Chapter 2: Resource Management

Resources
Business Units
Security Groups
Users

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Resources

As a part of the initial configuration of POMS, you need to define users and their access rights. This enables users to access POMS through a simple login procedure. Each defined user is treated as a potential resource that can be allocated to projects.

In the POMS navigation tree, you'll find a node called Resource, which contains three sub-nodes for managing project human resources.

The Business Units node allows you to divide your organization into multiple business units. The Security Groups node allows you to define security groups for users. The Users node allows you to define POMS users.

The following diagram illustrates the relationships between these, where "Your Organization" is divided into three business units, and each user is allocated to a business unit (except for the admin user, which cannot be subordinated to a business unit). Users are also allocated to three security groups, which determine their access rights.

Business units allow you to separate the work (e.g., projects) of one set of users from another. So, for example, users in business unit "X" will not be able to access projects created by users in business unit "Y".

This level of control is often needed in larger organizations, where each department wants to control its own work. If you do not need this level of control, then you should avoid using business units, in which case all users will form a single pool, as illustrated by the following diagram.

Under this simpler model, you can still restrict access to a project by giving it specific (rather than universal) access rights.

Business Units

When you select the Business Units node, a search screen is displayed. You can search for a business unit using its Name. If you leave this blank, a wild-card search is performed, which will return all business units. Press Find to perform your search. The search result is displayed in the table below the search criteria.

Provided that you have the relevant permissions, you can:

Clear your search criteria and result by pressing the Clear button.
Create a new business unit by pressing the New button.
View the details of a business unit by selecting its row in the table and pressing the Details button, or simply double-clicking the row.
Duplicate a business unit by selecting its row and pressing the Duplicate button. This is a quick way of creating a new business unit if most of its properties are the same as an existing business unit. The new business unit will be an identical copy of the selected business unit, except that the word 'Copy' is appended to its name.
Delete a business unit by selecting its row and pressing the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm this operation.

When you create/duplicate a business unit or view the details of an existing business unit, the business unit is added to the navigation tree, as a child of the Business Units node.

Provided that you have business unit edit permission, you can change the BU Name. No two business units are allowed to have the same name.

Security Groups

When you select the Security Groups node, a search screen is displayed. You can search for a group using Group Name, or Status. If you leave these blank, a wild-card search is performed, which will return all groups. Press Find to perform your search. The search result is displayed in the table below the search criteria.

Provided that you have the relevant permissions, you can:

Clear your search criteria and result by pressing the Clear button.
Create a new group by pressing the New button.
View the details of a group by selecting its row in the table and pressing the Details button, or simply double-clicking the row.
Duplicate a group by selecting its row and pressing the Duplicate button. This is a quick way of creating a new group if most of its properties are the same as an existing group. The new group will be an identical copy of the selected group, except that the word 'Copy' is appended to its name.
Delete a group by selecting its row and pressing the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm this operation.

When you create/duplicate a group or view the details of an existing group, the group is added to the navigation tree, as a child of the Security Groups node.

Provided that you have security group edit permission, you can:

Change the Group Name. No two groups are allowed to have the same name.
Toggle the Can Access Users in Same BU check box. When ticked, a user in this group will be able to view information (e.g., user activity records) for other users in the same business unit. This is useful for team leaders and managers, who need to supervise their staff.
Specify a date in the Expires On field. After this date, the group users are prevented from accessing the system. To remove the expiry date, simply delete the contents of this field.
Disable the group by pressing the Disable button. The group users are prevented from accessing the system. For a disabled group, this button is called Enable; pressing it will enable the group. The Status field shows the enabled/disabled status of the group.

The Predefined check box is ticked if the group is predefined by POMS. Predefined groups are not deletable. The Created By field shows the name of the user who has created this group (or 'SYSTEM' if the group is predefined). The Created On field shows the date on which the group was created.

The Group Permissions tab lists the POMS modules and a list of possible permissions for each module. Only those permissions that are ticked are available to the group users. The permission types are:

The View permission allows a user to view a module's objects as read-only.
The Create/Edit permission allows a user to create new objects in a module, and to edit a module's objects.
The Unlock permission allows a user to unlock a module's object that has been locked by another user. Unlock implies Create/Edit permission.
The Delete permission allows a user to delete a module's objects. Delete implies Create/Edit permission.
The Close permission allows a user to close a module's objects. Close implies Create/Edit permission.

For security reasons, the following restrictions are enforced:

The Business Units, Security Groups, and Users modules only offer View permission. The remaining permissions are only available to the SysAdmin group.
The SysAdmin group is read-only and cannot be changed by anyone.
A predefined group cannot be deleted.

The predefined SysAdmin group has these unique privileges:

Can search projects, test cases, issues, and risks across any business unit.
Can change the business unit of a project.
Can view user activity records for any user.

Three button are provided to make it easy to configure the permissions tab. Pressing Tick All will tick every enabled check box. Pressing Untick All will clear all enabled check boxes. Pressing View Only will tick all View check boxes and clear the rest.

The Notes tab can be used to record arbitrary textual information about the group.

Users

When you select the Users node, a search screen is displayed. You can search for a user using Full Name, Username, Status, Business Unit, Security Group, or Job Title. If you leave these blank, a wild-card search is performed, which will return all users. Press Find to perform your search. The search result is displayed in the table below the search criteria.

Provided that you have the relevant permissions, you can:

Clear your search criteria and result by pressing the Clear button.
Create a new user by pressing the New button.
View the details of a user by selecting its row in the table and pressing the Details button, or simply double-clicking the row.
Delete a user by selecting its row and pressing the Delete button. You will be asked to confirm this operation.

When you create a new user or view the details of an existing user, the user is added to the navigation tree, as a child of the Users node.

Provided that you have user edit permission, you can:

Specify the user's Username. This is the name the user will use for logging into the system. No two users are allowed to have the same username.
Specify the user's Full Name, Email, Telephone, Other (telephone), Job Title, Employment Mode, Employer, Business Unit, Security Group, Calendar, and Daily Cost.
Specify a date in the Expires On field. After this date, the user is prevented from accessing the system. To remove the expiry date, simply delete the contents of this field.
Disable the user by pressing the Disable button. The user is prevented from accessing the system. For a disabled user, this button is called Enable; pressing it will enable the user. The Status field shows the enabled/disabled status of the user.
Reset the password for user account by pressing the Reset Password button. You will be asked to confirm this operation. The new password is displayed in an alert box. The next time the user logs in, s/he is prompted to change their password.
Send the user details to the user in an email by pressing the Email Details button.

The Created By field shows the name of the user who has created this user (or 'SYSTEM' if the user is predefined). The Created On field shows the date on which the user was created.

The Job Title and Employment Mode buttons allow you to configure the associated pick lists.

The Group button allows you to drill down and view/edit the security group details. The group permission are also displayed as read-only in the Group Permissions tab, below User Details.

The Calendar button allows you to drill down and view/edit the calendar details.

The Work Calendar tab shows the nominated calendar. Work days appear in blue and holidays in red (as defined by the centrally-stored calendar).

You can overlay information about this user's work pattern on the calendar by clicking on a day. Such information is only stored for the user and does not affect the centrally-stored calendar.

Clicking on a work day will mark it as annual leave day.
Clicking on a holiday or annual leave day will mark it as work day.

In a multi-year calendar, you can move to another year by choosing it from the drop-down list above the calendar, or pressing the two buttons on either side of it.

The Project Allocation tab can be used to view as a pie chart the allocation of a user to various projects for a given time period.

The Notes tab can be used to record arbitrary textual information about the user.

The Project Management module uses the Work Calendar and Daily Cost fields for planning purposes. The Work Calendar is used by the system when scheduling tasks, to ensure that the user is utilized only during their work days. The Daily Cost data is used by the system for project accounting purposes. If no daily cost is specified for a user, then a default cost (as specified in System Options) is used. The number of work hours per day is also defined in System Options.

When in the user search screen, you can generate a report for the displayed users by pressing the Generate Report button in the application toolbar. The default Users Project Allocation report displays for each user in the search result, their allocation to various projects as a pie chart.

The predefined admin user belongs to the SysAdmin security group, and has the widest privileges in the system, including:

Changing POMS license details.
Deleting submitted timesheets.
Editing business units, security groups, and users.
Viewing all user activity records in the system.

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