Kate105 said:
Hi - I'm wondering whether you can help me.
I want to keep track of a number of projects where I am the sole resource.
However, being fairly new to Project, I'm not quite sure how to do this.
Obviously, I can only work on one project at a time, although I will be
swapping between projects fairly often as information etc becomes available.
Do I need to schedule myself as a resource for all projects? This seems to
complicate things terribly. Or can I somehow take the resource component out
of the project equation without mucking up the project schedule?
Kate.
Kate,
Whether you are the only resource or you have multiple resources, many
users use Project only for its scheduling engine. It depends on how much
information you want to track (Project can help you track schedule, cost
and resources) and to a certain extent on how much time you want to
devote to creating and maintaining the plan.
In its simplest form, tasks can be entered with estimated duration and
linkages as the primary inputs for Project to calculate the schedule
(i.e. start and finish dates for tasks). Resources can be assigned to
track work effort and subsequently cost associated with performing to
the schedule.
So, if you want to track costs then I would say yes, you do need to
assign yourself as a resource to each task. And be aware that duration
time (normally in hours or days) is not the same as work time (also in
hours or days). Duration is simply the estimated time during which a
task will be performed. Work is the actual effort one or more resources
will spend performing the task. For example, the duration to paint a
room may be one week (40 hrs). However, because you are also doing other
things (e.g. planting a garden), you as the single resource may only be
able to spend half time (i.e. 20 hours) actually working on the room to
be painted.
If you are new to Project, I suggest you start with the simple approach.
Set your tasks for Fixed Duration (Tools/Options/Schedule tab/Default
task type) and don't worry about the resource. Lay in the tasks for each
project, link then in a logical sequence and see how the overall plan
looks. As you get more familiar with Project, you can think about
including more features (e.g. resources).
One last thing. You might want to take a look at fellow MVP, Mike Glen's
series on Project lessons and techniques. You can find the link to
Mike's site at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/links.htm
Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP
