Creating resource pool for general contractor.

[David H.]

As scheduling manager for a large GC, I have plenty of experience using MS
Project but have minimal experience resourcing. I am looking for guidance in
creating a resource pool for senior managers to allocate our supervisory
personnel. I will be asking for help in multi-question format and would like
to begin with a quick overview of my new endeavor.

Our company builds multi-family construction projects. We sub-contract all
of the work, providing supervisory personnel for our clients. I make very
elaborate construction schedules that are updated weekly. The heirarchy of
supervisory personnel that would be included in this resource pool isL:
Senior PM, PM, General Superintendent, Superintendent (with 3 levels of
experience), Asst. Supers (depending on scope of project - may include 1-5
per job).

My first question is this: How do I begin creating a resource pool? Is it
better to resource out the individual projects with the project team that is
in place or shall I create a resource pool (which would somehow have to be
structured according to the heirarchy)? Keep in mind that the personnel
would probably be linked to Summary tasks as opposed to individual tasks
which are performed by our subcontrators.

I would like to express my appreciation of any guidance in advance and would
also like to mention that I find this newsgroup to be an invaluable source of
very pertinent information. Thanks.

 

[John]

As scheduling manager for a large GC, I have plenty of experience using MS
Project but have minimal experience resourcing. I am looking for guidance in
creating a resource pool for senior managers to allocate our supervisory
personnel. I will be asking for help in multi-question format and would like
to begin with a quick overview of my new endeavor.

Our company builds multi-family construction projects. We sub-contract all
of the work, providing supervisory personnel for our clients. I make very
elaborate construction schedules that are updated weekly. The heirarchy of
supervisory personnel that would be included in this resource pool isL:
Senior PM, PM, General Superintendent, Superintendent (with 3 levels of
experience), Asst. Supers (depending on scope of project - may include 1-5
per job).

My first question is this: How do I begin creating a resource pool? Is it
better to resource out the individual projects with the project team that is
in place or shall I create a resource pool (which would somehow have to be
structured according to the heirarchy)? Keep in mind that the personnel
would probably be linked to Summary tasks as opposed to individual tasks
which are performed by our subcontrators.

I would like to express my appreciation of any guidance in advance and would
also like to mention that I find this newsgroup to be an invaluable source of
very pertinent information. Thanks.

David,
How should you create a resource pool? It's pretty straightforward
actually. First create a new Project file for the pool. This file will
have no tasks, only resources. You mentioned that you think the pool
should be structured according to hierarchy. I don't understand why. As
far are resources are concerned it doesn't matter what their level in
the company, the differentiation is in, a) their pay rate, and b) the
way they are assigned in the actual plan. Just list each resource by
name and use the appropriate pay rate. If you have some general
supervisors that all have the same pay rate and are basically
interchangeable, you might want to consider creating a supervisor group
instead of listing them individually. For example, let's say you have 5
general supervisors who may be assigned to any one of the units under
construction and/or may work different areas or shifts on a single job.
Name this resource something like, "General Supervisor" and show the Max
Units as 500%.

Since all of the day-to-day effort on the construction project will be
done by subs, the effort for those tasks will most likely be fixed cost
based on subcontractor bids. Therefore the only effort that is actually
assigned is for your management and supervisory personnel. There are
various ways to do that. One way to account for upper level management
and general support (i.e. not specific to any particular project), is to
create a separate file for management and support. Their effort may be
general (i.e. level-of-effort) or it may be task based (e.g. prepare
status reports, etc.). For supervisory effort that is project based
(i.e. hands on day-to-day supervision of the subs), the effort should be
assigned to a supervisor task in each construction project file. In
either case, I recommend you NOT assign any resources to summary lines.
For reference, here is a new FAQ developed by the Project MVPs on that
subject (it is soon to be published in our list of FAQs on our MVP
website at: http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm - but it isn't quite
ready yet - we are in the final review stage).

"FAQ 49 - Summary Task Resources.
It is important to understand that summary tasks in Project are not
productive tasks but rather a visual and data summary of the subtasks
under them. One of the two often asked questions, (FAQ 48 - Summary Task
Linking), about summary tasks is, "can resources be assigned at summary
level"? The simple answer is yes, but doing so is NOT recommended. Why?
Here are some important considerations.

Assigning resources to summary tasks is probably the number one reason
why values in the Cost field do not appear to add up. Summary task
assignments will create double booking if the resource is also assigned
to a subtask. It will cause data to be hidden, causing confusion with
values, because data from subtask fields (e.g. Cost, Work, etc.) is
added to resource data at the summary level.

The one case where a resource assigned to a summary task may be
acceptable is for management/supervisory support. An alternative option
is to create a separate task to delineate management/supervisory
support, (see related FAQ 19 - Hammock tasks). Another option, when the
overall project plan exists in a group of multiple independent project
plans, is to create a separate file for management tasks.

So, assigning resources to summary tasks can cause obscure double
booking with data confusion, and thus should be avoided entirely."

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP