Resource Pool & Master Project question

[Steve Scott]

I am working in a non-Project Server environment and have set up a Resource
Pool, a Master Plan and several individual project plans. I am also about to
implement a "working" plan and "published" plan versioning system that
requires Project Managers to maintain and work with their Working Versions
but only publish them (ie save or email to PMO) each week which will
overwrite the Master Plan sub-projects as the approved versions.

My concern is when they update and save changes to their working versions of
their plans, this will force an update of assignment infrmation to the
Resource Pool which is itself linked to the Master Plan which is linked to
the previous week's versions of the published plans - if that makes sense...?!

Is it the case that the previous week's published plans will then be updated
by changes coming from the updated Resource Pool or are these plans loaded
into the Master Project disconnected from updates in some way? Is there an
issue here or am I fretting unecessarily? If there is - what is the work
around as I do not want Project Managers working on the published plans
directly loaded into the Master Project but I do want their working copies to
be connected to the Resource Pool.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Steve,

My concern with your scenario (as I understand it) is that you are
talking about having two copies of each project plan and when using
a resource pool, having multiple copies of the same project plan is
going to cause problems. Both files will be "active" to the pool
and you will have rampant overallocations which will not be true.
There should only be one copy of each file attached to the pool --
one of the other copies must be disconnected to present an accurate
picture of resource usage and assignment information.

I'd suggest creating the master project through the resource pool as
needed and have the PMs maintain only one copy of their file -- not
multiple.

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

 

[Steve Scott]

Hi thanks Julie, having read carefully your reponse and carried out a simple
test, I think I now have a work around as follows:-


1) Working Plan is connected to the Resource Pool in the normal way.

2) If I need to create a copy of the Working Plan for "publishing" purposes
I disconnect the link from the Working Plan first, Save As to a new file name
and ensure no save takes place on either the Working Plan version or the
Resource Pool.

3) This results in the Working Plan still be connected to the Resource Pool
but the Published plan being stand alone but with a snapshot of the working
resource assignement data contained within it.

4) I can then load the Published Plans into a stand alone Master plan to
review multi-project timelines and milestones and if I need to review
multi-project resource assignements I can do so via the the Resource pool.

Can you confirm these steps - certainly 1-3 are ok, whilst 4 might be
debatable ref using a seperate Master plan?

 

[JulieS]

Hi Steve,

Sounds to be a much better plan. I suggest that someone be
responsible for performing a weekly audit of the pool file --
checking for possible redundancies, just to be on the safe side. If
a PM skips step 2, you'll run into the multiple project files
connected to the pool.

Concerning step 4, you'll just need to be clear with anyone you are
presenting the master plan to that the data may be out of date and
that to see the "latest and greatest" a consolidated file using the
pool would need to be created.

Julie

 

[Steve Scott]

thanks Julie..it all seems much clearer now! It kep me awake last night
trying to work it all out

thanks

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome Steve. Sorry you lost sleep over it

Julie

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

I suggest a simpler approach altogether:

Create a new master file each week. When inserting each project, make sure
the Link options is deselected. This copies all data and consolidates all
resource info so no resource pool is needed.

To create the new master more simply, simply record a macro of you creating
it (make sure creating a new blank project for the new master is the first
recorded instruction) so creating the master is simply a matter of running
the macro.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com