Lecture - 03 (CE-407L) - Print

LECTURE -03

SETTING UP RESOURCES

kamal HssainHighlight

In this lecture, we will learn how to:

Set up basic resource information for the people who work onyour project

Enter basic resource information for the equipment that will beused in your projects.

Enter resource information for the materials that will beconsumed as your project progresses.

Set up cost information for your resources.

Change a resources availability for work.

Record additional information about a resource in a note.

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: GOAL

Kamal HussainHighlight

MS Project works with three types of resources:

Work, Material, and Cost Resources.

People & equipment those are work resources.

As project managers, for our resources, what do we careabout?

When theyre available.

How much they cost.

Those are constraints on the triple constraint triangle.

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: KIND OF RESOURCES




To enter basic people resource information

On the View Bar, click Resource Sheet.

On the Resource Sheet, click the cell directly below the ResourceName column heading.

Enter the resource name, type, initials, Max. Units, and other information.Press Tab to move between fields.

CHAPTER THREESETTING UP RESOURCES: SETTING UP PEOPLE RESOURCES


Work Resource Example

Individual people identified by name Jon Ganio; Jim Hance

Individual people identified by job title or function

Mason; crane operator

Groups of people who have common skills

Electricians; carpenters; Steel fixers

Equipment Crane; Concrete mixer, Generator

CHAPTER THREESETTING UP RESOURCES: SETTING UP WORK RESOURCES




It can be a fixed location, for example a design office.

Could also be portable things, things that you have to rent.

Things that you have a finite amount of.

Consumable things that you have to buy, run out of, and buymore of.

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: EQUIPMENT RESOURCES




Max Units

The maximum capacity of a resource to accomplish any task.

If you set someone to 100%, then hes 100% available to work on tasks.

50% is part-time

MS Project will show you if hes overbooked overallocated.





The Max Units field in Project


200 % act like two people


In the Max Units field, instead of 100% or 50%, you can enter.5, 1, 2

Go to the Tools menu, click Options, and then click theSchedule tab.

In the Show assignments as units box, click Decimal.




You set up people and equipment resources in Project inexactly the same way.

Practical differences

Equipment can work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Peoplewould quit.

A normal working day for a person. 8 hours? 12 hours max?

Also, equipment typically can only do 1 or 2 different kinds oftasks. Humans are more flexible.

if you assign people to tasks that they werent hired to do

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: SETTING UP EQUIPMENT RESOURCES






To enter basic equipment resource information from ResourceSheet view

On the Standard toolbar, click the Resource Information button.

Note: that button changed in the Gantt chart view, clicking on it gave youTask information.

Click the General tab on the Resource Information dialog box.

In the Resource Name field, type the name of the resource.

Use the fields in the dialog box to enter information.

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: SETTING UP EQUIPMENT RESOURCES




To set up material resources in Resource Sheet view

On the Resource Sheet, click the next empty cell in the ResourceName column.

Enter the material resource name, and then press Tab.

In the Type field, select Material.

In the Material Label field, enter the per-unit label appropriate for thismaterial.

Enter the initials for the resource in the Initials field.

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: SETTING UP MATERIAL RESOURCES






Material resources

Get used up as the project progresses

Youll want to track the rate of consumption, and the associated cost.

Note: you cannot enter a max units value for a material resource itsgreyed out.

Its not a person or a piece of equipment that performs X piece of work overX amount of time.

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: SETTING UP MATERIAL RESOURCES




The third and final type of resource you can work with inProject.

You can use a cost resource to represent a financial costassociated with a task in a project.

Use a cost resource to represent a cost associated with atask.

Travel

Entertainment

Training

CHAPTER THREESETTING UP RESOURCES: SETTING UP COST RESOURCES



In the Resource Sheet, click the next empty cell in theResource Name column.

Type Travel, and press Enter.

In the Type field, click the down arrow, select cost, and pressEnter.

CHAPTER THREESETTING UP RESOURCES: SETTING UP COST RESOURCES


Doing this will allow you to answer important questions:

Whats the expected total cost of the project?

Are we using expensive resources to do things that less expensiveresources could do?

How much money will a specific type of resource or task cost over thelife of the project?

How have we allocated a particular type of expense, such as travel?

Are we spending money at a rate we can sustain?

CHAPTER THREESETTING UP RESOURCES: ENTERING RESOURCES PAY RATES





Now, you might not always have this information.

Perhaps only HR, or senior management, would know how much thepeople working on your project are being paid.

If so, make sure your sponsor understands how youre deriving costs forthe project.


To enter pay rates

On the Resource Sheet, click the Std. Rate field for a work resource.

Enter the resources standard pay rate in the format payment/pay period,for example 100/h for Rs100 per hour.

If necessary, enter the resources overtime pay rate in the Ovt.Rate field.





In the Std. Rate column in the Resource Sheet view

For work resources

5000/w gives you Rs5000 a week

5000 gives you Rs5000 an hour

5000/d gives you Rs5000 a day

For material resources,5000 gives you Rs5000 each.




For a Material resource, like sand, aggregates and cement,wed entered a standard rate.

When we assign resources to tasks in the next chapter, youll set howmany of them are used for a specific task.

Also, for Cost resources, like Travel, the Std. Rate field isgrayed out. You cant enter anything in it.

When we assign that resource to a task, well be able to specify its cost.





To adjust working time

On the Tools menu, click ChangeWorkingTime.

In the For box, select the resource whose working time you want tochange.

In the Change Working Time dialog box, enter the changes you want,and then click OK.

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: ADJUSTING WORKING TIME FOR RESOURCE


In Project, you can use different calendars for differentpurposes.

A resource calendar controls the working time and the non-working time for a resource.

You can only apply a resource calendar to a work resource people andequipment.

You cant apply a resource calendar to a material or cost resource.





When you create resources (as we did in the Resource Sheetview), Project automatically creates a Resource Calendar foreach one of them.

It bases it off of the Standard Calendar.

8:00am-5:00pm Monday through Friday.

Youll likely need to adjust each resources calendar somewhat:

Vacations? Training classes? Conferences?




Beware of changing the Standard Resource calendar.

Its used as a template for all of your resource calendars.

If you change it, it will change the existing resource calendars,not just any new ones.

If youve made special changes to an existing resource calendar,though, those will persist. It wont overwrite them.





For someone whos only available to work part-time, you havetwo choices:

In their resource calendar, you could set their hours, for example, 9:00am to5:00pm Monday through Friday.

Or, you could set their availability to 50%. Thats in theResource Sheet view, under Max Units for the resource.




Which is better?

The book recommends setting the resources availability at 50%

This is faster.

Also, youll see in the Resource Sheet view that thats a part-timeperson. If its buried in the calendar, you wouldnt see it there.

Using 50% availability also keeps the focus on what youve got in termsof your total amount of resources available to work on the project,rather than what their hours are.

Its a preference.




Changing the base calendar thats used

If you have to make a lot of the same changes for multiple resources, itmay be easier to change which base calendar youre using.

You can make a new base calendar thats a copy of an existing one, like acopy of the Standard Calendar.

Then edit your copy of it.

Tools menu > ChangeWorking Time.

Click on the Create New Calendar button.




Choose the Make a copy of radio button, and then choose the base calendar that you want to copy:

Then click OK.


To create resource notes or hyperlinks

In the Resource Name column, select the name of the resource forwhom you want to enter a note.

On the Standard toolbar, click the Resource Notes button (itlooks just like the Task Note button did, in the Gantt chart view).

In the Resource Information dialog box, enter the note text youwant, and then click OK.

CHAPTERTHREESETTING UP RESOURCES: DOCUMENTING RESOURCE DETAILS IN NOTES


Max. Units: The maximum capacity of a resource to accomplish tasks. Aresource that is available to work full time has a maximum units value of100% or 1.0.

Night Shift: A base calendar included with Microsoft Project designed toaccommodate an 11:00 P.M.8:00 A.M.graveyard work shift.

Over-allocated: The condition of a resource when it is assigned to domore work than can be done within the normal work capacity of theresource.

In Microsoft Project, the work capacity of a resource is measured in units. Onefull-time resource has 100% units (recorded in the Max. Units field).

CHAPTER THREEIMPORTANTTERMINOLOGY






Resource calendar: The working and nonworking times ofan individual work resource.

Resources: People, equipment, and material (and theassociated costs of each) needed to complete the work on aproject.

Sponsor: An individual or organization that provides financialsupport and champions the project team within the largerorganization.




Standard base calendar: A base calendar included withMicrosoft Project designed to accommodate an 8:00 A.M.5:00P.M. work shift.

Work resources: The people and equipment that do thework of the project.



Recording resource information in your project plans helpsyou better control who does what work when and at whatcost.

People and equipment resources perform the work in aproject.

Cost resources account for types of expenses across aproject.

Material resources are consumed during a project.

CHAPTER THREESUMMARY




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Lecture - 03 (CE-407L) - Print