Team assignment Polarion configuration

Teams Assignment Capacity introduces a new dynamic way of managing teams in Polarion by defining two new work item types: Team and Team Assignment. Teams are no longer static enums but fully functional work items, allowing users to define assignment periods, individual assignees, and allocation percentages directly at the team level. This approach brings true flexibility, traceability, and clarity into team and resource management.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Polarion solution
• Nextedy solution - Teams Assignment Capacity 
  • Team Capacity Modifiers

Polarion solution

How did we define who is working for a given team before?

We defined for what team a specific work package/task is assigned, but there was a lack of understanding of WHO is working for a given team (because a team is just an Enum).

In Polarion, user allocations could be defined via Administration -> Users -> Time-split Assignments, where a specific user works on a specific project with some defined % of allocation. The downside of this function is that it works for projects, but not for teams.

The questions that you may think of but didn't get an answer to:

• What to do if there are multiple teams per project? 
• How to define the allocation if multiple teams are involved? 
• What if the allocation is changing over time?

In Polarion, the allocation percentage is statically linked to a user per project, so it is not DYNAMIC. 

Nextedy solution - Teams Assignment Capacity 

Nextedy offers a dynamic assignment feature by introducing a new work item type called "Team." This innovation transforms teams into dynamic work items, enhancing their functionality.

We define 2 new WI types: Team and Team Assignment

Teams are no longer simple enumerations, but real work items with all the functionality that they may have. 

Team Work Items can have sub-items -> Team assignments, which can specify the assignment period, assignee, and allocation percentage. 

Configuration

1. In the Administration section, define 2 new Work Item types:  "Team" and "Team Assignment"

2. For the Team Assignment, add 3 custom fields that will hold the assignment period and capacity

3. Create a new Work Item link role: assignment. 

This role will be used to connect the Team and Team assignment WIs.

Note: Ensure that each Team Assignment work item is linked to a parent Team work item. Assignments that are not associated with a parent team will be ignored during calculations.

Example

• Create 3 different Teams: Alpha, Beta, and Gama
• Create Team Assignment child items for each team, using the "assignment" role
• Add Assignee to the newly created Team Assignment

Specify the period and the percentage of the allocation for each specific assignment.

Team Capacity Modifiers

For the Team WI, you may also define so-called Capacity Modifiers, which represent the % of the time the resource/assignee spends on unplanned work (e.g., meetings, e-mails, etc.) or uncertainty (for the work planned in the future). 

Configuration Properties

nextedy.gantt.useTeamCapacityModifiers=true 
nextedy.gantt.capacityModifierAField=capaModA 
nextedy.gantt.capacityModifierBField=capaModB 
nextedy.gantt.capacityModifierBFieldDayLimit=10

• useTeamCapacityModifiers enable team capacity usage.
• capacityModifierAField represents the unplanned work. It points to the name of the custom field that contains capacity modifier A. This modifier is applied to all planned, past, or future tasks and estimates the percentage of time spent on unplanned tasks.
• capacityModifierBField represents the uncertainty of future work. It points to the name of the custom field that contains capacity modifier B. This modifier is only applied to planned tasks that are capacityModifierBFieldDayLimit days or more in the future (i.e., 10 days in the example).
• capacityModifierBFieldDayLimit specifies the threshold after which it capacityModifierBField should be applied. If this has the value of -1 or isn’t assigned, it capacityModifierBField is always used.

You may already see the potential of this functionality, but the data is not easily readable in the standard Polarion view. Therefore, in this article, we will show you how to demonstrate all this data in a user-friendly way using the Nextedy Gantt.

Starting with version 25.5.0, users can now configure which Work Item type ID should be treated as a 'team' and 'teamAssignment' for assignment and resource handling.

This allows greater flexibility for systems that use different IDs for team-related items. Configured via two context properties.

nextedy.gantt.teamWorkItemType=group
nextedy.gantt.teamAssignmentWorkItemType=groupAssignment

See also

• How to setup a Basic Cross Team Gantt: click here
• How to setup a Release Gantt with Teams: click here

For any assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out by submitting a ticket here.