MS project for managing resources

One way we overcame the problem of non-project/admin activities was to show the maximum units against the resources at a percentage less than 100% (e.g. 80%).



Each resources availability can either be determined from historical data (timesheets etc), or an agreed allowance for administrative/non project work agreed on by the Resource Managers.

MS Project will allow the creation of a "resource pool", to which projects may be linked. Below is an extract from MSP help:



"A resource pool allows you to share resources among multiple projects. Using a resource pool allows you to schedule resources work across projects, identify conflicts between assignments in different projects, and see how a resources time is used in multiple projects If you have people or equipment that work on tasks in multiple project files, you may want to use the resource pool to centralize resource information, such as resource name, calendar used, resource units, and cost rate tables, making it easier to administer. Each project that uses resources from the resource pool is called a sharing file. You can use any other existing project file as a resource pool, but it is recommended that you create a new project file just for resource information to make it easiest to manage resource information and task assignments between sharing files and the resource pool."



This has the advantage of only having to create and maintain a single project file, rather than having to update each individual project files resources.



For further MSP Help on the subject, type "share" into the keyword box, then select "All about sharing resources" from the topic list.

Your basic question is what software would best suit your requirements. I believe you can use both MS Project and Primavera Software to attain your objectives based on the scenarios you’ve enumerated. Answering point by point your queries can be best answered if you already in the process of preparing your schedule.



If you have questions, feel free to email me.

You have posted your request for help in managing resources on an MS Project forum, but you say you would like advice on what software to use.

Two points you make about your multiple projects resourcing lead me to recommend either Primavera Project Planner (P3) or Primavera SureTrak (ST):



1) One of your projects uses resources in both day and night shifts P3 or ST handle up to 31 different base calendars, as well as unlimited resource calendar variants of the base calendars. They can also handle different shift calendars.



2) You are sharing resources across multiple projects.

P3 or ST can handle a group of Projects, called a Project Group, and member projects. These share resources, as well as coding and calendars.



You can plan each project separately, but report and analyse the resource usages overall in the Project group.



The key to managing this is the use of Activity Codes and Activity ID codes, especially the special Sub-Project Code (1st 2 characters of the Activity ID code used to identify which member project the activity belongs to).



In P3 you can code the resources hierarchically so that they can be generic or particular people.



eg, ENG* would capture all resources beginning ENG, while ENGJim could be a particular engineer named Jim. Jim would also be grouped in the wildcard resource ENG*



Hope this helps.