What is Resource Guru?
Resource Guru is a scheduling and project management application. We use it to schedule consultants on penetration tests and other projects. We also use it for time management, to make sure consultants aren’t overwhelmed, and see how long we spend on projects.
We’ve come up with some tips and suggestions and some guides for how to use Resource Guru.
Hours in the day
Resource Guru shows a 9am to 5pm work day. Of course, that doesn’t mean you must work those specific hours. We are results driven, so it’s up to you to decide when to work (taking client expectations into account).
Whenever you’re booking something as a full-day task, make sure its length is 8 hours (or more if you’re doing overtime).
Projects
Bookings for projects can be 1 of 3 types. Confirmed projects, where the client has accepted the proposal and confirmed the booked time; Unconfirmed projects, where the client has accepted the proposal but has not yet confirmed the booked time; and tentative bookings, where they’ve asked for a time before they accept
Confirmed projects
When booking a new project, keep the following things in mind.
- Make sure you’re booking “duration” and it’s 8 hours.
- This is a confirmed project so we select Confirmed.
- Choose a project to assign this booking to. The project should already exist in Resource Guru.
- This is Billable work.
- Feel free to put whatever you want in Details. Anything that might help the consultant. At minimum, add what part of the project they are doing.
A word on accuracy 🎯
Try to keep the booking as accurate to real events as possible. If you’re doing extra (overflow) days, add them in. You should also make retrospective changes when necessary to keep things accurate.
You don’t need to go overboard, though; These aren’t timesheets 🤮. As a suggestion, your booked blocks should be at least 4 hours, but typically it will be 8 hours (whole day).
Unconfirmed projects
Sometimes, a proposal will be accepted by the client but they haven’t indicated when they would like the work to start. In this case, book the project as if it were a Confirmed Project but select it as Tentative.
Once the client has given the confirmation, you can simply toggle it to Confirmed.
Tentative bookings
This is similar to confirmed projects with a few tweaks.
- Tentative booking, so we choose Tentative.
- We leave the Project/Client field blank since there’s no actual project yet.
- It is Billable.
- In the Details, we put the name of the project in regular syntax of Client - Optional End Client - Project Description.
If the client ends up accepting the proposal, edit the booking and add the new project (which should be automatically created from Trello).
Non-billable
Sure, we all love hacking, but everyone needs a break from time to time, or a day to catch up. Also, we encourage taking the time for study and training. Non-billable is everything work related that isn’t a client project.
You can book yourself on non-billable to block out those days, but let your manager know in advance. We have some existing projects to use, and will keep adding them as needed.
- Business excellence should be used when you’re doing Volkis related things, but they are not billable to a client. E.g. Coding a new script, writing a blog post, adding to a Handbook page.
- Training/Study is used for when you are improving your skills. E.g. Taking a course or exam, reading a whitepaper/blog post, messing around in a lab/CTF, doing research, shadowing someone else on a job, for presentation days, and conferences.
- Everything else can just be added without an associated project.
Time off
Step away from work every now and then. Time off is any time you don’t want to think about work and just want (or need) to relax/recover. This includes personal leave, sick leave, public holidays and more. Choose the one that fits best.
Overtime
Your Resource Guru schedule should be a reflection of what you did and what you plan on doing. So, overtime should be added to your schedule, including after hours and weekends.