Creating assignments and PWA

[Inquisit1]

Hello good community!

The nature of our projects make it very difficult to foresee who will be
working on what task until that task is ready to start. Ideally, because of
this we would like to be able to create our timelines with tasks in place
without any assignments ahead of time. Once the project is published and
resources are ready to start work, they will be given their assignments by
their direct supervisor (resource manager). We'd also like them to be able
to do this from PWA. From my research and experience, this is not as easy as
it is said.

There does not seem to be a way for Resource Managers to make these
assignments unless it is through the "Build Team" feature, in which case
there has to already be a generic assignment that can be "replaced" with an
actual resource. This method also does not allow a resource manager to
assign multiple resources to one task.

I guess what I'm asking can be done either through MS Office Project 2007,
or resources can use the "New Task" creation method, but neither of these
seem to be good solutions for us.

We have thought about having a 'generic' resource for each 'actual' that our
PM's can use for initial assignments, and once a task is ready to start the
resource manager can replace the generic with the actual (whomever that ends
up being), but this assumes the PM's know how many resources will be needed
for each task, and this isn't always known.

Is there a way to do what I'm asking, or a 'best practice' for handling
assignments in this way? Is project even intended to allow assignments
on-the-fly like this?

Please let me know if I need to clarify anything that I'm trying to do, but
otherwise I appreciate any suggestions, and thanks in advance!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Inquisit1 --

As you now know, Project Server 2007 limits your resource managers to
building the team for a project using the Build Team functionality on the
Project Center page in PWA. In many organizations, this functionality
satisfies the organization's need, which is for resource managers to provide
the resources for the project, while it is the project manager's job to
assign the resources to the individual tasks.

In your case, however, your resource managers have a greater responsibility
of both staffing the project AND assigning resources to tasks. Because of
this, you need to give each of your resource managers a licensed copy of
Microsoft Project 2007 and you should add them to the Project Managers group
in PWA. Then, they will need to use the Build Team dialog in Microsoft
Project 2007 to staff the project and they can use either the Task Entry
view or the Assign Resources dialog to assign resources to tasks. To apply
the Task Entry view, by the way, your resource managers should initially
display the Gantt Chart view and then click Window - Split. This split
screen arrangement is formally called the Task Entry view, and it gives them
the most control over the assignment process.

Hope this helps.

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

The kicker with your request is that you want them to basically create new
assignments in PWA without creating new tasks. That's not possible to the
best of my knowledge.

As I think you have figured out already, If you have multiple generic assignments,
or multiple tasks assigned to a Team, you could accomplish what you're looking
for - but you still won't be able to duplicate or split out assignments.

My recommendation is to figure out how many resources you'll need up front,
then create that many generic resources and use them on a project (i.e. Developer
1, Developer 2, etc.)

It doesn't really meet your needs, but have you checked out the Project Server
Team Assignment functionality? That may give you some ideas to play with:

http://projectserver201.blogspot.com/2007/11/create-and-use-team-resource-in-project.html



- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm

 

[Inquisit1]

Dale, I thank you for your suggestions!

That is what I figured, but was hoping there was something I was
overlooking. I think our executives, and namely the PM's, would prefer that
the RM's not have a copy of Project 2007 for several reasons.

At this point I'm going to push for the following:

1. PM creates a timeline with tasks, no resources.

2. RMs get a copy of timeline and "Build Team" of resources that will be
needed for the project

3. Resource is verbally told by RM to do a task on the timeline

4. Resource assigns themselves the task via "New -> Task" with "assign
existing task" option

5. Resource begins work on task and is able to record time on timesheet

6. PM approves the task assignment and publishes the project.


I must admit I am inexperienced with project management, so if anyone has
some suggestions to improve this workflow, please interject!

 

[Inquisit1]

Andrew,

Thank you for the help...I've looked into using Team Tasks before, and I'm
not sure we want to use them simply because it still doesn't allow multiple
resources to self-assign the task unless you have multiple 'Teams' assigned
to that task.

See my reply above for the solution I will be going for...if you have any
suggestions for improving it, please let me know. Thanks again.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Inquisit1 --

My immediate reaction is that your process is too complicated, and depends
too heavily on the resources who will actually work on tasks in the project.
What will you do if the team members don't play ball with you and
self-assign themselves to tasks? A better process, in my opinion, would be
this:

1. PM creates the project and builds a team of Generic resources only.
2. PM assigns the Generic resources to tasks.
3. RM uses the Build Team feature in PWA to add human to the project team
who have the same skills as the Generic resources.
4. PM replaces Generic resources on a task by task basis with human
resources provided by the RM.
5. PM republishes the project so that team members can begin working on
their assigned tasks.

What I have detailed above is similar to the process that many companies use
for staffing a project when an RM must be involved. Just a thought. Hope
this helps.

 

[Inquisit1]

Dale,

Thanks again for you response...

I decided to simplify the process, which actually turns out to be pretty
much what you have mentioned here:

1. PM creates a timeline with tasks AND generic resources.
2. RMs get a copy of timeline and "Build Team" of resources, replacing the
generic ones
3. Resource is verbally told (or otherwise) by RM to do a task on the
timeline
4. Resource begins work on task and is able to record time on timesheet

With the "Replace" function for the "Build Team", wouldn't that essentially
combine your steps 3 & 4 into my step 2?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Inquisit1 --

No, the Replace function in the Build Team dialog would NOT replace steps #3
and #4 in my process. The Replace function in the dialog is GLOBAL in
nature and replaces the Generic resource with the human resource on every
task. In your original post, didn't you say that this was NOT what you
wanted to do? That is why I recommended the RMs use the PWA Build Team tool
to determine what types of human resources are needed in a project, based on
the Generic resources chosen by the PM, and then the RM only adds the
necessary humans to the project team. This allows the PM to replace
Generics with humans on a task by task basis, which gives greater control
over the assignment process to the PM. Hope this helps.

 

[Inquisit1]

Dale,

I guess I have been going back and forth between using the "replace"
function...although now I understand better what you meant by having the RMs
just add the resources to the project and THEN having the PMs assign on task
by task basis, and that makes a lot of sense for what I think we want.

I'm going to see what our PMs think about this, and I assume this will work
even better if we establish 'skills' for our resources (something we have not
yet done)?

Very much thanks!

--Inquisit1