Customize Group By Help....

K

KingKikapu

Greetings.


I have a master project file: in it are 3 embedded project files, eac
of which represent an apartment building we are constructing. M
structure then looks like this.


Site-wide Master project (parent)

Building A (daughter)
Building B (daughter)
Building C (daughter)


I wish to use the resource usage view to display all of the financial
for all of the projects according to our standard apartment item cod
breakdown. We use a two part resource item code in the form (AAA-99).
Every resource that gets entered into our project has one of these ite
codes. My intention is to group by the two different levels of th
outline resource code. In terms of the group by screen I have th
following:

Group first by: 1st level of resource code i.e. the (AAA) part of th
code (AAA-99).
Then Group by: 2nd level of resource code i.e. the (99) part of th
code (AAA-99).


This works wonderfully in the daughter project files: I go into one o
those, perform the grouping as described and I get a wonderfull roll u
of our resource usage according to my two tier outline code.


The problem comes when I try to do the same sort of grouping with
hierarchical project structure. If I attempt to group like above wit
the added restriction to group by Project first, I infact get th
roll-ups to the daughter projects, but MS Project does not seem t
recognise that the master project has any sort of master status: i
considers it to be on the same hierarchical level as the daughters.
That's lame. I would really like to have the daughters grouped b
outline code, but I would like all of their financials to roll up to th
master summary level.

Does anybody have any suggestions
 
J

JulieS

Hello KingKikapu,

Is your master project created as the result of a resource pools or
is it just inserted project? Are the resources in the master
project?

I'm at a bit of a loss to see how you could see summary resource
information given your description of the group definition. If you
group first by Project, then by your codes, how can project
summarize overall information?

Give us a bit more detail about how the master project is structured
and whether you are using a pool file or not and we'll see if
someone can provide a bit more assistance.

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
 
K

KingKikapu

Here are a few details:

The master was created using a new template. The subprojects ar
running on a common set of filters, views, outline codes, etc. Eac
subproject was inserted into the master view via Insert > Project. Th
one thing that is different amongst all of the projects is the resourc
sheet: each is automatically generated by a VBA macro that take
contractor/supplier information from our accounting software for tha
particular building and applies them to the resource sheet as resources
Since it is automated, it did not seem to make sense to share them.
That said, all projects are running the same resource outline code, an
all carry a cloned set (not shared) of fundamental resources which ac
as placeholder resources. These placeholder resources are used unti
the VBA macro does it's business and inserts the tru
contractor/suppliers.


Now regarding your question on the grouping order (particularly whethe
I should group by Project first, then by the two levels of the outlin
code), I suppose I should highlight what my intentions are: I wish th
master file to serve as a summary document only. For reasons of VB
macro automation with our accounting software, there are no tasks o
resources that are unique to the master file: everything is dumped t
the subprojects. The master's role is to only accrue the informatio
provided by the various daughters.

To that end, my idea was to somehow have each individual subprojec
have its resource usage breakdown by 2 tier resource code, and rollup a
the subproject level. I would then somehow get the totals from all o
these subprojects and roll them up to the Master summary level.

The structure of the grouping was to look something like this:

Master Project Grand Total: $30,000,000

Project A Total: $10,000,000 (followed by a breakdown of this 1
million by resource code)
Project B Total: $16,000,000 (followed by a breakdown of this 1
million by resource code)
Project C Total: $3,000,000 (etc.)
Project Site Total: $1,000,000 (etc.)

Do you think it possible to summarise the resource usage in this manne
given what you now know about my setup? Care to make any suggestions?


Many Thank
 
J

JulieS

Hi KingKikapu,

Thanks for the additional details. It does help. The problem is
that Project cannot generate the Master Project Line in the Resource
Usage view as there are no resources in the master project file,
therefore no "project" field for the view to group on. The only
thing you are seeing in the Resource Usage view are resources and
the assignments for each resource.

So, you certainly can get the Project A, Project B, Project C
totals, but only a un-grouped Task view will show you the total cost
over all. The difficulty with applying a group in a task view (Task
Usage or Gantt chart) is two fold: the Master Project Summary task
line will disappear when you apply grouping and unless you do some
additional manipulation the resource values will not appear on the
task side. I've tried grouping a task view of the master project,
but I cannot get the cost field to roll up to the grouped summary
line.

I have found some rather odd work arounds by inserting a task in the
master file and indenting each of the inserted project summaries
that I can get the cost to roll up to that "fake" task when grouped,
but it does not roll to the grouped Project field, rather it shows
as an entry under the Master Project group line. However, the
outline levels and WBS codes are now completely wrong.

Here's my current suggestion. For an experiment to see if it will
get you close on the Cost line, create a new master project. Insert
a task named "Master Project into the master project file and indent
each of the inserted project tasks underneath. Now apply a simple
group by to group by the Project field in the Gantt chart view or
the Task Usage view. Look at the cost info -- will that work?

If so, post back and I can give you some other work around to be
able to get the resource data to show up in the Gantt chart or task
usage view. The problem will be if you have multiple resources
assigned to the tasks. If you have multiple resources assigned, my
method will definitely NOT work.

Julie
 
K

KingKikapu

Hmm that's interesting about the quirkiness of summaries while grouping
I don't know what to do next as my tasks almost always have more tha
one resource assignment.

I did as you said and entered into a tracking gannt cost view. I the
indented the subprojects under the "Master Project" task. The tota
costs do inteed roll up, but the same is not true for any sort of usag
view. What are my options?

Another level to my RBS? Project A-AAA-99
 
J

JulieS

I honestly don't see a way around this. You need to use the
Resource Usage view in order to have the ability to group by
resource codes in a meaningful way. If you attempt to group by
assignments in the Task Usage view, you'll lose the summary
information.

My suggestion is to keep the existing grouping in the Resource Usage
view and when you need to see total cost for all inserted projects,
switch to a Gantt chart view with the Project Summary task for the
master project showing. Skip the extra step of inserting and
indenting. If the project summary task for the master project is
on, you should see total cost for the entire master project. (Tools
Options, View tab -- Project summary task).

Julie
 
K

KingKikapu

Well thank you for your help Julie. I will try to make it work as best
as possible.


And to any a MS project employees out there: I sure would appreciate a
modifier for the project field that lets you deliniate projects by
outline level instead of just the basic "for every project" or by prefix
characters. Neither is powerfull enough to do what I've discussed.


Maybe in the next version....
 

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