You have the resources in one file and the tasks for each Project in a
second, so the end result is a tasks file for each Project plus a Resource
Pool file. Each of the "tasks" files are then linked to the "pool" file to
draw their resources. To initially link them you'll have the project file
plus the resource file open at the same time. With the file containing the
tasks active on your screen, look in Tools menu where you'll find Resource
Sharing. It'll ask you which file to use the resources from and you'll
select the Resource Pool file, whatever you've chosen to call it. You'll
do this for each project, all of them drawing their resources from the same
resource pool. In the "tasks" file, before setting the link if you look at
the Resource Sheet view it'll be blank. But after you set the link, when
you look in the resource sheet you'll see all the resources listed just as
if you had typed them in there in the first place. Now you go ahead and
assign the resources just like you always have except when you do you'll
have the "tasks" file active on your screen plus the "pool" file open in the
background. But unlike what happens when you list the resources
independently in each Project file, Project now knows about the usage of
them as shared across all of the separate project files using them. In your
example, if Project A is mowing the lawn Monday at 123 Main St and Project B
also wants to mow the lawn Monday at 456 King St, the resource pool knows
there's only 1 mower and will says it's overallocated for Monday. When you
Resource Level, one of those project's mowing tasks will shift to Tuesday.
If you didn't use the resource pool method, Project thinks each Project has
its own separate mower, even when you import the projects using Insert
Project from the Insert menu to make a consolidated file.
In fact, you can easily see what's going on if you create a create a small
project file with 4 tasks A, B, C, and D and 4 resources, Larry, Moe, Curly,
and Fred. Assign 1 resource to each task. Save the file as Test 1, save it
again as Test 2 and then close the file. Now you have two identical but
separate project files. Open a new blank file and using Insert Project,
insert Test 1 on the first line and Test 2 on the second. Click the little
outline "plus box" next to each project name to expand its details and look
at the resource sheet. You'll see two of each one listed. This is what
you've been doing and is NOT what you want.
Now try this one. Create one file listing Larry, Moe, Curly, and Fred as
resources but put in no tasks. Save it as "Pool" and leave it open. Start
a new file and enter tasks A, B, C, and D as before. Save it as Test 3,
then save it again as Test 4. Go to the Tools menu, Resource Sharing,
ShareResources and select "Use Resources From" and select the Pool file
(it's been open all along, remember?). When you look in the Gantt chart
you'll still see the tasks (we're still in Test 4) but when you display the
Assign Resources dialog you'll see the 4 guys from the Pool file are now
listed. Assign one of them to each task, save and close the file. Pool is
still open. Open Test 3 and do the same thing. You'll find once you've
connected the two files, assigning resources is no different from what you'd
do before. But when you look at the resource names, after assigning them in
both files, you'll see this time their names will be in red, indicating you
booked them on tasks in the two test projects on the same day. Now save and
close all files. Open the resource pool file and on the screen that pops up
select the third option, "Open the pool read/write and all sharer files into
a consolidation file." You'll find the pool file opens and also a new file
is created at the same time. The pool will initially be active but switch
to the new file (window menu) and take a look. It'll be similar to the
consolidation in your first experiment in that it shows the tasks from both
Test 3 and Test 4 (plus the pool file is also listed but it has no tasks to
show) but when you look at the resources on the resource sheet you'll find
each of them is listed only once, not twice like before. Resource leveling
will now adjust tasks across the various projects to get rid of your double
bookings. Any change you make to a project in the consolidation will be
reflected in its independent project file and vice versa.
FYI, you can repeat the process connecting projects to the common resource
pool for all the projects you have. When you add a new project to your
portfolio you create the project file with the tasks, then open the existing
pool file and connect the two as before. Now all three projects are drawing
from the common pool. The theoretical limit is 999 project files drawing
from the same pool file so I doubt you'll run up against that barrier.
Hope this helps - it really is detailed out in the Help files in Project if
you look up "resource pool" and "resource sharing."
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
