Objectives
On completion of this chapter, you should be able to
- Understand various types of resources that exist in MS-Project
- Understand how to create and assign resources in a project using MS-Project
Once the sequence of tasks (activities) is known, the next step is to prepare the Resource Sheet indicating resources which may possibly be assigned to various tasks. This may not be a necessary step, only when you do not have any resources in house and outsource the entire work. This is not the case with most of the projects and a key constraint of many projects is resources. Assigning resources and estimating durations have to be done in all such cases to develop the project schedule.
Understanding the Resource Sheet
Here is an explanation of various fields of Resource sheet1(see Box)
Assigning Resources
Once the resources are created in the Resource Sheet, the project planner or project manager assigns these resources. Assigning resources can be done in more than one way and we will be learning one of the ways of assigning resources (using split view) here in this chapter. We will also be discussing about different task types later, in this chapter, using the same project file.
Terms
Resources: People, Equipment, and Consumable items (like printer cartridges, Compact Disks, Paper) used to complete the project tasks.
Resource Name: Assign the name of the resource. You will see this name beside the Gantt Chart bar. At times, these can be based on the role or function also (like programmer and project manager).
Resource Types:
Work:
(i) Human resource, like employees, consultants, analysts, engineers
(ii) Equipment which are charged on hourly or daily basis, like computers
Material: The supplies or other consumable items that are used to complete tasks like paper, compact disks.
Cost: It is the single expense of the project. (Counted by the usage like traveling expenses, licensing fees).
Material Label: Identify the quantity of the material that will be consumed. This field is only workable if resource type is material. Unit of measure is mentioned here. For example, Rims in case of Paper, Numbers in case of Compact Disks.
Initials: Project will automatically generate it as a single character (can be and should be set appropriately).
Group: Identify whether the resource belongs to a particular department for example, Testing. This will help to display or filter resources better.
Max. Units: A percentage that indicates the resource s allocation in daily scheduled work (by default, it is 100 percent meaning Single Person working Full time; 40 hours/week).
Std. Rate: The amount shows how much cost is added to the project for each hour of work using a resource.
Ovt. Rate: Overtime (OT) cost for a work resource.
Cost/ Use: Set the charge of a material resource per use.
Base Calendar: Set the type of the calendar, standard (by default), 24 hours or night shift.
Code: Identify the resources.
Specifies how the Project accounts for the timing of resource costs in the budget.
Accrue At:
Prorated (By default): Project adds in costs at the time when work is scheduled.
Start: Cost is paid before the work starts.
End: Cost is paid after the work ends.
Example Problem: Assigning Resources Using Split View
In this exercise, we will be assigning a resource to a task using split view. The purpose is to understand the process of assigning a work resource to a task. A simple project file containing a single task (Test Execution) has been created for the purpose. The file has a work resource called Testing Engineer.
- Copy the file ResourceAlloc1-orginal.mpp from Practice-files/Ch04 directory to your working directory and rename it as ResourceAlloc1.mpp. Double click on the file. You will see the Gantt Chart containing an auto-scheduled task called Test Execution (Figure 4.1).
Figure 4.1 Gantt Chart of the project with a single auto-scheduled task Test Execution
- Switch to Resource Sheet view by using View Buttons on the right hand side bottom corner (near zoom slider). You will observe that there is a single resource called Testing Engineer (Figure 4.2). The task Test Execution has to be assigned with the resource Testing Engineer.
Figure 4.2 Resource Sheet view of the project
- Switch back to Gantt Chart by using View Buttons on the right-hand side bottom corner (near zoom slider). Let us take a closer look of the Test Execution task. For this, a view called Task form will be handy.
- On the View tab, in the Split View group, select the Details check-box (Figure 4.3). Project splits the window into two panes. In the upper pane is the Gantt Chart view, and below it is the Task Form view. You will get the details of the selected task, Test Execution Click anywhere in the Task Form view and then, on the Format tab, in the Details group, click Work. The Work details appear.
Task Form is a handy way to see a task’s duration, units, and work values. As of now, there is no Resource assigned in the Task Form view. As you assign resources, you can see the essential scheduling values for the task Test Execution.
Figure 4.3 Use the details check-box to view the Task Form
- Click in the Resource Name column of the Task Form and you will see an arrow on the right edge of the row. When you click on the arrow (pull down), the list of resources appears. In this case, the only resource available is Testing Engineer. Select the same (Figure 4.4).
Figure 4.4 Task form also helps to assign resources
- In MS-Project, you have the option of computing the work when you assign the resources or unassign the resources. By default, tasks in MS-Project are not effort driven. Select the Effort driven by using the check-box on the top of the task form. It means, as more resources are assigned to the task, the duration decreases, but the total work remains the same and is distributed among the assigned resources (see the following box for more information on effort-driven scheduling).
- You will see on the Gantt Chart that Testing Engineer is associated with the Test—Execution task (Figure 4.5). The name of the resource appears next to the task bar too. You can deselect the Details check-box in the Split views group (in the View tab) and close the task form.
Figure 4.5 Assigned resources are seen next to the task bar
- Save the file. However, you need not close the session and the project file, as we will be doing some more exercises.
Effort-Driven Tasks and the Scheduling Formula
By default, effort-driven scheduling is disabled for all tasks you create in MS-Project. This implies that when you add or remove resources, the duration of the task does not get affected and the quantum of work done is not changed. For example, let us say five people attend a meeting of one hour as a part of the project. By adding five more people for the task Meeting, you will not be able to reduce the time to half an hour. Ten people attending the meeting may not mean that more project-related work is done.
You can turn on effort-driven scheduling for an entire project plan or just for a few select tasks. In subsequent sections, we will study how we can use Actions list to control recalculation of the work on a task immediately after assigning or unassigning resources. Effort-driven scheduling is applicable only when you assign additional resources to or remove resources from Automatically scheduled tasks.
MS-Project uses the following scheduling formula to compute the work:
Duration × Assignment units = Work
Let us look at the specific example and find these values in the Task Form. The duration of task Test Execution is five working days, which equals 40 hours. When you assigned a Testing Engineer to task Test Execution, MS-Project applied 100 percent of Test Engineer’s working time to this task. The scheduling formula for the Test Execution task looks like this:
40 hour (the same as 5 days) task duration × 100 percent assignment units = 40 hour of work
Types of Tasks
Tasks can also be classified in a different way into three categories, namely, Fixed Units, Fixed Duration, and Fixed Work.
A Fixed Units task (Figure 4.6) is a task in which the assigned units (or resources) are a fixed value, and any changes to the amount of work or the task’s duration do not affect the task’s units.
Figure 4.6 Conceptual view of fixed units task
Let us continue with our example and experiment a bit to understand this better. By default, the effort-driven tasks created are of type Fixed Units. The Test Execution task is also of type Fixed Units.
- Click on the Durations field of Test Execution job and make Duration 10 days. You will get an Actions button (on the left) with the Actions list as shown in Figure 4.7. (Actions list will give you an option to change the response of MS-Project.)
Figure 4.7 Action buttons help you to control the outcome when you change the duration, units, and so on
Note: You may explore other two task types, on similar lines. For brevity, we are limit- ing the discussion over here.
- The default option is to keep units the same and increase the work. Select the same. With this, you have one Test Engineer working for 10 days. This option appeared as a default, because the task type was Fixed Units. Select the same with the help of the cursor and the Action button disappears. You may save and close the project file.
Fixed Duration task is a task in which the duration is a fixed value and any changes to the work or the assigned units (i.e., resources) do not affect the task’s duration (Figure 4.8).
Figure 4.8 Conceptual view of the fixed duration task
A Fixed Work task is a task in which the amount of work is a fixed value and any changes to the task’s duration or the number of assigned units (or resources) do not affect the task’s work (Figure 4.9).
Figure 4.9 Conceptual view of fixed work task
To conclude, we did discuss about assigning resources and also about task types in Microsoft Project in this chapter.
Note