Allocating resources to tasks

[DavidM1L]

Hi, I'm a bit new to MSP 2003 (Pro), so I may have some "conceptual"
problems still with things, but can anyone help me out with this
question?

If I have a bunch of tasks, can I get project automatically to add
resources to them based on some form of work type and skills grouping?
For example, if I have a task called "digging", can I identify that as
"manual labour" so if I then have resource called "Joe" identified as
a "manual labourer" MSP can then automatically add him to the task and
adjust dates etc. if he's free to do it?

I realise resource levelling does some of this, but I'd just like to
check if I can't simply add tasks, tag them, then add resources, tag
them, then hit "allocate these resources to these tasks".

Thanks for any tips.

Dave

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi, I'm a bit new to MSP 2003 (Pro), so I may have some "conceptual"
problems still with things, but can anyone help me out with this
question?

If I have a bunch of tasks, can I get project automatically to add
resources to them based on some form of work type and skills grouping?
For example, if I have a task called "digging", can I identify that as
"manual labour" so if I then have resource called "Joe" identified as
a "manual labourer" MSP can then automatically add him to the task and
adjust dates etc. if he's free to do it?

I realise resource levelling does some of this, but I'd just like to
check if I can't simply add tasks, tag  them, then add resources, tag
them, then hit "allocate these resources to these tasks".

Thanks for any tips.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Project is not that clever on it's own. How could it know that Joe was
the appropriate resource of all the manual workers? However, it's as
quick to assign the correct resource than to enter a flag - so why not
use that? Nevertheless, I'm sure you could do something via vba code.
Please note that this newsgroup is no longer supported by Microsoft,
and I suggest you use their fora where the experts now hang out.

Try posting on the Project Server General Questions and Answers forum:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/projectserver2010general.
Please see FAQ Item: 52 Find a Forum. FAQs, companion products and
other useful Project information can be seen at this web address:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi, I'm a bit new to MSP 2003 (Pro), so I may have some "conceptual"
problems still with things, but can anyone help me out with this
question?

If I have a bunch of tasks, can I get project automatically to add
resources to them based on some form of work type and skills grouping?
For example, if I have a task called "digging", can I identify that as
"manual labour" so if I then have resource called "Joe" identified as
a "manual labourer" MSP can then automatically add him to the task and
adjust dates etc. if he's free to do it?

I realise resource levelling does some of this, but I'd just like to
check if I can't simply add tasks, tag  them, then add resources, tag
them, then hit "allocate these resources to these tasks".

Thanks for any tips.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Project is not that clever on it's own. How could it know that Joe
was
the appropriate resource of all the manual workers? However, it's as
quick to assign the correct resource than to enter a flag - so why
not
use that? Nevertheless, I'm sure you could do something via vba
code.
Please note that this newsgroup is no longer supported by Microsoft,
and I suggest you use their fora where the experts now hang out.

Please see FAQ Item: 52 Find a Forum. FAQs, companion products and
other useful Project information can be seen at this web address:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm


Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Prasad]

Hi Dave,

Project is not that clever on it's own. How could it know that Joe
was
the appropriate resource of all the manual workers? However, it's as
quick to assign the correct resource than to enter a flag - so why
not
use that?  Nevertheless, I'm sure you could do something via vba
code.
Please note that this newsgroup is no longer supported by Microsoft,
and I suggest you use their fora where the experts now hang out.

Please see FAQ Item: 52 Find a Forum.   FAQs, companion products and
other useful Project information can be seen at this web address:http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Mike Glen
Project MVP

Hi Dave,

If you identify skill set for each worker and specify for each task
how many resources you need for each skill (mostly a single resource
for a task), then your scheduling software must assign resources to
tasks automatically and explicitly without resource overloading. Mike
clarified that Project cannot do automatic resource loading while
scheduling tasks as you wanted. He suggested an approach through VBA
code. I certainly see some value in it. However, I would like to offer
another practical approach. If you often face the problem of resource
loading, you can try our scheduling tool which does automatic resource
loading as mentioned above. You can export Project data to an Excel
file and submit the file to our tool. It generates a feasible and
rational schedule for each resource and facilitates fast and extensive
what-if analysis of schedules. I demonstrated this functionality to
Andrew Lavinsky on my laptop during my chat with him at PMI Houston
Conference last week.

Regards,

Prasad Velaga, PhD (Scheduling)
College Station, TX
www.optisol.biz
979-690-8306