You haven't provided enough information to answer it. The biggest missing
piece is how do the resources presently view tasks and get their
assignments? Are you using Project Server, Project Central, Workgroup
Tools, conventional email, sneaker-net, hard copy? Do all the resources
have MS Project installed on their workstations or do they view the plan on
the Server through Web Access? If neither at present, is it cost effective
for you to deploy Project Server or buy licenses for the Project desktop for
each user?
Just brainstorming some points necessary for a technical answer and some
other points you should be thinking about before going ahead, whether
they're actual newsgroup technical issues about the *how* to do it that we
can assist you with or not ...
I was trying to explore the potential negative ramifications of doing it a
little before getting into any details so that you could be sure you really
wanted to go forward with the idea. The shortest and simplest answer to
your question is you buy licenses for MS Project for all of the resource's
workstations, put the project file on a shared folder they all have access
to, tell them the filename, and let them have at it. Not the wisest move,
but it'll work. The cheapest way is to print out the Gantt chart, post it
on the bulletin board, let them write in their names next to the tasks they
want to work on, and after the bid period closes you update the plan with
their preferences and assign any remaining unclaimed tasks to the slackers.
That too answers your question and will work but whether you would want to
do it that way is another matter.
Other considerations ... if they all have or will get MS Project and
directly access the plan file, is the project file in a shared location that
all the resources have write access to? Are you aware that access to the
plan itself is an all or nothing deal and if resources can change resource
names or individual task assignments to substitute themselves for the
generic resources they can also see information such as salaries and other
cost data that might be considered proprietary or confidential and is that
acceptable to you? If they can assign themselves to tasks they can also add
or delete tasks and reschedule the other resources as well - is that
acceptable? How do you plan to control the possible resulting scope creep
and insure out-of-scope work is not introduced into the plan? If the
generic resource Engineer is assigned to tasks A, B, and C and Joe Engineer
wants to pick up A but not B or C do you want him to do it or must he take
all or nothing? How do you plan to resolve resource conflicts where Joe
picking up task A makes him unavailable for more critical task X where's
he's the only one with the skills to do it? What about resource leveling in
the event Joe taking task A causes a resource overallocation to exist with
him or other resources on other tasks in the plan? What if that leveling
causes the schedule to extend, is that acceptable? Should the
self-assignment require approval before it's accepted as part of the plan?
How will you insure that all tasks are eventually picked up by resources -
how will you monitor to make sure no tasks remain unclaimed? Suppose some
of your resources "hog" the desirable tasks, how will you control that? Do
you have a seniority heirarchy that needs to be taken into account? What
about collective bargaining agreements - any chance self assignment will
trigger a contract provision or grievance somewhere down the line?
The point is that just because something is technically possible to do
doesn't mean it should be done that way. Unlike many of the purely software
support groups, most of us assisting here try to simultaneously discuss both
the technical issues and the strategic/tactical issues involved in using MS
Project. How to make text bold in MS Word is pretty straightforward and
doesn't usually have any impact on the validity of the output but how to
properly assign resources in MS Project involves a lot more consideration
than simply how to work the software.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
