-----Original Message-----
Extracted from Microsoft Project 2002 Training Courseware
There are two distinct types of analyses that may need to be performed on
any group of projects.
The first type of analyses is used to understand what is happening, what has
happened, and what is planned to happen. This analysis needs to be performed
on a static group of project plans. This may be defined as a sophisticated
level of reporting. Typically the analysis needs to operate under a range of
parameters. For example, what are the total resource requirements for next
month? What projects is this group of people currently working on? How much
are we spending on the testing phases of these projects? Data within the
scope of the analysis should not change during the analysis in order to
provide a stable platform for informed management decision making.
The second type of analysis is dynamic. It attempts to find out not only if
and where problems are occurring, but also what are the potential solutions.
It is important to be able, for example, to add new resources to those
currently working on a group of projects, or to be able to move resources
between tasks in a project or even between projects. The end results of
these analyses show what is possible as opposed to what is currently
planned. There are many business reasons why this is important. For example,
a CEO may need to know if he has the resources available to deliver a new
contract that he has an opportunity to bid for (and if not, what skills he
may need to acquire) or there may be a need to bring in a project to a
specific date by utilizing other resources within the organization.
In both cases the prime driver for the analysis is typically defined by the
key constraint(s) within the organization. This is usually resources within
the organization and even if the focus is cost the key component of most
projects' cost base is the cost of the people working on it.
Microsoft® Project provides mechanisms for both these types of analysis. The
first type of analysis is performed by the Portfolio Analyzer. This provides
the user with the ability to "slice and dice" through the project portfolio.
This analysis is based on an OLAP cube. The second type of analysis is
supported by the Portfolio Modeler, which allows users to define, create,
and modify their own specific groups of projects and to be able to define
and change a set of business rules that control where resources are
allocated.
In fact, a third mechanism is available to users of Microsoft Project
Professional-the Resource Substitution Wizard, which provides a modeling
function. The difference is that it provides detailed task-level changes
that need to be implemented at a project-manager level for the benefits to
be delivered. The process can be applied at a high level, that is across
multiple project plans or at a single-project level. The two functions
defined here operate on a reporting and executive analysis level only.
.
Thank you!
