Setting resource availability for project work

[OzJono]

In a typical matrix management situation we have an ongoing
requirement to provide general support to business users and also to
resource specific projects. The same resources will often be
involved in both sets of activities. In order to determine resource
availabilty for new projects we'd like to enter into MS Project
general support activities for each resource with varying % of their
time committed to the General Support role. So far so good. I
understand how to set a single % commitment.

My question though is how best to get MS Project 2003 to support our
requirement that we may wish to vary the % for different months.

For example
I could enter a task "General Support - Resource A" resourced by
Resource A.
I need to assign his/her commitment to that role for the next 3 months
at 30% for December, 50% for Jan and 100% for Feb. Which will mean
they would be available for whatever project work comes up at 70, 50
and 0% for those months.

Is there some way to do this without creating separate or split tasks.

many thanks for any help

Jon

 

[Dave]

If you want to set the availability in an individual project file then
you can set a resource's availability for whatever periods you choose.

In Project 2003, go to the Resource Sheet and double click on a
resource's name and then navigate to the General tab. The table at the
bottom allows you to specify resource availability as you require.

This sounds as though it is going to be a lot of work to manage if there
are a lot of resources, particularly with the extent of the variations
you describe.

The most appropriate way to do it for you may depend on whether you are
using a server environment or a resource pool.

 

[Projectability]

Jon,

I have 2 suggestions for you assuming you are using "Pooled Resources". If
you are not using Project Server 2007 you can go to the Resource Usage View
and on the Yellow/Gray timephased element of the screen [right click] and
from the list displayed [select] Remaining Availability and Overallocation -
for ease of viewing I change the cell shading for Remaining Availability to
Lime - you will now have a view that shows you per time period the work,
availability or overallocation of your resources. From the View Menu chose
"More Views" and make a copy of the Resource Usage view and then using the
Organiser copy it to the Global.MPT file, this will retain the view with
addiitonal fields for future use on any project. Open your resource pool and
elect to create a master project with all sharer projects inserted, in this
project go to your new view and then use the "Go To Next Overallocation"
button on the Resource Management toolbar to "spool" through your schedule,
it will take you to where there are problems with resource workload - you
can then exercise judgement as to whether the reported situation merits
attention or can be left to lie as it is relatively insignificant. This
process of course assumes that all your projects are realistic in terms of
demand on resource - how you handle the Duration-Work-Units triangle is I
guess down to personal preference.

If you are using Project Server 2007 you have the option for a Server Side
Schedule Activity Plan which can have an associated Resource Plan where you
plot variable demand for resources over a defined window of time using work,
or Full Time Equivalent estimates. This Activity Plan added to any
Enterprise Projects will give you a feel for total demand on your resources.
The only downside to Activity Plans being that whilst they can be used to
model and forecast capacity they cannot be used to post actuals against,
this can be done using the Administrative Time feature in Timesheets which
is a whole other bundle of fun!

--
Dominic Moss

Projectability - Helping People achieve more with Microsoft Project

www.projectability.co.uk

 

[Jono]

Thanks Dave, Dominic
I'll work through this and see what the best method is for us.

Much appreciated
Jon