Team Assignment Pool: what is the correct way to use it?

[Vit]

HI to everybody,
I’m trying to use the option of create a Generic Resource, with the
field “Team name” on the details of the resources...
I have followed these steps and it works:

1. First, you must add a new enterprise Lookup Table called something
like
Teams.
2. You must add the list of teams in your organization to this new
Lookup
Table.
3. You must then modify the Team Name built-in enterprise field to
include
the Teams lookup table.
4. After doing this, launch Project Professional 2007 and log into
Project
Server.
5. Click Tools - Enterprise Options - Open Enterprise Resource Pool.
6. In the Resource Center page, select the names of the people who
will be
part of a particular Team.
7. In the Resource Sheet, add the name of the new Team resource, such
as
DBA Team1, or something like that.
8. Double-click the name of the new Team resource.
9. Select the Generic option in the Resource Information dialog and
click
the OK button.
10. Right-click on the Type column header and insert the Team
Assignment
Pool column.
11. In the Team Assignment Pool column for only the new Team
resource,
select the Yes value.
12. Hide the Team Assignment Pool column and insert the Team Name
field.
13. Select the correct team name in the Team Name field for the Team
resource and for each of the human resources that are part of the
designated
team.
14. Save and close the Enterprise Resource Pool.

What I’m trying to understand, when and where the Project manager or
the Resource manager have to change the generic ones to the “real”
ones...
Can they do it on the PWA side???
They have to create a team from the enterprise (Project Professional
side) with only the generic resources or with the generic and the real
ones???
I’m a little confused...
Thank so much to all
Cheers
Vit

 

[Paul Conroy]

Check out Treb's blog on using Team Assignment Pools

http://evildoctorporkchop.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!88E61D218103A246!620.entry

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[Peter M.]

He twice writes about setting the Default Assignment Owner of the team
resource to the Team Manager. Well, this is not possible, since there is no
Default or Assignment Owner Field for team resources in MSPS 2007. Neither is
there one for the Timesheet Manager. Rather will all task reminders appear on
the project manager's task page. A big issue in my opinion.
Also, he does not mention, that team members to whom we would reassign a
task, need to be added to the project team before appearing in the dropdown
list of the reassign task page.
All in all, this really doesn't work out as easily as he says.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Vit --

What are you trying to accomplish by using Team resources? This
functionality is intended for a situation where a PM needs to assign an
entire team of resources to a task in a single action, and each of the team
members may do some work on the task. Or it can also be used when the PM
needs one of the resources to take responsibility for working on the task by
him/herself. Is that what you are looking for? If so, when you publish a
task with a Team resource assigned, the task appears on the My Tasks page
for every resource that is a part of the team. From there they can all
status the task, or one of them can do a Self-Assign Team Task to take full
responsibility for the work on the task.

From what you describe, I think you may be needing Generic resources, that
are skill descriptors or placeholder resources. For example, on a future
project, I know I need a SQL Server DBA, but I don't know the exact name of
the human resource that will actually do the work. In this case, if my
Project Server administrator has created a Generic resource named SQL Server
DBA, I can add this Generic resource to the project team and can assign it
to tasks in the project. Later, when I determine which human will actually
do the work, I can replace the Generic resource with a human resource using
the Replace feature in the Build Team dialog. Let us know if this helps.




HI to everybody,
I’m trying to use the option of create a Generic Resource, with the
field “Team name” on the details of the resources...
I have followed these steps and it works:

1. First, you must add a new enterprise Lookup Table called something
like
Teams.
2. You must add the list of teams in your organization to this new
Lookup
Table.
3. You must then modify the Team Name built-in enterprise field to
include
the Teams lookup table.
4. After doing this, launch Project Professional 2007 and log into
Project
Server.
5. Click Tools - Enterprise Options - Open Enterprise Resource Pool.
6. In the Resource Center page, select the names of the people who
will be
part of a particular Team.
7. In the Resource Sheet, add the name of the new Team resource, such
as
DBA Team1, or something like that.
8. Double-click the name of the new Team resource.
9. Select the Generic option in the Resource Information dialog and
click
the OK button.
10. Right-click on the Type column header and insert the Team
Assignment
Pool column.
11. In the Team Assignment Pool column for only the new Team
resource,
select the Yes value.
12. Hide the Team Assignment Pool column and insert the Team Name
field.
13. Select the correct team name in the Team Name field for the Team
resource and for each of the human resources that are part of the
designated
team.
14. Save and close the Enterprise Resource Pool.

What I’m trying to understand, when and where the Project manager or
the Resource manager have to change the generic ones to the “real”
ones...
Can they do it on the PWA side???
They have to create a team from the enterprise (Project Professional
side) with only the generic resources or with the generic and the real
ones???
I’m a little confused...
Thank so much to all
Cheers
Vit

 

[davidroybush]

Generic resources do not have an Assignment Owner or Default
Assignment Owner. So in order to follow Treb's advice, do not make
the team resource a generic resource. Make the team resource a
regular work resource and set the Default Assignment Owner to the team
lead. That way when tasks are assigned to the team the tasks will
appear the team lead's My Tasks page and the team lead can then
delegate them out, or team members can assign themselves. If you make
the team resource generic you will not be able to specify a Default
Assignment Owner so the team lead will not get visibility when team
tasks are assigned, but team members will still be able to self
assign.

At any point the PM or RM can use the Build Team tool in Pro or PWA to
replace the team resource with a real named resource.

In my mind, team resources are about sharing work and self assigning
to tasks, whereas generics are about planning and skill matching.

I hope that helps,
Dave

 

[Peter M.]

You are absolutely right, thanks for reminding me.
Confusing anyway, so one might need to set up generics as well as team
resources. It would be so much easier if we could set assignment owners to
generics.

 

[LisaD]

I have also been struggling with this feature. It does not work as explained
in several manuals.

Our software development dept is moving towards and pseudo "agile"
methodology. This involves daily development meetings, where a list of
tasks would be presented, and each developer would choose what they are going
to work on. From a project management standpoint, this makes it difficult
for us to track. (especially since we are a geographically dispersed team).

Upon reading the team assignments, I thought this would work great. I could
assign the list of tasks to the US Developers team. After their meeting,
they could then go to their My Tasks page, and take whichever assignments
they decided in the meeting. However, the tasks don't show in their my tasks
page, they have to click the "Self Assign Team Tasks" button, which then
shows them every task in the project, not just the "Team" tasks. (Sure you
can sort by resource, but that is an additional step).

So, then they choose their task and assign it to themselves, and submit the
change.
The task then appears in the My task page, and shows their name only in the
resource field. (so far so good)

When I look at the approvals page I see the re-assignment from team name to
individual. Great, I accept the change. Then I go into Project and view the
plan to see what happened. Well, that task now shows up with US developers,
AND the individual as the resources!

And, from the approvals preview page in PWA, the resource field is not
populated (I created a custom view to show resource). Therefore, I have no
way to adjust the resource field before I submit it!

I went back to the My tasks page (for the individual), and the only name
showing in the Resource field for that task is the individual name, the team
name is not listed. But if you go to the Team Tasks page, using the "Self
Assign" button, the task shows up under the team name, AND the individual
name.

This functionality is crucial to us adopting Project Server, and it is very
awkward and has holes.

I have spent hours looking online for answers, and haven't found any.

Any assistance would be much appreciated!

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Peter:

A couple of comments:

It doesn't sound like you fully understand the purpose of Team Resources.
Use these only for work that is "pick-up" in nature. IOW, Anyone on the team
can do the work. Use Team resource for work that you expect users to
self-assign only. Use regular Generic resources for tasks that you expect a
resource manager or project manager to reassign. These are critical to
skill-based matching, so do not use team resources for this type of task.

Hint: You can set a default assignment owner for Generic resources directly
in the database, although editing one through PWA afterwards, will remove
the information.Of course I'm obliged to add that Microsoft does not support
direct database manipulation. YMMV.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
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