Sharing Resources Across Multiple Projects

[Fusion]

I have a "program" and therefore numerous small projects and a
resource pool. I may have multiple projects executing at the same
time. A resource will usually be assigned to tasks within one project
and when finished with those tasks (although the project itself may be
ongoing), become available for other tasks/projects. As new projects
are being considered I'd like to be able to (1) plan (and tell my
manager) when a new project may start based on current resource
allocation and project status across ALL projects and (2) see WHICH
resources will be available for the new project and WHEN they will be
availible (two guys availible stating 8/15, and a third freeing up
8/22) and (3) it would be nice if I could play "what if" and give
options for starting new projects based on the number of resources and
their availability. Can MS Project help me accomplish this, and if so
what must I do generally to set up projects to accomplish this? Is
this master/subproject? BTW, I don't have project server, just
standalone project.

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

I have a "program" and therefore numerous small projects and a
resource pool. I may have multiple projects executing at the same
time. A resource will usually be assigned to tasks within one project
and when finished with those tasks (although the project itself may be
ongoing), become available for other tasks/projects. As new projects
are being considered I'd like to be able to (1) plan (and tell my
manager) when a new project may start based on current resource
allocation and project status across ALL projects and (2) see WHICH
resources will be available for the new project and WHEN they will be
availible (two guys availible stating 8/15, and a third freeing up
8/22) and (3) it would be nice if I could play "what if" and give
options for starting new projects based on the number of resources and
their availability. Can MS Project help me accomplish this, and if so
what must I do generally to set up projects to accomplish this? Is
this master/subproject? BTW, I don't have project server, just
standalone project.

Well if all your projects are using the same resource pool then you could
open this pool and view resource usage using the Resource Usage view. If
you insert the Project field you could see which project the assignments
shown belong to. You could even group the view by the Project field. This
is what I would do.

 

[DonL]

Fusion,

Just in case you meant "resource pool" in an HR way, and not in a MS Project
environment....

You would need to connect all of your project plans to a "resource pool" MS
Project plan. The way I have done this in the past is to create a project
plan solely for the use of this purpose (i.e., resource pool). All of the
resources that you have access to use are entered into the resource sheet for
this project plan. The only tasks that I have entered were for
vacation/sick/training days, but you don't need to actually add any tasks in
the plan at all.

All of the project plans that contain the "work" are then connected to the
resource pool by openning the "pool" and the "work" MS Project files (so that
they are both open at the same time) and in the "work" project file selecting
Tools | Resource Sharing | Share Resources..., then select the Use resources
(From radio button, and then select the resource pool project plan from the
drop-down. You will need to open and "link" (to) the resource "pool" project
plan from each of your "work" plans.

You can perform all of the "linkings" first. Then check the resource sheet
in the "pool" to see if all of your resources are present. If not, you can
add them via the Resource Sheet view.

If you have accomplished this feat, then the fun with "Leveling" starts, but
thats another subject....

Hope this helps!