Understanding Resource Types and Other Factors
Project supports three different types of resources:
Work resources
are the people and equipment that will do the work to complete tasks in
your project. For example, a developer for your product is a work
resource, and the server he uses to check code is also a work resource. Material resources
are the things that the work resources need to complete tasks in your
project. For example, if one of the work resources for your project is
a plotter, you may also want to include material resources for paper
and toner. Or, if you’re planning a construction project, you may want
to include cement, rebar, lumber, and other supplies for your project
as material resources. Cost resources
are the fees associated with getting tasks in your project done, which
aren’t associated with the amount of work put into a project or how
long the project lasts. For example, if a task in your project requires
a business trip, you would include the airfare and hotel charges as
cost resources.
Cost resources are different
from the costs incurred by work resources doing work on your project,
or the costs incurred as you use material resources (supplies) to get
work done.
In addition to these three types of resources, keep a couple other considerations in mind when planning your project:
Will other projects use the same resources as my project?
If the resources you’ll be using in your project can also be used in
other projects in your organization, and if you are running Project
Professional 2010 with Project Server, you can choose to make resources
in your project enterprise resources or assign enterprise resources to
your project. An enterprise resource
is a resource that is included in a list of all resources in your
organization (the enterprise resource pool). By assigning resources
from the enterprise resource pool, you are able to account for work
that your resources are doing on other projects, not just your own.
This helps track resource availability and enables you to more
accurately plan your project within the broader scope of your
organization. Do I know exactly who/what will be working on my project?
If you know you’ll need a specific kind of resource on your project,
such as a developer or a roofer, but you’re not sure exactly who or
what will be doing the work (that is, you don’t know which person or
which server), you can use generic resources
to plan your project. By assigning generic resources, you can identify
just how many people or things your project will need, and then you can
substitute them later for the specific people, equipment, or other
resources that will be doing the work you have laid out in your project
plan.
Adding Resources to Your Project
The
process for adding a resource to your project is different, depending
on whether you’re adding a resource used only in your project (a local
resource) or an enterprise resource available for assignment throughout
your organization (Project Professional only).
To add a local resource to your project, follow these steps:
1. | On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.
| 2. | Type the name of your work, material, or cost resource in the Resource Name column. If you are adding a generic resource, type a generic label for the resource, such as Roofer, Web Server, or Designer.
| 3. | Choose whether the resource is a work, material, or cost resource using the list in the Type column.
| 4. | If you chose Material in the Type column, type the unit label for the material resource in the Material Label column. For example, if you are adding fabric as a material resource, you might choose to type yards in the Material Label column.
| 5. | If
you want the resource to be part of a larger group of resources, such
as employees in the same role or in the same department, type the name
of the group in the Group column.
| 6. | Type
the maximum amount of the resource’s time that can be spent on the
project, as a decimal or percentage of the resource’s time, in the Max Units column. For example, if a resource is working half-time on your project and half-time on other projects, type 50% or .5 in the Max Units column for that resource.
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If you are adding a generic resource, you can use the Max Units
column to identify how many of that generic resource you have available
for your project. For example, if you have enough work for three
full-time developers working on tasks in your project, you can enter 300% in the Max Units column for the Developer generic resource.
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| 7. | If appropriate, type the cost information for the resource in the following fields:
- Std Rate— Type the standard
cost rate for the resource. That is, how much the resource is paid for
specific time units, such as an hourly, daily, or yearly rate.
- Ovt Rate—
Type the overtime cost rate for the resource. That is, how much the
resource is paid for overtime work in specific time units, such as per
minute, per hour, or per day.
- Cost/Use—
Type a per-use cost for the resource, if applicable. For example,
several tasks in your project will use an industrial printer. Each time
you use the printer, there is an initial cost-per-use fee of $250 on
top of the standard daily rate.
- Accrue at— Choose when the costs will be accrued for the resource. By default, this is set to Prorated,
meaning that the costs for this resource will be accrued as work is
scheduled and actual work is reported on a task. If you choose Start,
costs for the entire task will be accrued at the beginning of a
resource’s assignment, based on the scheduled work for the task. If you
choose End, costs for the resource’s task assignment will not be accrued until the remaining work for the task is set to 0.
| 8. | If you are adding a generic resource, on the Resource tab, in the Properties group, click Information.
| 9. | Select the Generic check box and click OK.
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Here’s how to add an enterprise resource to your project, using Project Professional 2010:
1. | On the Resource tab, in the Insert group, click Add Resources, and then click Build Team from Enterprise.
| 2. | Use the Existing filters box to filter the list of enterprise resources.
| 3. | Select the Available to work
check box to narrow the list of resources to only those that are
available to work a certain number of hours during a specific time
range.
| 4. | To find generic resources, click + to expand Customize filters and then define a filter:
- Field Name— Generic
- Test— Equals
- Values— Yes
| 5. | Click Apply Filter to display only generic resources.
| 6. | After you decide which enterprise resources you want to add to your project, press Ctrl and click each resource in the Enterprise Resource column and then click Add.
| 7. | Click OK to add the selected resources to your project. |
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