Capacity planning of resources

• US 20050222884A1
• Filed: 03/31/2004
• Published: 10/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP SE
• Inventors: Beuter, Hans-Georg, Magel, Achim, Ehret, Ralf, Bold, Andreas
• Application Number:
  US10/815,131
• Publication Number:
  US 20050222884A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling

Abstract

Some implementations provide a resource planning system for receiving a first scheduling request for a resource'"'"'s time. This first scheduling request may include a date range and the estimated amount of time needed from the resource, but does not necessarily include concrete date and time facts. This first scheduling request may be refined by a second scheduling request, which specifies concrete date and time facts to schedule a portion of the resource'"'"'s time that was originally requested by the first scheduling request.

Claims

1. A method of scheduling use of a resource, the method comprising:

receiving a first scheduling request for a resource, the first scheduling request specifying that the resource is to be scheduled for a requested amount of time sometime within a requested time period, the requested amount of time being less than a maximum time amount that the resource is available during the requested time period;

receiving a second scheduling request for the resource that refines the first scheduling request, the second scheduling request specifying that a portion of the requested amount of time is to be scheduled in a specific time slot within the requested time period;

scheduling in an electronic schedule the portion of the requested amount of time in the specific time slot; and

scheduling in the electronic schedule a remaining portion of the requested amount of time within the requested time period except within the specific time slot.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the resource is a person that provides a service requested by the first scheduling request.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first scheduling request specifies that the person is to be scheduled for a predetermined number of hours within the requested time period that includes a specific date range.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the second scheduling request refines the first scheduling request by requesting that a portion of the predetermined number of hours from the first scheduling request is to be scheduled for the specific time slot on a specific date within the date range.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first scheduling request specifies that the resource is to be scheduled for a predetermined number of hours within the requested time period that includes a specific date range.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second scheduling request refines the first scheduling request by requesting that a portion of the predetermined number of hours from the first scheduling request is to be scheduled for the specific time slot on a specific date within the date range.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein scheduling in the electronic schedule is done to determine a utilization of the resource.

8. A computer program product tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the computer program product including instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform operations comprising:

receive a first scheduling request for a resource, the first scheduling request specifying that the resource is to be scheduled for a requested amount of time sometime within a requested time period, the requested amount of time being less than a maximum time amount that the resource is available during the requested time period;

receive a second scheduling request for the resource that refines the first scheduling request, the second scheduling request specifying that a portion of the requested amount of time is to be scheduled in a specific time slot within the requested time period;

schedule in an electronic schedule the portion of the requested amount of time in the specific time slot; and

schedule in the electronic schedule a remaining portion of the requested amount of time within the requested time period except within the specific time.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the executable instructions, when executed, further cause the resource planning application to receive all time slots in which the resource is available within the requested time period.