Assigning Task to individuals

[Ray W]

Hello I am a novice user to Project 2003, and I want to assign task to
people within my company address book. What is the correct fieild to use to
do this. And once I assign the task to them will they automatically recieve
an email that a task has been assigned to them.

(ex I need Bill B to train 6 reps, as soon as training is complete I need
Will G to begin testing the reps on the information.

How do I assign and what field header or column do I use to assign the
training to Bill B, and testing to Will G from my address book, and lastly is
there a way they can tell me there task are completed without having Project,
maybe via outlook.


Please let me know,m thanks Ray
919.812.3733

 

[JulieS]

Hi Ray,

You can add people from your company address book fairly easily.
Switch to the Resource Sheet view through View > Resource Sheet.
Once in the Resource Sheet view, choose Insert > New Resource From >
Address Book.

That will copy selected resource names and email addresses to the
Resource Sheet. You'll want to add additional information as needed
such as Maximum Units and Standard and Overtime rate. Copying
people from the address book does *not* bring over their calendars,
so you'll need to edit the resource calendars as needed to add
non-working time in addition to the company wide holidays you've
entered in the project calendar.

Once you've set your resources correctly, you need to assign the
specific resources to the tasks. I personally use the Gantt Chart
view with the Task Form showing in the lower pane. Return to the
Gantt chart view through View > Gantt chart and then choose Window >
Split to show the Task Pane at the bottom.

To assign resources, select the task in the top and click under the
Resource Name area in the lower pane to show a list of the resources
you've added to the Resource Sheet. Enter units or work as needed,
and click OK to make the assignment.

Unless you are using Project 2003 with Project Server, there is no
direct method of communicating from Project to Outlook. As the
project manager, you'll need to communicate the assignments to your
resources and get regular status updates from them. You'll then
need to update the project schedule with that information.

As you're new to Project, I suggest taking a read of fellow MVP Mike
Glen's excellent series of tutorials on MS Project. You'll find a
link to Mike's tutorials at:

http://project.mvps.org/mike's_tutorials.htm

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

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Ray W]

Yes Julie tihs is a helpful.
Thank You
I now realize that I need a definition of terms, of views, and column
definitions. do you know if there is a video tutoral of Project 101 tips that
I can watch. I saw the book resource on the the MVP website do you have any
recommendations?

The funny part of this all is I created an example project and I was
wondering why things weren't working the way I expected them to and I realize
I have the wrong
column definition types everywhere. lol
Please let me know.
Thanks Julie

 

[JulieS]

Hello Ray,

In addition to Mike's tutorials, there are three quick videos on
Project 2003. You can find them at:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR061832711033.aspx

I believe there are more free videos for Project 2007 (newer
release) but not all of the details would apply to 2003. I'd start
with Mike's info and the link above, then explore more into 2007 as
needed.

Feel free to post back here as you need as well.

Julie

 

[Ray W]

Thanks Julie you Rock.

Hello Ray,

In addition to Mike's tutorials, there are three quick videos on
Project 2003. You can find them at:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR061832711033.aspx

I believe there are more free videos for Project 2007 (newer
release) but not all of the details would apply to 2003. I'd start
with Mike's info and the link above, then explore more into 2007 as
needed.

Feel free to post back here as you need as well.

Julie

 

[JulieS]

You're most welcome Ray. Glad to have helped and thanks for the
enthusiastic feedback.