How to Create Interfaces with Meisterplan REST API Tool (Part 1)

It is great that you are interested in the topic of interfaces with Meisterplan. Through this article, you will be able to significantly simplify the maintenance of your data in your entire system landscape.

If you already know the benefits of using interfaces, feel free to go directly to Part 2 of this article. In Part 2, not only will you learn how Meisterplan supports you with Interfaces, but also get practical examples of how to use the Meisterplan REST API.

An Overview of the Most Important Points from Part 1:

• Although automated interfaces cannot create better data, they prevent transmission errors, reduce the effort of recurring data imports, and ensure data is available on time.
• Important data relating to projects, resources, and time recording can be easily updated on a daily basis through interfaces.
• By using interfaces, you can use your capacity for more critical tasks and in turn avoid idle time.

The Benefit of Interfaces

From a business perspective, it is crucial in portfolio and resource management to have the right information in the right place and at the right time, in this case in Meisterplan.

When you initially collected information on capacities and requirements, you first looked within your organization at where the information could be found. During this process, you may have found the information was scattered in a variety of places and stored in various formats with different levels of detail. Once you collected the information, you first assessed the data, then revised it, consolidated it, and put it into a form that was acceptable to all stakeholders.

Once this was completed, you could import the first data into Meisterplan using the Quick Import Feature. It provides a possibility to review, validate, and if necessary, correct the data before importing it which is a valuable step, especially in the initial phase.

Now your first import is completed!

The first insights were gained, and well-rounded decisions that are supported by the team have been made. For many of our customers, this is an important milestone and achieving it proves the added value of Meisterplan for the first time.

If you have established the process of data collection over time, then you have achieved a stable and regular operation, and reached the next milestone in the process. Officially, the Meisterplan implementation project is often over at this point, and project capacities are reduced. As the routine sets in, the momentum may be lost, so now it is important to be focused and start optimizing the data flow.

By automating the flow of data through interfaces, it can create the following benefits:

Availability
The transfer of data in Meisterplan is no longer dependent on individual persons as physical and monotonous work is eliminated.

Timeliness
Data is available “just in time” and can be processed at any time of the day or night. The volume of data plays a minimal role.

Elimination of Errors
Human errors can occur when manually preparing the data to be imported. On the other hand, an automatic interface always processes the data from the source systems in the same way with consistent quality which develops data trust.

Extensibility and Independence
Once you have created the first automatic interface, you can then connect to additional systems. The “technology” entry hurdle has been cleared and the respective department remains in control.

Relief
You have the time to use your capacity for tasks that cannot be automated since the right data is now automatically available in the right place at the right time.

Use Cases

There are many use cases where automated interfaces are worthwhile. The following are the ones that our customers bring to our attention most frequently:

Importing Resource Pool Data
Make sure that your employee data is collected from your HR software so that you are always aware of all available resources. As this is the source, where the entry and exit of all employees are guaranteed to be maintained.

Import Employee Absences
The HR software enables organizations to understand the capacities of their projects by importing all employee work schedules and absences. Absences due to vacation, illness, or other reasons are always known to HR first. It is vital for organizations to have this information up to date.

Import New Projects
Import new ideas and project proposals from online databases to inform the decision-making board about the benefits, effort, and prioritization criteria. For example, sales opportunities that are ready to close should be included early in the capacity planning process in order to make reliable deadline commitments.

Update On-Going Projects
Use current project master data from the operational project management systems and run through possible solution scenarios. This gives you an overview of the most important project details, as well as any postponements and delays, without having to search for the data.

Import Allocations
Retrieve resource requirements since together with capacities, resource requirements are the central working data in Meisterplan. Depending on the size of your organization, these can come from a wide variety of source systems.

Import Actuals Time Worked
Compare plan vs actuals by importing the actual time worked to complete a project and use this to learn from the deviations from planned allocations. This way you get into a dynamic resource planning process.

Prerequisites

As expected, there are prerequisites that must be met before creating automated interfaces, some of which are listed below:

Defined Data Flow 
It must be clear where the data comes from and where it should flow into Meisterplan.

Available Technology 
The source systems offer technologies to retrieve the data or provide the data in an automated way.

Data Protection 
Data may be processed in an automated manner. Employee and capacity data are personal data, and their processing is subject to legal restrictions.

Functioning Data Maintenance Process 
The data in the source systems are validated and “released” for transfer. This is particularly important for demand and capacity data, as they are often prepared for a key date.

Another Perspective on Data Quality

Another personal note on data quality:

An automated interface can only maintain the data quality as it exists in the source systems, but it cannot create better data. The quality of the data must already be considered and improved in the upstream processes and the source systems.

The technical improvement of the data can be achieved via an interface if it is not designed as a mere transmission medium of data. When data comes from different sources, for example, different kinds of data can be made uniform. Within the scope of validation according to predefined rules, faulty data can be detected and reported.

Part 2 of Easily Create Interfaces with the Meisterplan REST API Tool