Choosing Planning Attributes for Resource Management<!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: #000000; } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: #000000; } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: black; } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: black; } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: black; } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: #00718F; } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: #024F69; } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: #032D42; } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: #00718f; } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } Executive Summary Planning attributes are the criteria organizations use to request and assign resources. Choosing the right attributes is a foundational decision that shapes how resource management works across the organization. This article explains what planning attributes are, how to choose them, and why the decision matters. What Are Planning Attributes? Planning attributes define how Project Managers request resources and how Resource Managers find and assign them. When a PM creates a resource assignment, the planning attributes determine what criteria they specify - for example, "I need a Developer from the Engineering team" uses Group and Role as planning attributes. ServiceNow provides five out-of-the-box planning attributes: Attribute Description Group The resource group or team Role The job role (e.g., Developer, Business Analyst) Skill Specific skills or competencies Employee Type Internal vs. External (contractor) Expense Type Capex vs. Opex (task-level attribute) Organizations can also create custom planning attributes if their resource planning requires criteria beyond what's available out of the box. Resource Management vs. Financial Planning Attributes An important distinction: Planning attributes for resource management and planning attributes for financials can be configured independently. All financial planning attributes need to be resource attributes. Resource Management attributes determine how resources are requested and assigned. Example: Group + Role - "I need a Developer from the Mobile App team." Financial attributes determine how labor costs are aggregated and reported. Example: Employee Type + Expense Type - Cost plans roll up as "Internal Capex," "External Opex," etc. This separation gives flexibility - the way you organize and assign people doesn't have to match the way Finance wants to see and track costs. However, Employee Profiles must have primary values populated for both sets of attributes. Important dependency: To enable an attribute for financial planning, it must first be enabled for resource management. All financial planning attributes must be resource attributes. For example, if Finance wants to aggregate costs by Employee Type, that attribute must be enabled for resource management even if PMs don't use it when requesting resources. How to Choose Planning Attributes? Before enabling any attributes, the organization must answer a fundamental question: How do we want to request and manage resources? Common patterns: Group + Role - "I need 2 Developers from the Engineering team"Role + Employee Type - "I need an External Contractor in a Business Analyst role" Questions to guide the decision How do PMs think about resource requests today? Do they ask for people by team? By role? The attributes should match how the business naturally thinks about resourcing.What level of specificity do you need? More attributes mean more precise matching, but also more complexity and maintenance overhead.How stable are these categories? Roles tend to be more stable than Groups (teams reorganize frequently). Choosing stable attributes reduces future migration pain.What does Finance need? If Finance requires cost visibility by Employee Type or Expense Type, those attributes must be enabled for financials and populated on Employee Profiles. Best Practice: Keep It Simple While there's no technical limit to how many planning attributes you can enable, the best practice is to use 2-3 attributes. Here's why: Reduced complexity: Fewer attributes mean simpler resource requests and easier matching.Easier maintenance: Every enabled attribute requires a primary value on each Employee Profile. More attributes = more data to maintain.Cleaner capacity planning: Capacity views aggregate by planning attributes. Too many attributes create fragmented, hard-to-read capacity data. Think hard before enabling attributes. The goal is to capture how the business actually works, not to enable everything "just in case." The Lock-In Problem Planning attributes can be changed later, but it gets messy. Once resource assignments exist using certain attributes, changing them creates data integrity challenges: Historical assignments reference the old attribute valuesReports and dashboards may breakActive assignments may need to be migrated Mitigation strategies Invest time upfront: Get sign-off from PM leadership and Finance before enabling attributes.Pilot first: If uncertain, enable attributes for a single business unit or project type. Run for a quarter, gather feedback, then expand.Choose stable attributes: Prefer attributes that won't change with org restructuring. Role is typically more stable than Group.Document decisions: Record why specific attributes were chosen. This helps whoever handles future migrations understand what to preserve. Configuration Steps Once the organization has decided on planning attributes: Navigate to Project Administration > Planning Attributes (or Strategic Planning, if SPW/PPW is installed)Enable the attributes the organization will use for resource managementEnable additional attributes for financial planning (these must already be enabled for resource management)Create custom planning attributes if neededEnsure Employee Profiles have primary values populated for all enabled attributes Summary Planning attributes are not just a technical configuration—they're a business decision about how the organization thinks about and manages its people. Choose attributes that reflect how PMs naturally request resources, keep the list short (2-3 attributes), and invest time upfront to avoid painful migrations later. Remember that financial planning attributes depend on resource management attributes—plan for both use cases together.