add resources

[swell estimator]

up until today all the schedules I've done use tasks only. I want to start
using resources. I've been reading the online help on this subject and I
find it confusing.

Can you talk me through a simple way to get started with resources?

Here's what I have in mind. One task in the project is carpentry, 40 days
duration. I want to assign a foreman, carpenter and laborer to this task. I
also want to notify these 3 workers ahead of time that they need to be on
this project on a certain date and I want the schedule to prompt the project
manager when he should give these workers this information.

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

You're aiming for deluxe level collaboration and you're not walking yet!! I
would keep things simple.

1) 40d duration is nearly 2 months: it's way too long. I strongly recommend
breaking this task down to the blocks of work the carpenters need to do,
otherwise it might not be until it is too late that you realize the
carpenters are way behind schedule. "Best practices" suggest that 2w is the
longest duration.

2) learn to assign Resource realistically: a foreman is unlikely to spend
40h/week on a carpentry task as they have the rest of the site to supervise
as well, so learn to apply the foreman at 10% (4h/week) or 5% (2h/week)
units (whichever is more likely). Now you can look at total resource needs
and have confidence in the results.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[DavidC]

Hi swell,

First simply assign the resources to the task by typing in their job title
in the resources pane of the task entry panel. Then you need to allocate the
percentage of their time that they will spend on that task. The foreman is
unlikley to spend 100% of his time on the job as I suspect he/she will have
more than one job or activity to monitor, I suspect both the labourer and he
carpenter will be 100% on the job. This allocation then goes into the units
column either as a percentage or a decimal of 1 unit. If you have more than
one person required for the job then allocate the number you need.

Make sure that you have enough available resources though for the project so
if you allocate 3 carpenters then make sure you have at least 3 carpenters
available for the project. This is allocated in the resource sheet view.

The other aspect to think about is will the job take less time with more
resources, if not then make sure that you select fixed duration and untick
"effort driven", else aas you add resources then Project will try and
recalculate the duration as more resources are added.

Hope this helps to get started.

Regards

DavidC

 

[JulieS]

Hi DavidC,

Pardon me for bumping in, but I think you may be muddling
effort-driven and fixed duration a bit. If the OP wants to be able
to add additional resources to the task and have the total amount of
work on the task stay the same, the task needs to be effort driven.
If you add additional to an effort-driven fixed work or
effort-driven fixed units task, the duration will decrease because
the total amount of work will stay stable (effort-driven) and you
are increasing assignment units. If you add additional resources to
an effort-driven fixed duration task, the total work will stay the
same (effort-driven) and the assignment units will change for each
resource added.

If the OP wants to add additional resources and increase the amount
of work for each resource added, the task needs to be non-effort
driven. In both fixed duration and fixed units, non-effort driven
tasks, the total amount of work increases. In neither circumstance
does project change duration.

Task type (fixed duration, fixed work, or fixed units) primarily
determines what one of the 3 variables (work, duration, or units)
remains stable should you alter the another variable.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

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