Having roles, not only resources. Is it possible?

10-4

Rafael,

sorry I didn’t answer your post sooner, I was traveling somewhere between Belgium and Algeria

you’re right, all the 4 pieces of software are needed to manage skills with MS Project; for sure, PM 5/6 or PSNext are two much easier solutions to setup and manage.

Alexandre

I just downloaded the demo versions and got a very pleasing surprise when for curiosity at the control panel software uninstall found one is a 7mb and the other a 10 mb application. I am not deleting my demo’s, just curiosity. Seems like Ferrari’s, lean and fast machines.



That I call efficiency, I am not sold by others who like P6 claim “Strong and Robust Databases”, it is functionality what matters the most, with time you can master any.



It will take time to explore the demos; you even got to adapt your mind to change, still have the Macintosh look and feel. I was a Microplanner for the MAC user, my experience was great.

Alexandre



Seems to me that in order to get full functionality as per Giles needs you might need:



a- MS Project Professional

b- Project Server Software

c- at least a computer with a Server Operating System

d- Database Software licence(s), concurrent, named ...?



Here I will appreciate your comments.



Although I like Microsoft approach I believe there is the possibility you cannot do a Stand Alone Installation under a Standard Windows Operating System as in P6, with the idea of exploring how it is applied, this would make your comments twice as valuable.



I would appreciate if you can provide us with some cost info if you have it on hand, just specify currency we can figure out the exchange. I believe that even with these costs, enterprise implementation of MS Project Pro is less expensive than P6.



Thanks in advance,

Rafael

Hi Giles,



I believe you need to revisit where you will use the resource group code. By assigning values to the resource group code, then using "group by" command to the resource usage view, you will see which resources are assigned to a certain group. In your case, Alex K. and System Analyst should have System Analyst as Group Code.



I hope this works for you.

Giles,

as Mr. Obama would say, "Yes you can"

It will suppose a good organisational work for the chief planners and the administrator to build a comprehensive SBS.

MS 2732A course covers all that.

Alexandre

Rafael,

in MSP Standard (or Pro standalone), a resource group can be used to consolidate workload or costs, or to filter resources; this is not a role or skill.



Giles,

MSP Pro was defined as the planning and scheduleing tool for MSP Server; MSP Server is the bridge between MSP Pro, MS SQL Server database and Project Web Access interface.

This multi-tier solution includes a sill (or role) bases assignement capability: the administrator will build a Skill Organisational Structure (SBS) on the OBS model, to apply skills to resources or resources to skills (a skill may have several resources under it, and a resource may have more than one skill); the planner is then able to assign either skills or resources to tasks.

This works only when the planner opens a project with a MSP Server user account, not on local projects.

Alexandre

Alexandre



Can it be trough resources group? If you wish follow the link so you can see what I mean from a Suretrak print screen and a P3 print screen.



I used numbered resources with the C prefix to mean Contractual while numbered resources with the B prefix to mean Budget. You can assign resources (costs) individually to each activity. Your Budget breakdown and your Contractual breakdown don’t even have to be one on one. You can assign and distribute several breakdown items to a single activity.



One resource group includes all B prefix resources while the second includes all C prefix resources, to facilitate grouping witin a range.



Then thereafter you can generate your tabular and graphic displays.



http://rapidshare.com/files/243528040/Resources_Group.pdf



I use Suretrak most of the time, maybe grouping can be done using cost codes (not available in Suretrak) instead of resources, you should know better.

Alexandre,

Spider Project does it easily. We always recommend to have several project budgets in parallel - PM Team budget, Management budget, contractual budget, etc. Spider Project permits to compare any budgets with each other, current values with the previous values, etc. Any kind of comparative analysis including trend analysis.



We usually deal with large projects. And manual resource assignment that considers resource availability, resource productivity, resource cost, resource priority, activity priority, etc. is hard to do and even harder to reconsider each time when the schedule was changed. Wrong assignments lead to unnecessary delays - resource that was assigned may be busy on some activity and some other resource that have necessary skill may be available but not assigned.

Resources may be people or machines. Just imagine that you have many trucks with different capacities. You need to assign trucks to move something from one place to another. If you assign some special trucks then you may cause delay if some of assigned trucks are not available at the moment when activity is ready to start. If you assign skill Truck and specify the required number of trucks or their cumulative productivity Spider Project will select available trucks and assign those that will do the job best basing on user defined criteria (manually defined priorities, minimal duration, minimal cost or other criteria). Do you think that selecting proper truck types is so creative that can be done only by people?

People can define priorities and Spider Project will look at priorities first. But if resources with highest priorities are busy the software will look at other resources with the same skills.

If you want to assign specific resources then you shall assign these resources, not skills.



Best Regards,

Vladimir

Alexandre,

Spider Project does it easily. We always recommend to have several project budgets in parallel - PM Team budget, Management budget, contractual budget, etc. Spider Project permits to compare any budgets with each other, current values with the previous values, etc. Any kind of comparative analysis including trend analysis.



We usually deal with large projects. And manual resource assignment that considers resource availability, resource productivity, resource cost, resource priority, activity priority, etc. is hard to do and even harder to reconsider each time when the schedule was changed. Wrong assignments lead to unnecessary delays - resource that was assigned may be busy on some activity and some other resource that have necessary skill may be available but not assigned.

Resources may be people or machines. Just imagine that you have many trucks with different capacities. You need to assign trucks to move something from one place to another. If you assign some special trucks then you may cause delay if some of assigned trucks are not available at the moment when activity is ready to start. If you assign skill Truck and specify the required number of trucks or their cumulative productivity Spider Project will select available trucks and assign those that will do the job best basing on user defined criteria (manually defined priorities, minimal duration, minimal cost or other criteria). Do you think that selecting proper truck types is so creative that can be done only by people?

People can define priorities and Spider Project will look at priorities first. But if resources with highest priorities are busy the software will look at other resources with the same skills.

If you want to assign specific resources then you shall assign these resources, not skills.



Best Regards,

Vladimir

Vladimir,

my mistake!

however, I am not sure that to let a piece of software decide which resource is best fitted to replace a said skill is a good idea; I do prefer Primavera or PSNext that are using skills (roles) as a filter to enable the planner to assign a resource on a task on which a skill was primarily assigned.

I understand that on huge projects it could generate an additional workload for the planner, but I think with your solution the planner will check the software’s work result anyway.

On the other hand, until yesterday I was in Tunisia and Algeria giving training on Primavera PM6 and P3,a nd one question arose from the trainees: how to display on a graph the contractual budget of the project, and compare with the planned budget; nor PM or P3 can do that, because it requires a custom data item, that are not graphically displayed. How about Spider?

Thanks

Alexandre

Alexandre,

the question was "I am looking for the following functionality, and I am wondering, if there is a trick to achieve it some how with MS Project. If not, are there any other tools, which can do it?"



You did not understand my post.

Skill scheduling means that you assign skills and the software selects which resources that have these skills to assign on each activity.



The tools that you mentioned do not select resources - they suggest to do it manually. In large projects it is too hard to make proper selections. It is impossible to reconsider assignments each time when the fact differs from the plan.

Best Regards,

Vladimir

Vladimir,

Skills and roles are the same, only a matter of vocabulary.

Primavera PM, Sciforma PSNext, MS Project Server (-) enable the planners to assign both roles and resources to the projects.

But the question was about MS Project Standard

Alexandre

There is anothee approach that is called Skill scheduling.

You can create and assign to activities not resources but skills.

You can define which resources have which skills (one resource can have many skills).

Resources belonging to the same skill may have different productivities, cosys, etc.

The software calculates project resource constrained schedule selecting resources that have necessary skills.

Resource selection is based on their availabilities and user defined priorities.

This feature is certainly available in Spider Project and I believe (but am not sure) - in Open Plan and Artemis Prestige.



I think that assigning named resources manually is not easy and will not guarantee the best results.

Giles,

Roles are only available in MS Project Professional when used with MSP Server (to keep things short, MSP Pro would like to be Primavera PM, and MSP Std Primavera P3)

In MSP Standard (stand alone), you will only be able to mimic roles by using generic resources

From my previous posts this is what I got, sorry I don’t see much of a difference to your original request, my misunderstanding.



Fhttp://rapidshare.com/files/242326833/Define_Resource_Groups_as_Roles.p…



http://rapidshare.com/files/242335450/Resource_Roles.mpp



I am struggling to learn MS Project and take the most out of it, I am used to P3 and change is hard. This will be my last posting into your thread, good luck.



Rafael

What about this approach?



http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/HP452955231033.aspx



2 strikes?

Sorry



I thought that by creating a Generic Resource per Group plus your Avilable Named Resources and latter on by Reducing your Generic Resource as a Named Resource is avilable then you could get the functionality.

I am new into MS Project, still using other software, but after looking at your question as my way to learn Project I found after some keyword search under MS Project help that there is a field for Resources Group you can find under Task Usage View, if you do not see it you can unhide the field, maybe this could be MS Project way to handle the issue.