Replacing Resource Assignments

[Angel]

Need some ideas on best practices for reassigning resources.

Scenario:
Plan has been created, resources assigned, baselined and published.
Then for whatever reason, some of the assignments need to be changed to a
different resource. Not ALL assignments need to be changed so the Build Team
From Enterpise & Replace feature is not a viable option.

My method for changing assignments has always been to assign the new
resource to the task without rebaselining. I assign work but don't rebaseline
so baseline work=0 for new resource. Then I ask the original resource to
simply zero out the remaining work or reject the tasks they are no longer
going to work on. The problem with this method now is that we are using
baseline work as a factor in our availability reports so if i don't
rebaseline the task (NOT a best practice in my book), the data in the
availability reports won't show up correctly.

If I simply replace the original named resource with the new resource and
republish the assignment, the original task stays on the user's PWA timesheet
with an X next to it... and I'm not quite sure what happens if they had
actual work against that task. For the sake of reporting availability
accurately, if the actual work stays in the plan, simply replacing the
resource may be the best method... In which case I'll just have to do lots of
training on how and when to use the "hide" button to get rid of those deleted
assignments.

Ideas, suggestions???

Thanks!

 

[CB]

Hello Angel,
Have you tried the assign resources icon (ALT + F10)? This should keep your
baseline information in tact. Note that if you have progress on some tasks,
Project keeps the actuals for the resource that incurred the actuals.
Therefore, you will show both resources for that tasks, the original with the
planned and the new resource with the remaining.
Hope this helps,
CB

 

[CB]

Oops. This icon is on the standard toolbar and is represented as two heads.
Also, you can replace the resource on multiple tasks if you are replacing
witht the same new resource. Just select the first task and hold down the
ctrl key and select the next task and so forth. This is very helpful when
you are replacing for a complete project.
CB

 

[Angel]

Thanks for the prompt reply. I tested this method out with two tasks; one
with actual work and one without. Neither works the way I would hope but
that's nothing new with MSP

On the task with actual work, I cannot reassign to another resource due to
using protected actuals; I got the message: "Cannot delete or reassign tasks
or assignments with protected actuals." So in this case, I do have to 0 out
the remaining work for the original resource, add the new resource and work
and then rebaseline the task if I want the new resource to have baseline work.

For the tasks without actual work, I can reassign the task, baseline work
and all, but it still leaves the task on the original user's PWA timesheet
grayed out with an X and the only way to get rid of those is to use the Hide
functionality. I currently have that option turned off b/c people thought
they could hide & then unhide tasks they just didn't feel like looking at
right now. Having to republish those task assignments became too much of a
hassle. But it appears I'll have to just do some training & turn it back on,
otherwise people will be stuck with these tasks forever.

 

[Studer]

For removig the deleted tasks for your resources in PWA, ProjectExperts got
the answer. It's a small query you have to run on your SQL database:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/ProjectServerFAQKnowledgeBase/deletecancelledtasks.aspx