It is likely that the structure of your organization will change over time. Properly setting up the RBS can make it easier for you to adapt the RBS to reflect changes in your organization's structure.

Many larger organizations prefer to use a resource pool integration tool from an external application system, such as the Active Directory directory service, to automatically populate the Enterprise Resource Pool and automatically assign RBS codes to resources based on the organization defined by the enterprise resource management system. Organizations that do not use an automated enterprise resource management system will find it more challenging to modify and update the RBS.

If your organization does not have an automated enterprise resource management system, it is critical that you set up and maintain the RBS in a manner that minimizes the long-term administrative burden.

Changing RBS Code Values

When the structure of your organization changes and you do not use an automatic enterprise resource management system, it is best to use a method that requires minimal administrative overhead to change the code values. If possible, use one of the following methods to update RBS code values:

• Rename existing RBS codes. If, for example, a manager leaves and is replaced, or a department name changes, but the new manager or department performs the same function, you can rename the RBS value that represents that person or department. The name change for this RBS value is immediately made to all associated resources.
• Keep the same RBS code and simply indent or out-dent the value. The value of the RBS change will affect all resources in the Enterprise Resource Pool when you use this approach.
• Use the Project Data Service (PDS) to manipulate Enterprise Resource Outline Code values. It is easier to use the PDS to reorganize an outline than it is to use the Enterprise Global Template.

   Note   Using the PDS requires support from your organization's IT department because it is a purely programmatic solution and does not have a user interface (UI).

If you cannot use one of these methods to make the organizational change, then you can manually modify the RBS and associate new values with resources.

To manually modify the RBS and associate new values with resources

1. Add the new values that you want to create to the RBS.
2. Open the Enterprise Resource Pool and filter by the resources that have the original value.
3. Apply the new value to the resources, and then save the Enterprise Resource Pool.
4. Remove the original values from the RBS.

If you do not follow these steps, you might need to determine which values to assign to resources in the Enterprise Resource Pool.

Reporting Considerations when Modifying the RBS

When you use RBS to help organize resources and resource data, most reporting is done by means of Portfolio Analyzer. When the RBS is modified, the next build of data for use in Portfolio Analyzer associates all resource-level historical data with the newly updated RBS.