Overview

This week, our release is all about bringing Roles together and splitting them apart!  We know that even the best shaped Plans are going to change over time, and with Roles, this is especially true.  For example, similar Roles may have been envisioned as separate, but now need to be grouped together.  Other times, you may need to replace a resource mid-Project. Still other times, it may become clear that work that was originally envisioned as part of one Offering needs to be tracked as an entirely new Offering.  

All three of these scenarios are challenges this release is intended to address through three new features: Role Association, Role Splitting and Offering Splitting.

What is Role Association?

Simply put, Role Association is a way of connecting otherwise separate Project Roles of the same type in order to indicate that they represent a single thread of work spread across multiple separate People in that share the same Role.  The most obvious application of this is when you've scoped work for multiple separate People and want to cascade that work from person to person to person - by associating them together, you can group them visually to indicate that they represent a single unit, distinct from other Roles of the same type on the same Offering.

How Does Role Association work?

An important guideline is that only Project Roles of the same type (i.e. with the same Role Name*) can be associated with one another. Once you've got two of the same Role added to the Project, simply:

1. Hover over the "parent" Role you want to add to, and select the "Associate Role(s)" option from the "..." menu.
2. Check the box next to each Role of the same Name you'd like to Associate and click "Confirm".
3. These Roles will now be connected by a a line running through all Associated Roles.

This Association treats these Roles as a single Unit that will be kept together, indicating that they are linked and should be treated as separate Employees filling one Role. In this case, I've used Role Association to indicate that Anders is being swapped out for Andrew on the Tester 1 Role. As I move Andrew up or down within the shape, Anders moves as well.

How do I Disassociate Role?

As with anything, Role Association needs to be reversible - whether to pivot or to correct an error. To do this, simply hover over either Role and select the 'Remove Association' option.

What is Role Splitting?

Role Splitting represents a quick, easy way to separate one Role into multiple Roles. This is incredibly useful for instances where you need to replace a Person mid-Project. You don't want to remove them from the Project entirely, you simply want to create a point in time after which the Role is taken over by another Person.

How does Role Splitting work?

Think of Role Splitting as happening after a specific point in time that you choose - as such, you complete Role Splitting within the Shaper Cells themselves, rather than the left-hand columns.  Simply:

1. Find the Cell for the Day/Week/Month you want to split the Role on.
2. Right-Click on it and select "Split Role" from the dropdown.
3. All Cells from the one selected forward will be added to a new Role of the same Name.

This allows you to quickly break up Roles or pivot when you need to quickly replace a Person mid-Project without changing the future Allocations that were assigned. The new Role will automatically start out Associated to the original Role that it was split off - but you can always Disassociate it, if you need to retroactively remove this association.