Resource Loading

[Chris]

In Microsoft Project 2007 you have a view called Resource Usage. This view
allows you to load specific days with specific amounts of time to each task.
Is there a way to load your task in such a way in PWA? Or am I missing
something?
Here's an example:

You have a designer who has been assigned a drawing to complete. He needs
to be able to (in PWA) set a simple start-finish date, let's say
1/1/08-2/1/08. Set amount of hours it should take him to complete the task
(not related to start finish) let's say 20hrs. Then load those estimated
hours to specific dates at will. Like 5hrs on the 2nd, 10hrs on the 15th and
the last 8hrs on the 31st. All this in PWA, rather than opening up an entire
schedule in Project to load those hours.

Make sense? Is this a timesheet function?

As always, I appreciate all the help this forum provides.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Chris --

You can't do this in PWA at all. You must assign resources to tasks in the
Microsoft Project 2007 plan. Hope this helps.

 

[Chris]

Thanks for the response Dale.

Bummer, tell me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a pretty basic function? We've
got employees that should be able to apply hours to their tasks so we can see
our resource load to come. Resource loading is what it's all about. We
can't have hundreds or thousands of people opening and closing large Project
schedules just to apply hours to specific days on a particular task.

The second part of your answer, can I get clarification? Did you mean "you
must assign specific resource hours (or work) to tasks in Microsoft Project
2007". Because you can create a project as well as build team and assign
tasks within PWA. Correct?

Thanks,

--
Chris Addis
Facilities Technician
San Joaquin Valley SBU
Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company

 

[Hugh Hart]

We have one project (6000 tasks) where the individual users needed to change
the "remaining time" needed to complete a task when they did their
timesheet. However, the PM creates these tasks and assignments first with
the initial estimate. After that, the user changes the remaining time on the
timesheet. (I think we had to add the field into the timesheet view in PWA,
but the field is a standard one.) The user also leaves notes on tasks for
which they change the remaining time. They can negotiate with the PM on
schedule. When the PM approves each task, they can also make other
modifications as they attempt to contain the schedule.

This is for PS2003, but figure that it works about the same for PS2007. (We
are moving to 2007 within a month or so.)

This is about half of what you need. It is very workable for us.

Hope this helps.

Mac Hart
Atlanta

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Chris --

You are making two sets of assumptions. One set is correct, and the other
is wrong.

Although a Resource Manager can build a team for an enterprise project in
PWA, he/she CANNOT assign resources to tasks in PWA. So, that assumption is
obviously wrong. The Project Manager must actually assign tasks in the
Microsoft Project 2007 project plan. From there, he/she can level resource
overallocations, view the Critical Path, and then publish the project.

Team members can report their progress in PWA using the My Tasks page. Team
members can also assign themselves to existing tasks in projects to which
they are already assigned at least one task, and can also propose new tasks
as well. Hope this helps.

 

[Chris]

Thanks for the replies.

What it comes down to is this. Users should/need to be able to adjust
"Planned Work" within PWA. They can see it, (in timesheet) but cannot edit
it, as far as I can tell. But this would be a great function. That way the
user/resource can tell his PM exactly when he plans on working on a task.
Thus allowing the PM an accurate forecast of his resources in the future.
I'm seeing some third party apps to help with this, but we're not interested
in that route. And workarounds are not an option as I'm sure you can imagine
the scale in which Chevron will use this tool. We'll keep searching for a
solution. Thanks Mac.

Dale. In order to create a project and assign tasks to resources, without
having to open Microsoft Project, use the "Proposal" function in the project
center. Once you've created the Project name or description, Plan Owner and
various Custom Fields, you must then “Build Team†by collecting resources
from the resource pool. Next you would proceed to build your project details
by creating “Headings†followed by “Task†lines subs of those initial
headings. From there you could assign resources to each of those tasks by
using the drop down list of resources under the “Resource Name†column
located in the “Work Details†view of your created project. Once you are
satisfied with your project, simply “Convert†it to a Microsoft Project file.
This works well for users intimidated by Microsoft Project and keeps things
simple for the average user. Now, once converted, you are correct in saying
that tasks must be assigned resources by opening up Microsoft Project.
Unless, of course, the task belongs to you and the resource you wish to give
the task to is on your project team. In which case you would simply
“Reassign†that task from your “My Tasks†page. I get the feeling you were
talking about a project created in Microsoft Project and then published to
PWA. But I wanted to clarify for future visitors. You can assign resources
to tasks in PWA using the Proposal function then converting the proposal to
Project. Hope this helps.

Again, many thanks for the help guys. But it appears my question is still
open for discussion. Can a user/resource adjust their Planned Work through
PWA? It appears that they can’t. But we’d like a definitive answer if
someone knows.

--
Chris Addis
Facilities Technician
San Joaquin Valley SBU
Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Chris --

On the My Tasks page, every task has a Start and Finish field. These fields
can be edited by team members, which might solve your problem. However, if
they change either the scheduled Start or Finish date, they should add a
Note to document the reason for the change.

Regarding your use of the Proposal feature, you are absolutely right. That
MIGHT work, but here are the limitations:

1. You are limited to only ONE resource per task.
2. The system automatically assigns every resource at 100% Units, even if
the resource must work less than full-time on the task.

If you can work around those two limitations, go for it. Otherwise, it's
back to the old Microsoft Project plan! Hope this helps.

 

[Chris]

Thanks Dale.

Yes, Proposals do have limitations just as you listed. We don't use them,
but I wanted to clarify for future visitors. If you have simple projects or
less than proficient users, using this function works well.

Now, to address my original question that you have been so patient in trying
to answer. My colleague and I have been discussing this today and agree, it
may be beyond the capability of PWA. The key phrase he used was “Contouring
Remaining Workâ€. Our team wants to allow users/resources to “contourâ€
remaining work through PWA. For us, moving start/finish dates, or changing
work, is not an accurate representation of a resources allocation over time.
We need to see when a resource is working and when he it not. We are not
manufacturing a widget. Manufacturing works well with start/finish dates.

We have a resource, who has a task that they will work on when they (or
management) say they will. That could mean, they know the task will take
40hrs to complete, but WHEN they work those 40hrs may vary. They may work
10hrs on Monday, 1hr on Tuesday, no Hrs on Wednesday, 3hrs the following
Friday… and so on. By “Contouring†those hours in Microsoft Project through
the Resource Usage view, you get an accurate representation of resource usage
in the future. Start/Finish dates and percent complete are not accurate
representations of resource usage unless they are 100% allocated from start
to finish (we aren’t manufacturing), or even if they have a split allocation,
say 30% 70% between tasks. Which really is the same. In essence this
start/finish method is saying, the resource worked from start to finish, a
certain percentage of the time, every working day. We don’t want that. We
DO want (through PWA) users/resources to allocate (contour) their time, and
say “I will work on this task for 2 hours on Monday the 4th of Jan. I will
then work 8 hours on Thursday the 7th of Jan." And so on, till the total
hours have been met.

I hope that explains our situation better. Don’t know what more to say. It
seems like such a simple method that seems to be eluding us in PWA.

--
Chris Addis
Facilities Technician
San Joaquin Valley SBU
Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Chris --

Thank you for your patience as well as we try to get to the bottom of this
issue. I hate to tell you this, but there is no way that a team member can
contour their task assignment hours or their Remaining Work hours on a task
on the My Tasks page in PWA (or anywhere else in PWA for that matter).

Don't believe me? Click on the name of any task in the My Tasks page. On
the Assignment Details page for the task, you will see the Work,
representing the scheduled Work for the task. Click on any of the Work
hours. See how the system won't allow you to change those numbers? That's
what I mean. Only the PM can change those numbers.

Work Contours are the responsibility of the project manager, and must be
done in either the Resource Usage view or Task Usage view in the actual
Microsoft Project 2007 plan. Hope this helps.

 

[John Sitka]

Chris, consider a PM who only knew who the resource was and what needed to
get done...The PM was totally clueless of how much work each task would take.
Does it sound ridiculous for a Project Manager not to know how long things will take?
Maybe it is a little more ridiculous for him to claim to know how long it will take.

Neither opinion is correct but it's just a way to introduce a concept.

A logical network of tasks to get something done could be built with each task
having a work value of 1 hour and it could be published. The PM admitted to
being clueless. He then relies on every resource to contribute their aggressive
estimate on each task by adjusting the remaining work.

After a complete set of first "estimate" updates from the resources, the PM
accepts those into his (1 hour task) framework and ends up with a plan that
is as legitimate as any other if the resources could be trusted for good estimating.
Since they are the ones who actually do the stuff who better to trust. But all resources
have been abused at some point and been multitasked or redirected from what they were
working on to something else of perceived higher priority. They thus pad estimates based
on previous experience of poor management, or bad luck.

Consider the first publishing a TENDER, you put the assignments out there for bid.]

J.