Guild of Project Controls: Compendium | Roles | Assessment | Certifications | Membership

Tips on using this forum..

(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?

(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.

Resource groups

9 replies [Last post]
Wed, 2010-04-21 08:16
Dan Mårtensson
User offline. Last seen 11 years 20 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Posts: 59
Groups: Civil Engineering
Hi planners,

I’m stuck and maybe you can help me out.

Is it possible to create resource groups in MSP?

Example: Task “A” 10 days and work 500 hours. Instead of allocate a lot of people to this activity I want to allocate a group in stead e.g. Designers.

Is this possible?

Regards

Dan
Top

Replies

Fri, 2010-04-23 06:03
#1
Dan Mårtensson
User offline. Last seen 11 years 20 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Posts: 59
Groups: Civil Engineering
Thanks!

/Dan
Top
Fri, 2010-04-23 02:58
#2
Vladimir Liberzon
User offline. Last seen 2 weeks 1 day ago. Offline
Joined: 5 Feb 2001
Posts: 2750
Groups: Accreditation Editors, Board of Advisors, Civil Engineering, GPCCAR Editors, Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas, Regional Representatives, Spider Project Team, TURNAROUND & SHUTDOWN (T/A & S/D)
Don,
Spider Demo can be downloaded from http://www.spiderproject.ru/demo_e.php
It is almost full functional but with 40 activities per project restriction. Import/export is not included in Demo except in text. I recommend to start learning the software from studuing First Project item in Spider Help.
You can also look at the publications at the same site - it may be useful.
There are several Spider Project versions from Professional to Lite. If your client will be interested discuss with me what version will be sufficient.
Your future questions on Spider Project may be posted at Spider Project forum here.
Best Regards,
Vladimir
Top
Fri, 2010-04-23 02:46
#3
Dan Mårtensson
User offline. Last seen 11 years 20 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Posts: 59
Groups: Civil Engineering
Hi Vladimir,

Thanks you for your advice

Spider Project sounds very interesting and for this client very use full.
Were can I read more about spider project?

Regards

Dan
Top
Thu, 2010-04-22 12:06
#4
Vladimir Liberzon
User offline. Last seen 2 weeks 1 day ago. Offline
Joined: 5 Feb 2001
Posts: 2750
Groups: Accreditation Editors, Board of Advisors, Civil Engineering, GPCCAR Editors, Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas, Regional Representatives, Spider Project Team, TURNAROUND & SHUTDOWN (T/A & S/D)
Hi Dan,
your model is practical and is exactly what our customers do using Spider Project for managing Orders.
For each type of order they create separate project that is called typical fragment. This fragment is created for certain amount that shall be delivered.
Resources are grouped in Skill sets. And one resource can belong to several Skills.
Instead of resources the planner assign skills.
When new order appeared the necessary fragment is inserted in the portfolio (or project) model. In the process of inserting the planner enters the real quantity that shall be delivered and activity data are automatically modified.
The software selects the resources that will do the work automatically taking into account resource availability, resource costs and resource productivities (different resources may have the same skill but different productivity on the same work). Besides the planner can enter user defined priorities for resource selection from the Skill set.
So adding new order is very easy task that takes seconds to complete.
Best Regards,
Vladimir
Top
Thu, 2010-04-22 06:44
#5
Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 1 day 18 hours ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5233
Groups: Spider Project Team
Dan,

Got it, makes a lot of sense to me.

Best regards,
Rafael
Top
Thu, 2010-04-22 03:51
#6
Dan Mårtensson
User offline. Last seen 11 years 20 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Posts: 59
Groups: Civil Engineering
Hi,

Thanks for all your answers.

Trevor, You are right! The detail level will be lost.
The background for this issue is that my client has a lot of small projects going on at the same time.
When a new project is delivered to them, they want to be able to just pick a standard plan programmed earlier. In this case there are 3 standard plans to those from. The plans are already planned with hours and when a new project is delivered they will replace the “groups” that I talked about with real persons and then baseline. The resources catalogue contains, approximately 70 resources.

Rafael,
My thought was to create e.g. a group of designers. This group should contain, steel designers, Mechanical designers and electrical designers. Later on they will be assigned in different project, just be able to display the total hours that will be needed for a chosen task.

Hope my explanation is answer to your question.


Alexandre,

Thanks for your replay, this already now.

Regards

Dan
Top
Wed, 2010-04-21 12:30
#7
Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 1 day 18 hours ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5233
Groups: Spider Project Team
Dan,

Are you referring to multi-resources, crews that have several trades, skills and equipments assigned to them, crews that will be used hundreds of times in your job and that any change shall be applied among all occurrences?

If you are referring to this and crew composition is diverse you are in need to know the details.

I do not use MS Project but always very curious about the discussion as I have seen the software is used by many IT people and their particular needs are very frequently similar to other user needs. I do not know how to implement multi-resources in MS Project and would be interesting how experienced users manage this.

I am even a neophyte in the use of multi-resources with other software but interested as seems quite powerful and of much practical use in my jobs. The functionality might also be good for identifying, filtering and reporting on these groups.

Best regards,
Rafael
Top
Wed, 2010-04-21 11:53
#8
Trevor Rabey
User offline. Last seen 1 year 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Posts: 530
Groups: None
Yes, set max units for the resouce in the resource sheet to 500% to represent 5 guys, and assign to a task at 500%.

But why be so lazy?
This is really just trying to cut corners and there is nothing to be gained by it except a bit less typing, and you lose a level of detail which will be useful later.
Your example 500 hours is just 5 guys for 10 h/d for 10 days. At some point you have to actually identify those guys individually (that’s called resource management) so you may as well do it from the outset.
Top