Summary Task Resource Usage

[Radioactivedad]

"It is important to understand that summary tasks in Project are not
productive tasks but rather a visual and data summary of the subtasks under
them." - FAQ 49

A search shows that the same question has been asked since the 90's without
a satisfactory answer (other than the infinitely unacceptable "write a VBA"):

How do I view EACH resources individual assigned Work at the Summary Task
level.

In Task Usage view MSP 2003 only shows the total Work for all resources
combined at the Summary level, regardless of filters applied.

I simply need to have each resources hours, at the parent summary level, to
pass to my Finance Dept. so that they can perform final proposal pricing in
their own system. They don't want it for each child task, they want it at a
high level where charge numbers are assigned. In Scitor PS8 it is a simple
report called "Task Resource Usage". In MSP I have to become a VB programer
to get it?!?

Thanks in advance,
-Radioactivedad

 

[Jim Aksel]

View/Resource Usage

This will give you a single line for each resource with the total work by
each individual resource. Expanding the Resource Usage View allows you to
see the tasks assigned to that individual resource. You can expand and
collapes the resource Usage View and the Task Usage View by showing different
outline levels.

 

[Jim Aksel]

An additional layer of summary can be added as well with a custom view.
Select View/More Views.../New Single View.

Screen: Resource Usage
Table: Usage
Group: Assignments Keeping Outline Structure
Filter: All Resources

This will create a view that essentially duplicates the entire project
structure for each resource but only shows the structure and tasks where that
one resource is assigned. You can now show summary for a resource at any
level desired.

 

[John]

"It is important to understand that summary tasks in Project are not
productive tasks but rather a visual and data summary of the subtasks under
them." - FAQ 49

A search shows that the same question has been asked since the 90's without
a satisfactory answer (other than the infinitely unacceptable "write a VBA"):

How do I view EACH resources individual assigned Work at the Summary Task
level.

In Task Usage view MSP 2003 only shows the total Work for all resources
combined at the Summary level, regardless of filters applied.

I simply need to have each resources hours, at the parent summary level, to
pass to my Finance Dept. so that they can perform final proposal pricing in
their own system. They don't want it for each child task, they want it at a
high level where charge numbers are assigned. In Scitor PS8 it is a simple
report called "Task Resource Usage". In MSP I have to become a VB programer
to get it?!?

Thanks in advance,
-Radioactivedad

Radioactiveedad,
Just for reference, I put that leading statement in FAQ 49 because the
subject of the FAQ was one of the pitfalls of treating summary lines as
viable tasks. The statement was not intended to imply that summary lines
can or will show every rollup scenario.

Like virtually all computer applications, there are always some features
that simply are not available "out of the box". Developers cannot
possibly foresee every user need and include features to meet those
needs. I sympathize with your frustration and I agree that a resource
rollup at summary level would be a very welcome feature. Unfortunately,
at this point, manual export (or automated with VBA) is the only option.

In Microsoft's defense, (by the way, MVPs do NOT work for Microsoft), I
think developers were extremely generous to include VBA capability with
virtually every Microsoft application. That effectively has allowed
users to create the functionality they need, whatever it may be.

VBA is not all that difficult to learn and to aid in that process,
fellow MVP, Rod Gill recently wrote a book exclusively on Project VBA.
It has many useful examples including some similar to what you need. If
you want more information, go to: http://www.projectvbabook.com. However
if you do not have the time to learn VBA or If you simply are not
interested, you can hire someone to create the necessary VBA code for
you.

I know this is not the response you wanted to hear. I wish I could show
you a simple trick to obtain the output you need but it simply doesn't
exist.

John
Project MVP

 

[Radioactivedad]

John,

Thank you for your response. I take both of your main points very much to
heart. I understand that MVP's are not paid MS employees, and cannot thank
you enough for the service you guys provide. You keep the information age
limping onward and upward.

I also understand that a single piece of software cannot be all things to
all people, and that the VBA capability gets us as close to that dream as
possible. I would only respond that being able to roll-up resource data in a
task format is so fundamental to common business practices (where work
packages are tracked via charge number groupings (i.e. Summary Tasks)) that
it is unresponsive to not include it in the default package. The number of
times that some variation of this issue has been raised in the past supports
my point (... and notwithstanding the fact that the competition includes it
standard).

I have a problem that must be solved today, so learning or getting VBA
support is not a short term option. I will be exporting the Resource Usage
view to a .xls file and manually summing individual resource hours to the
appropriate Summary level. An absolutely laughable predicament to be in, in
the year 2007.

Again I sincerely appreciate the help that you and this site provide!
-Radioactivedad

 

[Jim Aksel]

In the solution offered above, you can add a unique text field (say Text1)
and give each summary task (and it's subordinates) a unique number. When you
take that over to the resource usage view, you can filter on the Text1 field
so the data will be summed up for you.

There is one other trick - read FAQ37 at
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm. You will need to transfer the Text1
data between the two views. The FAQ gives you the code for the macro.

I believe this addresses your question. If not, please hit me off line
jeaksel at yahoo dot com and I'll see what else I can do for you.

I belive your question is that for a summary task, you want to be able to
sum the work of Kevin, Bob, and Joe so you know how many hours each will
spend in that area (on that Charge Number).

There is a reciprocal way to do it as well, but that requires more space
than I should put in a post.

You could also do something very similar with a custom grouping. We do this
all the time for one client and it works fine .... we are able to identify
cost account areas and how much budget should be established for each cost
account. This becomes the basis for a bid.

 

[John]

John,

Thank you for your response. I take both of your main points very much to
heart. I understand that MVP's are not paid MS employees, and cannot thank
you enough for the service you guys provide. You keep the information age
limping onward and upward.

I also understand that a single piece of software cannot be all things to
all people, and that the VBA capability gets us as close to that dream as
possible. I would only respond that being able to roll-up resource data in a
task format is so fundamental to common business practices (where work
packages are tracked via charge number groupings (i.e. Summary Tasks)) that
it is unresponsive to not include it in the default package. The number of
times that some variation of this issue has been raised in the past supports
my point (... and notwithstanding the fact that the competition includes it
standard).

I have a problem that must be solved today, so learning or getting VBA
support is not a short term option. I will be exporting the Resource Usage
view to a .xls file and manually summing individual resource hours to the
appropriate Summary level. An absolutely laughable predicament to be in, in
the year 2007.

Again I sincerely appreciate the help that you and this site provide!
-Radioactivedad

Radioactivedad,
You're welcome and thank for your positive feedback. I didn't know what
your total level of frustration was, so I wasn't quite sure how you
might respond - if at all.

As I said, I quite honestly agree that the rollup you need should be an
included feature. I played with the grouping feature a bit yesterday but
just couldn't get what you need because it has to be done in a
combination view (i.e. Usage) and those do not have "single data types".

It looks like Jim Aksel may have some other suggestions but for the
short term, copying the data to Excel and then rolling up is probably
the best approach.

John
Project MVP

 

[Radioactivedad]

Jim,

Thanks for the time you have put into these responses. I am in the middle
of "proposal hell" right now so I haven't had a chance to experiment with
your solution; maybe this afternoon. I will let you know if it works for me.

-Radioactivedad

 

[John]

John,

Thank you for your response. I take both of your main points very much to
heart. I understand that MVP's are not paid MS employees, and cannot thank
you enough for the service you guys provide. You keep the information age
limping onward and upward.

I also understand that a single piece of software cannot be all things to
all people, and that the VBA capability gets us as close to that dream as
possible. I would only respond that being able to roll-up resource data in a
task format is so fundamental to common business practices (where work
packages are tracked via charge number groupings (i.e. Summary Tasks)) that
it is unresponsive to not include it in the default package. The number of
times that some variation of this issue has been raised in the past supports
my point (... and notwithstanding the fact that the competition includes it
standard).

I have a problem that must be solved today, so learning or getting VBA
support is not a short term option. I will be exporting the Resource Usage
view to a .xls file and manually summing individual resource hours to the
appropriate Summary level. An absolutely laughable predicament to be in, in
the year 2007.

Again I sincerely appreciate the help that you and this site provide!
-Radioactivedad

Radioactivedad,
One final thought and I'll probably kick myself in the morning, but I'll
make you an offer that may be of interest to you. Write me direct at the
address below and maybe we can work something out. Note: what I have in
mind is not a short term solution.

John
Project MVP
Jensenj6atatcomcastdotdotnet
(remove obvious redundancies)

 

[Radioactivedad]

Jim,

Thanks! In a wacky sort of way, this suggestion does give me what I want!
It is not in a format that I can share with my Finance Dept. folks; but it
does make it much easier for me to manually assemble an excel spreadsheet
with task roll-ups.

Wheras I want the Task Outline (at Summary Level) with each Resource and
their Work allocations below each Task; this view gives me Each Resource with
the Task Outline and Work allocations below each Resource. A 180 degree
inversion of what I would want the tool to do, but hey, at least the data is
there!

I will play with your later suggestion when I get a chance, but for now your
suggestion has helped me limp to the finish line.

Thank you very much for your time,
Scott (Radioactivedad)

 

[JulieS]

Hi Scott,

The following variation on the Resource Usage View may give you what you seek.

Add the Task Summary Name field to the Resource Usage View. This will show
the summary name for each assignment. Create a custom group (Project > Group
By> More Groups > New) with the following definition:

First check Group assignments not resources option.

First Row:
Group By: Task Summary Name
Field Type: Assignment
Order: Ascending or Descending as you desire

Second Row:
Group by: Name
Field Type: Resource
Order: As you need

This will group the assignments by their summary tasks, showing total work
for all the assignments under that summary task, detailed by Resource.

I hope this helps.

Julie

 

[John]

Hi Scott,

The following variation on the Resource Usage View may give you what you
seek.

Add the Task Summary Name field to the Resource Usage View. This will show
the summary name for each assignment. Create a custom group (Project > Group
By> More Groups > New) with the following definition:

First check Group assignments not resources option.

First Row:
Group By: Task Summary Name
Field Type: Assignment
Order: Ascending or Descending as you desire

Second Row:
Group by: Name
Field Type: Resource
Order: As you need

This will group the assignments by their summary tasks, showing total work
for all the assignments under that summary task, detailed by Resource.

I hope this helps.

Julie

Julie,
Good call. I looked at grouping but I had forgot about the Task Summary
Name field. There's just too much stuff to remember it all

John

 

[JulieS]

Julie,
Good call. I looked at grouping but I had forgot about the Task
Summary
Name field. There's just too much stuff to remember it all

John

John,

Glad to give another option.

I agree with the too much stuff comment-- I am convinced that each new
thing I need to remember is causing me to forget something else
Julie

 

[Radioactivedad]

Thanks for chiming in Julie, I'll give it a try this week. From your
description it sounds like what I have been after.

....And I'm sure you've forgotten more than I will ever know.

-Scott

 

[JulieS]

Hi Scott,

You're most welcome and thanks for the feedback. Do let us know how it
works out for you.

Julie

Thanks for chiming in Julie, I'll give it a try this week. From your
description it sounds like what I have been after.

...And I'm sure you've forgotten more than I will ever know.

-Scott

<snip>

 

[Steve House]

I know it's small consolation for your frustration and I don't mean to
minimize the importance of your approach but remember that Project's primary
focus is to be a project scheduling application, not a project accounting
application. Your reference to summary tasks being charge number groupings
and not project phases or descriptions of tangible deliverables makes me
think you may be forcing a square peg down a round hole, trying to get it to
work with something resembling a chart of accounts rather than groups of
physical activities that together create specific deliverables. Project's
assumption is that your summary tasks are defined by decomposing the
project's deliverable down through increasing degrees of granularity until
you get to the level of individual observable activities - the idea being
that tasks at any level always represent the creation of deliverables and
components of deliverables. That's not to minimize the importance of
attributing costs into the proper accounting structure, just to say Project
expects other software or methodolgy will be used to accomplish it. Would
be nice if it did both, but at this point it really doesn't.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

John,

....I would only respond that being able to roll-up resource data in a

 

[Radioactivedad]

Steve,

I am intrigued by your post. I believe I am doing exactly what you suggest
that MSProject was designed for. I begin a new project (at proposal time) by
creating a Work Breakdown Structure of tasks, which is a functional
decomposition of the deliverable system into constiuent deliverable
components. Overlaid upon this is usually the traditional customer review
phases (PDR, CDR, TRR, ATR). Thus I end up with something like this:

Project X
PDR Phase
Design Component A
... (work assigned)
Design Component B
...
Conduct PDR
CDR Phase
Prototype Component A
...
Prototype Component B
....
Conduct CDR
TRR...

Now I work with the various engineering teams to determine
dates/durations/manhours/linkage... for the various child tasks; finishing
with a fully Resource Loaded Network (Gantt), complete with manloading,
materials, subk, critical path and baseline information for EVM tracking.

Next I assign charge numbers at the level I want to track earned value; in
this case I would assign them at "Design Component A", "Design Component B",
"Prototype Component A", etc. Thus my charge number scheme fits the phased
functional decomposition structure you suggest. Individual resources use the
appropriate charge number when they are working a specific child task under
the given parent.

Now I should be able to roll things up to the charge number level and get
all sorts of useful metrics about my individual resources planned work, and
after in-process statusing I can get detailed EV information at the charge
number level (helping me manage the project in real-time, and refine my
estimating process on future projects). In-process I enter ACWP at each
charge number level, and Project provides BCWS & BCWP from which I get ETC,
EAC, VAC, CPI, SPI...

I have done this dozens of times using Scitor's PS8 product, with generally
good results. The government is pushing me into using MSProject, to which I
do not object, and I know it is more than capable of the same EVM techniques
I am used to. But, its default behavior seems to be very limited at the
parent roll-up level.

Thanks for your time,
Scott

I know it's small consolation for your frustration and I don't mean to
minimize the importance of your approach but remember that Project's primary
focus is to be a project scheduling application, not a project accounting
application. Your reference to summary tasks being charge number groupings
and not project phases or descriptions of tangible deliverables makes me
think you may be forcing a square peg down a round hole, trying to get it to
work with something resembling a chart of accounts rather than groups of
physical activities that together create specific deliverables. Project's
assumption is that your summary tasks are defined by decomposing the
project's deliverable down through increasing degrees of granularity until
you get to the level of individual observable activities - the idea being
that tasks at any level always represent the creation of deliverables and
components of deliverables. That's not to minimize the importance of
attributing costs into the proper accounting structure, just to say Project
expects other software or methodolgy will be used to accomplish it. Would
be nice if it did both, but at this point it really doesn't.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

John,

....I would only respond that being able to roll-up resource data in a

task format is so fundamental to common business practices (where work
packages are tracked via charge number groupings (i.e. Summary Tasks))
that
it is unresponsive to not include it in the default package. The number
of
times that some variation of this issue has been raised in the past
supports
my point (... and notwithstanding the fact that the competition includes
it
standard).

 

[Radioactivedad]

Julie,

I finally got a chance to play with your technique, and it sort of does what
I want. Thanks for the suggestion. I am still a little bit discombobulated
by this display because it tears apart my task hierarchy (i.e. my WBS) and
shows me the tasks in alphabetical order (which is a meaningless
organization); and more importantly it still doesn't appear to give me
resource roll-ups at any level higher than one above where the work is
assigned. Ultimately I would like to go to the highest level (Project Name -
WBS 0) and see all of the resources laid out below it with their total work
for the project.

If you want to see more on how I lay out these parents, see my latest post
to Steve House above.

Thanks again for your suggestion, you've gotten me one step closer...
Scott

Hi Scott,

You're most welcome and thanks for the feedback. Do let us know how it
works out for you.

Julie

<snip>

 

[JulieS]

Hi Scott,

You're welcome for the "one-step closer" and thanks for the feedback.

As a variation on the theme that may help keep you WBS intact: insert
the Task Outline Number field into the Resource Usage view along with
the Task Summary Name. Modify the Group I suggested earlier to:

Group By:
Field Name: Task Outline Number
Field Type: Assignment
Order: Ascending

Then By:
Field Name: Name
Field Type: Resource
Order: Ascending or Descending

This will show you WBS (Outline Level Data) for each Summary Task and
the detail of the resource's work. That may help with the
"discombobulation" of the WBS.

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