Key concepts

Important

Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation has evolved into Dynamics 365 Project Operations. For more information, see Project Service Automation Transition.

Applies to Project Service app version 3.x

The following table defines key concepts that are used in the Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation app.

Concept	Definition
Project team member	As part of the project team, a project team member can be a named resource that has bookings, a named resource that doesn't have bookings, or a generic resource. Generic resources don't have bookings, are local to the project, and don't have capacity constraints across projects.
Project generic resource	A resource placeholder that lets you form a team and staff a project plan without having to know the named resource. The project calendar is used as the generic resource's calendar. Generic resources can be added to a project team and assigned to tasks.
Booked hours	Resource hours are hard-booked against a project to help guarantee that the project work is completed. Booked hours are consumed from the resource's overall capacity. Bookings are against named resources only, not against generic resources.
Assigned hours	Resource hours are assigned to tasks in the project schedule. Assignments can be against either named resources or generic resources. Assignments can be independent of bookings.
Required hours	The capacity that is required, but that isn't yet fulfilled by a named resource. Required hours are relevant only for generic team members that have generated resource requirements.
Demand	The current and incoming workload. In Project Service Automation, demand is shown as resource requirements or resource requests.
Resource requirement	An entity that is used to capture required hours, start and end dates, skills, geography, and other pricing dimensions for the required resources. Resource requirements are either generated from project team members or individually created.
Resource request	An entity that is used as an "envelope" to carry the resource requirement that must be fulfilled by a resource manager.
Resource default role	The role that a resource is grouped under for utilization calculation. The resource is assumed to have the required skills for the role and to meet the target utilization for that role.
Resource organization unit	The organizational unit that a resource is assigned to.
Contour	Task, requirement, or assignment hours as they are broken down into a daily distribution. For example, a five-day, 40-hour task can be contoured into eight hours per day over five days.
Reconciliation view	A view that shows the bookings and assignments for each project team member. This view lets the project manager look for any mismatch between bookings and assignments, and to take corrective action if any mismatch occurs.
Work hours	An entity that is used to identify resource capacity, and working and non-working hours. This entity is also referred to as the resource calendar.