Duplicate Resource Names

[jetfan]

I am creating a project where I set up about 25 tasks, input durations, and
resource loaded. These 25 tasks are to be repeated about 30 times because we
are designing the same equipment in sequence. I went ahead and copied the
initial tasks under the original 25, changed one predecessor and project
pushed out the new task start dates which appears fine on the Gantt chart.
However, when I go into the Resource Usage report, it duplicated the Resource
Names. I would like it to only show the Resource Names one time and carry
the work hours out across the page. Should I copy the tasks in a different
way? What I am doing wrong?
Thanks for the help.

 

[JulieS]

Hello jetfan,

What release (including service pack) of Project are you using? I
cannot reproduce what you reporting using Project 2007, SP-2. When
I select tasks by row number and copy/paste the assignments are
assigned to the same resource. If you display the Resource Usage
view, do the assignments appear correctly?

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

 

[jetfan]

Hi Julie,

I am using Project 2003, but do not know the SP #.

I probably did not use the correct terminology in my original question.
Sorry for the rookie mistake. When I select the tasks by row number and
copy/paste, the assignments are correctly assigned to the proper resource,
the same as you indicated. The "tasks" listed under the resource are what is
duplicated. I would like to prevent this duplication.

Thank you for whatever assistance you can provide.

 

[JulieS]

Hi jetfan,

Okay, so it sounds as though the copy/paste is not duplicating
resources -- that's good news. However, it is duplicating tasks as
you paste which is what you want -- yes?

If you are not changing the names of the tasks when you paste and
the same resources are assigned to the pasted tasks I would
certainly expect to see the same information appearing underneath
each resource in the Resource Usage view as well as in any Resource
Usage report.

What you see in the Resource Usage view is the assignments for each
resource listed underneath the resource's name. Yes, the
assignments are represented by the task name, but they represent
each time you assigned the specific resource to each of the tasks.
So, if you have Julie assigned to three separate tasks and all of
the tasks are named "Do vital stuff", when you look at the Resource
Usage view, you'll see Julie and then "Do Vital Stuff" listed three
times. Additionally if both Mary and Julie are both assigned to "Do
Vital Stuff" you will see the assignment listed under both resource
names.

You can add additional information to the left side of the Resource
Usage view such as the start and finish dates that may help. The
difficulty about copy/paste is that you really should be changing
each task name or each series of task names so they are unique.
Otherwise it will be next to impossible for each of your resources
to determine which one of the "vital stuff" processes they are
supposed to be working on.

Julie

 

[jetfan]

Julie,

Prior to reading your reply, I did not want "Do Vital Stuff" listed three
times on the Resource Usage report. Thanks to you, I now understand why the
program is listing it that way. I will have to come up with something unique
to differentiate the tasks.

Thanks for your help.

 

[JulieS]

You're most welcome. I agree that differentiating the tasks, while
a bit time consuming is the best option.

Julie

 

[Larry82]

The problem with duplicates was one of the most important problems in my
activities, too. I was recommended Clone Remover to solve this problem.
I used it delete duplicate files ' duplicate music finder'
(http://www.fileutilityblog.com/archives/228). And now I have only
necessary files without duplicates of them.

 

[JulieS]

Thanks Larry, but unless I am missing something, I sincerely doubt
the software would remove duplicate resources from within an MS
Project file.

Julie