What are conflicts?
In many organizations, requests for time off are often approved by HR or team leads, and often without explicit involvement of the project managers running the projects the people are on. This creates a problem where someone might have approved time off but still has scheduled workload.
To fix these, the specific circumstances and outcome may differ on a case-by-case basis. Perhaps the project manager reschedules the conflicting assignment, or maybe the time off may need to be moved if the project is crucial.
In Runn, conflicts are created when assignments overlap with time offs and vice-versa. Runn flags all conflicts so you know it's something you need to address and discuss with the relevant people. You can spot conflicts by the yellow warning sign icon on the time offs, assignments and people where conflicts are present.
How Runn prevents conflicts
When time off is already scheduled, Runn will prevent assignments from being scheduled to overlap with it.
New assignments cannot be scheduled over the time off
Existing assignments cannot be dragged over the time off
Resolving conflicts
There are some situations where conflicts will still get created:
When time off is added over existing assignments
A project is rescheduled, and the new assignment dates are pushed into conflict with existing time off
An assignment is created via the API with dates that conflict with existing time off
When resolving conflicts, Runn gives priority to time off. This means you'll be directed to delete assignments rather than deleting time off. However, you can still delete time off.
To resolve conflicts quickly in Runn, you can go to two places. Let's take a look at how they work...
1. The context menu for a conflicting time off
When you click “Delete assignment conflict(s)” on time off with a conflict, all the conflicting assignments will be split if necessary, and their conflicting pieces will be deleted. This will leave the time off in a new, non-conflicted state.
2. A person's row on the People Planner (recommended if a person has multiple conflicts to resolve)
You'll see a yellow warning sign in the left column for any person that has conflicts, right beside their name.
Not many of us like deleting things we can’t see, so this new menu offers the option to "Jump to next conflict". This lets you see the future time off conflicts and provides some context around what assignments might be deleted if you resolve the conflicts.
Choose “Delete all assignment conflicts” to resolve all of a person's conflicts at once.
Let us know what you think!
Assignment conflicts are largely unavoidable, even when managing just a team. We hope this makes dealing with them easy and streamlined. We’re love to hear your feedback!
Still have questions? We're happy to help!