Depaul University

1
Depaul University

• Adding Resources In
• MicroSoft Project
• Instructor David A. Lash

2
Adding People and Equipment to Your Project

• Working with people and equipment in your
  project.
• you can assign resources to tasks, and then use
  tools and views to manage those resources and the
  overall project more efficiently.
• With Microsoft Project you can
• Assign resources to tasks so you can ensure that
  you have adequate people and equipment to meet
  your schedule.
• Create work schedules for resources.

3
Adding People and Equipment to Your Project

• Microsoft Project stores resource information
  with each project.
• The amount of resource information you enter
  depends on the level of detail you want.
• For example, you can make sure each task simply
  has a resource assigned to accomplish it.
• Or you can enter more detailed information, such
  as resource costs, along with task assignments.
• Note If you're not tracking resource usage, you
  may not want to enter resource information at
  all.
• After you enter resource information for a
  project, you can use the same resources in other
  projects.

4
Creating a Resource List for Your Project

• 1. From the View menu, choose Resource Sheet.
• 2. From the View menu, choose Table, and then
  choose Entry.
• 3. In the Resource Name column, type a resource
  name in a blank field.
• 4. If you want to designate a resource group,
  type a name in the Group column.
• 5. If necessary, in the Max. Units column, type
  the number of resource units available for this
  resource.
• 6. Change the default information in the
  remaining fields as appropriate.
• 7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each resource..

5
About Creating a Resource List for Your Project

• Before you assign resources to tasks, you can
  create a list of resources for the project to
  save yourself time later.
• A resource list includes
• The name of the resource, which can be a person,
  a piece of equipment, or a class of
  interchangeable resources, such as pilots.
• The maximum number of interchangeable resource
  units available for the resource.

6
MS Project Units?

• What are units?
• There are two types of units in Microsoft
  Project maximum units and assignment units.
• Maximum Units - When you want to specify how much
  a work resource is available for work on a
  project.
• Use the Max. Units field in a resource sheet to
  indicate whether the work resource is full time
  or part time on this project, or whether
  multiples of this resource are consolidated into
  one
• Assignment Units - When you want to specify how
  much a work resource is dedicated to a specific
  assignment.

7
Assigning and Removing a Resource

• 1. From the View menu, choose Gantt Chart.
• 2. In the Gantt table, select a task.
• 3. Right click the task and select resource
  assignment.

8
Assigning and Removing a Resource (cont.)

• 4. In the Name column, select the resource you
  want to assign to the task.
• Use UNITS - To indicate the level of effort for a
  work resource on a specific assignment.

9
Assigning and Removing a Resource (cont.)

• Assignment units indicate how much of the
  resource's available time, according to the
  resource calendar, is being used to work on a
  particular task. For example
• Specify 100 if the resource is to work the
  standard full time or 100 effort on the
  assignment. This is the default for all
  assignments.
• Specify 50 if the resource is spending half the
  available time on this assignment. Even if the
  resource is a full-time resource, there might be
  assignments for which only a part-time effort is
  required, leaving the remaining time available
  for another assignment.
• Specify 300 if three full-time equivalent
  multiple resources are working on this
  assignment. You can specify 250 if there are two
  full-time resources and one half-time resource on
  this assignment.

10
Assigning and Removing a Resource (cont.)

• 5. Click OK

11
Assigning Costs to Tasks and Resources

• For many PMs, cost is an important aspect of
  project scheduling and control.
• For example, cost considerations can determine
  how quickly tasks are accomplished, and how
  resources --- equipment and workers --- are used.
• In some cases, the success of a project may be
  measured by how closely the final project costs
  match the baseline costs.
• With Microsoft Project, you can monitor costs at
  a basic or advanced level. You can
• Assign wages or rates to resources.
• Account for the cost of materials.
• Control how costs are accrued.

12
Why Assign Costs to Tasks and Resources?

• When you assign costs to resources and tasks, you
  can also answer a variety of cost-related
  questions at any point in your project, such as
• What are the resource costs for this task?
• What are the resource costs for the project?
• How much will it cost to complete this task?
• What is the total cost for this phase of the
  project?
• What is the planned project cost?.

13
Assigning a Rate to a Resource

• 1. From the View menu, choose Resource Sheet.
• 2. In the Std. Rate, Ovt. Rate, or Cost/Use field
  for the resource, type the rate.
• 3. Click the enter button or press ENTER.

14
About Viewing Project Costs

• There are a number of ways to look at project
  costs.
• You can view task costs when you want to see the
  total of all resource assignment costs and the
  fixed cost for a task.
• You can view resource costs when you want to see
  how much money is being spent on overtime work.
• You can view total project costs to see whether
  the project is staying within its overall budget.
• By looking at costs, you can
• Closely manage your project by tracking the costs
  of each task.
• Create reports on the costs of individual tasks,
  as well as the overall cost of the project.
• View individual and group resource costs.

15
Viewing the Cost Per Task

• 1. From the View menu, choose Gantt Chart.
• 2. From the View menu, choose Table, and then
  choose Cost.
• 3. In the Gantt table, scroll right until the
  Total Cost field appears.
• Or drag the divider bar to the right to display
  the Total Cost field.