be viewed as either bulk or individual resources. From an executive's perspective, individual cars are not of interest, but bulk information is. At the rental desk, the individual resource information of each specific car is important. The modeling of a resource therefore depends on the process being modeled and its purpose.
 
Resources may have specified periods when they are available. To specify availability, you can use an existing timetable or create a new timetable that indicates the periods of availability. If you do not specify the availability of a resource, it is assumed that the resource is always available. You can also add costs and qualifications to resources. The qualifications are specific roles that this resource must fulfill.
 
When you model a task, you can optionally specify the individual or bulk resources that are required to complete the task.
 
Resources represent values or instances of resource definitions. If you have modeled an individual resource definition called Computer, then some examples of resources might be "Main server," "Web server," and "Test machine 1." You can also create resources based on individual resource definitions such as Person or Staff and bulk resource definitions such as Communication Service and Equipment that are provided with WebSphere® Business Modeler.

 

Costs

Costs can be associated with resources and roles.
 
The following different types of costs can be modeled:
  • One-time cost
  • Cost per time unit
  • Cost per quantity
  • Cost per quantity and time unit

A one-time cost is a cost that is incurred when a resource is first used in the process. This cost is incurred once per process for the specific resource. It can be used to reflect the cost of purchasing a resource that is required for the process. You can associate one-time costs with individual resources, bulk resources, or roles.

 
A cost per time unit is a cost that increases with the amount of time the process uses the resource. An example of a cost per day is the rental of a piece of equipment required for the process. An example of a cost per hour is a contractor who is paid an hourly amount. You can associate costs per time unit with individual resources or roles.
 
A cost per quantity is a cost that increases with the amount of the resource that the process requires. For example, hydro has a cost per kilowatt hour. You can associate costs per quantity unit with bulk resources.
 
A cost per quantity and time unit is a cost that increases with both the amount of the resource and the time for which it is required. You can associate costs per quantity and time unit with bulk resources. An example is the cost of a rental space, say 12 000 USD per square foot per month. You set a monthly duration by specifying it as a number of days, for example, 30 days.
 
A cost has two parts, the amount of the cost and the currency. Currencies are specified using ISO symbols, such as USD for United States dollar or EUR for euro.
 
If you model costs for both resources and roles, the resource cost takes priority. Role cost is used only if no other cost is associated with the resource.
Related concepts
 

 

Adding availability

You may want to specify when a resource or role is available, or how much of a bulk resource is available. If you do not specify an availability, it is assumed that the resource or role is always available.
 
To specify the availability of a resource or role, complete the following steps:
  1. In the Project Tree view, double-click the resource or role, or right-click and select Open. An editor opens.
  2. Click the Availability tab at the bottom of the editor.
  3. For a bulk resource, specify the following:
    1. Select Consumable if the resource is consumed during the process. An example of a consumable resource is fuel such as gasoline.
    2. Enter the quantity of the resource that is available at the beginning of the process.
    3. If required, select a unit of measure from the drop-down list. Keep the default "unit" if you are not sure of the correct unit to enter or if there is no unit (for example, if you are specifying the number of machines).
  4. If the resource or role is not always available, click Add to attach a timetable to the resource. Select a timetable that shows the availability, or click New timetable to create a new timetable in the project and attach it to this resource. The timetable is added to the list, and the details of the timetable appear in the Availability Details section.
  5. If you want to change the details, select the timetable in the list and click Edit Availability to edit the timetable.
If the resource or role is affected by more than one timetable, you can add another timetable in the same way.
Related concepts
 

 

Roles

Roles add additional characteristics to resources. For example, an Employee resource could have the role of Customer Service Representative, Supervisor, or Manager.
 
You can optionally specify the roles that are required to complete any task that you model. You can add costs and availability to roles. For example, a certain role might cost $20 an hour and be available from Monday to Friday only.
 
Roles can also have qualifications, which are used to model requirements. For example, a System Administrator role could have the following qualifications:
  • Knowledge of WebSphere® Application Server
  • Location

For each role, you can also specify one or more qualifications. For example, a System Administrator role could have the following qualifications:

  • Knows WebSphere Application Server
  • Location
When you create a resource, such as an individual employee, you can add the roles for which that resource is qualified. For each qualification that a role has, you can specify a value. For example, the qualifications for a System Administrator role could have values like the ones listed in the following table.
Qualification Value type Value
Knows WebSphere Application Server Boolean True
Location Text Chicago
  • True (for "Knowledge of WebSphere Application Server")
  • Chicago (for "Location")

Qualifications can also be used to specify the characteristics of resources other than people. For a fuel resource, for example, you could add a role to specify the type of vehicle or furnace that uses the resource. Then, you could add a fuel consumption qualification to the role to specify how much fuel the resource requires.

 

 

Creating resources and roles

Each of the items used in the business to perform a process or task (such as personnel, equipment, or materials) can be modeled for use in process diagrams. You can also model roles, which add additional characteristics to resources, and timetables, which model the availability of resources or roles.
  • Creating resource catalogs
    Resource catalogs help you to organize your model elements relating to resources, including resource definition templates, resource definitions, resources, roles, and timetables, enabling you to keep them in folders that correspond to different projects or to the way the resources are used in the business.
  • Creating resources
    After creating a resource definition, you can create specific instances of that resource. For example, if you created a Truck resource definition, specific resources would be Truck Form #7 or Sherry Miller's Truck.
  • Creating roles
    You can define roles to add additional characteristics to resources.
  • Adding availability
    You may want to specify when a resource or role is available, or how much of a bulk resource is available. If you do not specify an availability, it is assumed that the resource or role is always available.
  • Adding costs
    You may want to model the cost of using a resource or a role. If a resource has a cost assigned to it, as well as a cost assigned to the role it carries out, the resource cost takes priority.

Resource model example

A resource model example shows the following:
 
 
 

Related links

 
 

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