✕

Microsoft Project 2010 Series: Session 10: Sharing Resources across Projects

Read Transcriptions

✕

Introduction: Microsoft Project 2010 Series_ Session 10_ Sharing Resources across Projects

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Techgig webinar series, our endeavor to empower techies. We believe that sharing of the knowledge is the key to enhance our skills and grow us as professional. With this principle in mind we have initiated a series of webinars conducted by industry experts to give you all a crisp insight of various domains. The topic of today’s session is Sharing Resources across Projects.This is the 10th and the last session in the Microsoft project 2010 series. This series is been conducted by Mr. B Sai Prasad, Senior Manager – Learning & Development at Cognizant Technology Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. So without further delay I introduce you all to our guest speaker. Hello participants I welcome you all for the last session of this project 2010 series which is about sharing resources among the multiple projects. So the key takeaways of this webinar would be on, understanding the constraints of dealing with resources in a single project followed by we will look at how to create a resource pool project and how to share this resource across multiple projects. We will also talk about the different modes of opening the resource pool along with the projects where it is link to.

Structure and constraints when dealing with the MPP file

So first let’s talk about two fundamental ways by which resources are added into a schedule. So to your left you can see there is a section called local resources so in the last 9 sessions the resource information what we had was stored in the same file where we had the task and the assignment information.This is quite useful when the resource is working one in a single project and you ideally want to track and improve the utilization of the resource that’s when you go for the local resources or in other words when the resources are added within the schedule where your task and assignment information is present that’s when we call it them as local resources.Towards your right you have a new term we are using today called resource pool. A resource pool is quite similar to a local resource the only difference is the resource details are stored in a separate file and it is linked to other projects where it is refer to.So the benefit of having a resource pool is if you have a group of resources that are shared between multiple projects and you want to maintain their cost and calendar information then resource pool would be quite useful.The third important benefit you have about resource pool is the utilization and their optimization can be done quite at a much larger extent compare to local resources. So let’s quickly look at the process of creating a resource pool and how it is different from local resources.

Create a Resource Pool

The first step in terms of sharing resources across multiple projects is to create a resource pool. Remember resource pool is only a term which we use but Microsoft project does not have an option where you create a resource pool project.The first step is you create a blank project the same way you have been doing. Once we have created a blank project you go to the resource sheet where you add resource details. The first two steps are quite similar to the way we have been doing in a single project. The third step is where you ideally need to follow some standard of naming this file. Generally the accepted standard is have the resource pool file name as something project name or organization name hyphen resource pool. Let’s quickly look at that demonstration of the first step. So I have opened project 2010 so I am just going to create a blank project first I select file new blank project. So this opens up the Gantt chart by default remember we are about to create a resource pool so I am not interested in having task related information in the resource pool file. So I go to the view tab and I select my resource sheet button on my resource sheet I just add all the resources what I want and what their type is I also provide their standard rate, overtime rate as well as the base calendar specific information.So I have a completed file so let me open that file first. So in this file if you look at I have added a few resource names I have some types for them I have said that they are available full time and there cost information and their calendar is provided. Remember I am not trying to focus on how many projects where these resources are used. I’m now trying to focus more at a high level where the same resource information would be shared across multiple projects.Once you have configured the resource information make sure that the name of the file is resource pool or something quite similar so that you don’t get confused in the second step. In step 2 is you need to link this resource pool to the projects where it is being referred to. So the second step is I am going to open an existing file which I have already created.The point is you should not be closing the resource pool when you open the other file because project expects that the resource pool should be in read write mode or it should be opened when you are trying to link the resource pool with the other projects. So I am not going to close this file rather I just select file and I am trying to open the project where these resources will be referred to. Let’s assume that we have two projects one is called feasibility study project and the second project is implementation project. In the feasibility study project I just have a set of activities that duration estimates, the start date and finish date with predecessors. Please remember I have not assigned any resources to these activities because the resource information is in a separate file or in a resource pool. So traditionally you will go to the view resource sheet and this is where you add your resource information.

Share resources across multiple projects

So the challenge when you have resource information locally to a current file is you might want to duplicate the same information across multiple files. The second challenge is in case if a resource is over loaded with work it is quite difficult to find it because that data is duplicated across multiple files. So I am not going to add my resource information here rather I am going to go to the resource tab and I am going to select the resource pool button and uses option called share resources.In share resources you have two sections, the first section talks about the resources for the feasibility study by default it refers to its own resource sheet. The second option says or should it use the resources from a different file called as resource pool. So all this files that are opened now in my machine are listed in this drop-down.I have a blank project I also have the resource pool so make sure that your resource pool is selected. There is always a chance that before you try to use this option you would had some resource data in your local resource sheet. So in such cases there might be a conflict because the same resource name might be used across the resource pool and your local file.In case if there is a conflict in terms of their calendar or resource information you can try to set a priority here what should ideally take priority. The first option says the resource pool takes priority the second one says the sharer takes priority. When I say sharer the active project is what I call as the sharer file.So I am trying to say here the resource pool always takes the priority here and now let me say ok. You may not see any change on your Gantt chart but now let me go back to my resource sheet. On my resource sheet you can see the list of resources are automatically listed. So you might it might look after that the resource detail is copied from the resource pool file to my current project but the answer is no.It is not getting copied it is referred from the resource pool so I am going to just insert a column on my resource sheet to make it much simple for you to understand. So I am going to insert a column and the name of the column is project. The purpose of this particular field is it will tell the file name where these resources are coming from. So naturally it says all these resources are referred from the resource pool file and also remember when you try to update their resource details on my resource sheet on my active project naturally your resource tool will get automatically updated because both these projects are connected because we have shared their resource pool to my active project.Similarly when your resource pool file gets updated for example you change the calendar of the resource in the resource pool naturally all the files that are sharing that are using this resource pool will get automatically impacted. We will have a small demo of it later but this is just to help you that we are only referring and it is not a copy of your resource pool file and now I am going back to my Gantt chart I am just going to randomly assign some resources to these activities.So I am going to say determine scope as this securing project manager, defining the preliminary resources, sales guy, core resources project manager and I am just going to have a few set of resources and let’s say for scope complete I will have the project manager.Remember I have not followed the systematic way of doing the assignment but purpose of this webinar is just to tell you how to share the resource across multiple projects. Now we have shared it the moment you save this file what happens is your active project is also getting saved and also these references whatever you are made that this task should be done by these resources is also getting updated in your resource pool file.Now I am just going to open my other project the implementation project. So similarly in my implementation I need to repeat the step of connecting this active project to my resource pool. So I go to the resource tab, resource pool, share resources currently it refers to its own resource I will say you need to use the resources from the resource pool file and I will say ok and I am just going to assign some resources to these activities.I hope you are able to see that after doing the assignment you can see some of the activities will have this red color stick men. If you have attended my resource optimization webinar you would have notice that the red color stick men indicates that these activities have some resources over allocated.So even the tool tip on top of the red color stick men says this task has resources assigned which are over allocated and right click for optimizations. Remember this red color stick men will not appear only for the implementation project.If I try to open my feasibility project also you would be able to find this red color stick men appearing. So the benefit now what you have seen is when you are sharing a resource pool across multiple projects naturally project will help you to find out which resources are over loaded which resources are under utilized in terms of your project objectives.So let me go back to my step 2 now so I have shared I have linked my resource pool to my projects here. So step 3 is we have to assign these resources from the resource pool I remember using the Gantt chart we were able to assign it.

Different modes of opening the resource pool with project file

After assigning the resources the step 4 is something which you might want to look at but before you look at how to close the resource pool and active projects I am just going to go back to the resource pool file. So let me go to my resource pool file here and I am going to my resource sheet. So naturally it says that these two resources are over loaded with some work. So naturally you might want to know on what activities on what days of the project these resources are overloaded. You can go to the resource usage in my resource pool you can see that on those days when the resource is assigned two jobs to be completed which exceeds these working hours you can see that the resource is overloaded. So naturally you have an option of moving these activities to the available resource. For example I want to move because I find on those days naturally the sales assistants is free maybe I can just try to move it.Similarly architect and team member, the team member two is available on these dates so naturally I can select one of these activities and move it to a later date. So as you can see I was able to avoid over allocation just by making use of the resource pool. Yeah this is another place where the resource is over loaded so I am going to move the approval to sales assistant.So you can try to move across these resources or reduced their effort on those days so that the resources optimized automatically. Now let me close all these files. Ok this is something which you need to remember I will cancel this. So the order in which you need to close these files is something very important when you are using a resource pool. As you have seen that we have a feasibility project, implementation project and a resource pool. So make sure that you close the sharer project which means that you just need to do the opposite the way we open the file.You open the resource pool first then you open the sharing files similarly you need to close these main projects and then you need to close the resource pool finally. So let me close it I will save this file I will close my other project I will close my file and finally you need to close your resource pool. For instance, if you just do it the opposite way there is always a chance that some of the updates of your sharer file will not get reflected in your resource pool projects so this is something you just need to remember.So what we are trying to do here is when you are having a resource pool file what happens is these information is getting shared across multiple projects so ideally speaking each project will be managed by different project managers. So the point you need to remember is these three files should ideally be stored in one common location that is accessible by all the two project managers. So what happens is there might be different scenarios or on terms of how to open these files.So the first option what people may try to do is they may try to open the resource pool file directly. Remember when you open the resource pool file project will give you an alert that this file resource pool file is been used by many projects and it gives you three options here. The first option says option is open the resource pool in read only so this is best suited if you just want to go through their assignments or just read there resource information and you don’t want to make any changes to that then the first option would be useful. The second option is in case if you want to open the resource pool in read, write mode and in case if the project manager of feasibility study opens it, when you are having this open he may not be able to update the resource pool file.Remember as you know the every file will have a read right lock so the moment you open the resource pool using the second or the third option what happens is you get the lock and now naturally the other people who are going to refer this resource pool may not be able to update it. So let’s take the first option here I am trying to open it in resource pool read only mode so that allowing others to work on the project that is connected to the resource pool. So which means that now you will not be able to make any changes as you can see that I cannot try to move it this will not move or if I go to my resource sheet I will not be able to make any changes to any of these calendars because this file is in read only mode. So this is best suited if you just want to observe the information or draw some reports from it but you don’t want to make any changes but it is only you will have that ready only permission. Let’s say that in from another machine project manager opens the feasibility study file or the implementation project naturally they will be able to that naturally will open the resource pool in read write mode because you have only it in read only whereas they will be able to write or change the resource pool file.Now let me open the resource pool again but I am going to use the second option here. Open the resource pool in read write only that you can make the changes to the resource information although this will lock others out of it which means that the resource pool file alone will be opened in read write and the other sharer files will not be opened now in this machine.Now you are able to see that from my windows if you look at it you have only the resource pool file that is opened you can make changes, you can go to the resource sheet, you can add there cost information so everything will happen because you have opened it in read write mode.\The third option is you open it in read write and you also want the sharer file the sharer files are the project that are referring to this resource pool that will also be opened in your machine now so closely observe how many project files are getting opened now.I hope you are able to see there were multiple files that got opened let’s validate if I go to the switch windows you are able to see that my resource pool is now getting opened. Let me close it and you are also able to see that those three files sorry I need to reopen it. So when you go for the third option the resource pool file gets opened and a new project gets automatically created by MS project where it will have those projects that are referring to this resource pool will be added in a separate project. So through it might look good right in case if you try to update any of these files naturally the respective files will get updated. So these are not copied versions of the feasibility and the implementation project. These are only linked to those files so naturally you can try to reveal these estimates.So these are the three ways by which you can try to open a resource pool file and please remember that you don’t change the file name of your resource pool or move the location of your resource pool file because otherwise the sharer files will not be able to locate it and you might get an error on it. So I am going to close my resource pool now.The second approach is let’s say you are the project manager of the feasibility study so you just directly open the feasibility study project now and let’s see what happens. When you open it this says that this sharer file share some resources from a resource pool do you want to open the resource pool to see their assignments across all sharer files or do you not. I don’t think people will go for the second option because when you go for a second option you lose the resource details.So the right option is go for the first option that the resource pool file should also be opened now so now you can see that apart from my feasibility study you can see my resource pool is also getting opened but it is opened in the read only mode. So these are all the multiple combination which you just need to remember whenever you are trying to open a resource pool along with your projects.

Closing Resources Pool and Projects

So let’s quickly recap what we have discussed right so when you are trying to close your files make sure that you are closing the active projects before you close the resource pool. Point number two is if the project is opened that is a sharer project is open project will alert you and it opens up the resource pool in a read only mode.This is what I told you so naturally the resource pool will be opened in read only mode but if the resource pool is opened first project gives you three different options that we want to open it in read only, read-write or do you want to open the other projects along with it. So this is something which you need to remember when you are trying to work on resource pools.One of the purposes of using the resource pool is when you are trying to work on programs so as you know project is ideally a temporary handover undertaken to create a unique product service or result but there are many companies who execute programs so programs are ideally a collection of related projects where you try to share resources or they have a very common objective.So when you have a program which has multiple projects that are interconnected with each other and they might want to share the same set of resources across multiple projects this feature of resource pool could be quite useful. The second option is when you are working on programs or portfolios. Portfolios are a set of programs projects that may not be related with each other but they are executed to satisfy some strategic objectives and the main purpose of having a port folio is to have a top down view of the health of all the programs and portfolios and the operational work that is being executed.So if you want to have a top down approach about all the projects, all the programs and portfolios that is coming under you, naturally you might want to have multiple projects as a part of a single file. So this is the last one which I am going to have, how do I do it, so the approach is quite simple. So the first step is you just need to have your blank project. So let me close my project now.So let’s quickly recap what we have discussed right so when you are trying to close your files make sure that you are closing the active projects before you close the resource pool. Point number two is if the project is opened that is a sharer project is open project will alert you and it opens up the resource pool in a read only mode.This is what I told you so naturally the resource pool will be opened in read only mode but if the resource pool is opened first project gives you three different options that we want to open it in read only, read-write or do you want to open the other projects along with it. So this is something which you need to remember when you are trying to work on resource pools.One of the purposes of using the resource pool is when you are trying to work on programs so as you know project is ideally a temporary handover undertaken to create a unique product service or result but there are many companies who execute programs so programs are ideally a collection of related projects where you try to share resources or they have a very common objective.So when you have a program which has multiple projects that are interconnected with each other and they might want to share the same set of resources across multiple projects this feature of resource pool could be quite useful. The second option is when you are working on programs or portfolios. Portfolios are a set of programs projects that may not be related with each other but they are executed to satisfy some strategic objectives and the main purpose of having a port folio is to have a top down view of the health of all the programs and portfolios and the operational work that is being executed.So if you want to have a top down approach about all the projects, all the programs and portfolios that is coming under you, naturally you might want to have multiple projects as a part of a single file. So this is the last one which I am going to have, how do I do it, so the approach is quite simple. So the first step is you just need to have your blank project. So let me close my project now.So you have only one activity here called feasibility project so the second project what I am going to insert is the implementation project. Let me say implementation you can see that the other project is also opened. Now these are the two projects that are coming under this program. So the benefit you have is you will be able to see how these resources are shared across multiple projects you will also be able to use this resource pool whether the resources are optimized and shared to the maximum extent.Also you can create some cross dependencies because generally program is a collection of related projects naturally there will be some dependencies between these projects. For example after developing a preliminary budget you wanted to get an approval so naturally row number 5 of the first project is connected to the row number 6 of the second project. So naturally this is the cross dependency so you can select the row number 5 and you can just drag it and you can just drop it on top of my budget approval. You can see that there is a link that automatically appears that connects these two activities.You can also observe for row number 7 the predecessors now has 2 activities sorry 3 actives the 4 and 5 refers to within the implementation project whereas the last one is coming from a different project you can see that it comes from a different file. So the point you need to remember is you should not change the file location because now you have connected one project to another project it is assumed that you will be not changing the file name or the location of the file name when we are doing it.Now we have connected these two projects and let me save this file and let me save this is the I am just going to save it and the moment you save it it says do we want to meet save the changes to the feasibility study because I have created a relationship between these activities I will say yes do you want to save the changes to implementation I will say yes updating the resource pool to the open projects so I will say yes ok.So I have updated my resource pool and the individual projects also. Now let me close these files ok. Now when you try to open the study program what actually happens is these two projects that are linked or also getting opened so there is the resource pool you get this same alert I will say open ok. Now when you try to update the duration of the first activity from 3 days to let’s say 5 days.You can see that the project or the other activities and there project is getting updated and now let me save it. So the moment you save it you can see that the feasibility project is getting updated. The reason is naturally you are trying to you are only link this project to other project so you can also see since we have resource pool that there are certain activities that are getting over loaded ok. But as a program manager you need to ask do you have the authority to change the duration estimates or the schedule of the individual projects if the answer is yes naturally you can edit these values.But if the answer is no maybe you should not edit these values or these two files which you are trying to open within this program should only be the in read only mode. So in Microsoft project when you try to link a project or after linking it you can double click those projects and you can go to the advance tab you have an option here saying that this feasibility project should be read only and I will also say the implementation project should also be read only. So when it is read only you will not be able to edit it ok when you try to I hope you are able to see there is an alert which says that these read only file is embedded so when you try to save it, it says an error has encountered do you want to save it. So naturally you are able to see that when that particular project is in read only mode naturally you will not be able to make the changes so now let me say yes to all.So when you wanted to save it naturally it is asking you to save it as a separate file which means those project will not get updated. So that is a benefit of having it in read only mode ok. The second benefit you have when you are having a program is naturally programs are interrelated that each other right the projects are interconnected so you might want to look at the critical path of my program or the project individually.If I want to look at the critical path of the project you can go to the format and say I want to look at my critical path. So in this program if you look at it, it looks as of that you have only one critical path because though you might say it is wrong because for this project I have a different critical path but for the first project I have totally different critical paths.But Microsoft project tries to look at this as one single project rather than two different projects so you might want to change the options in Microsoft project aspect it allows you to calculate multiple critical paths so you need to go to the file tab and select options. You go to the advance tab, on the advance you have a section called calculation options on the calculations options you can say calculate multiple critical paths. Remember this option is quite good when you have multiple activities like this right it could be within a same project or within the inserted project.Now you are able to see there are two critical paths that are they are as a part of this program so this will help you as a program manager so remember the same rule what I gave you as an example for program can even be applied for a portfolio or even for a project. So in this example I assume that you are a program manager managing two projects feasibility and implementation.Let’s assume that you are a project manager who has having two sub projects feasibility and implementations, so you just need to follow the same steps. For example if you are a portfolio manager the portfolio manager might try to have more sub projects under him or more programs or portfolios under him and naturally the only difference is they may not try to have any relation but you can still understand the impact of these projects that is having on the complete project or the portfolio.Now let me go back so since it is in read only I will just say no to all ok I will just turn off this read only. Another point which you need to remember is by default when you try to use this project, sub project right I use insert option remember when you insert as a project you always have an option to insert it in read write mode or insert it in read only also. For example when you are trying to insert it right after you have inserted naturally it will be linked to a particular location.For example at a later point in time you decide that I don’t want it to be managed as a project or programs if there are no project managers and I am managing everything you can just double click the parent and you can just say I need to unlink it. Remember when you unlink it what happens is you are trying to break the relationship with that file. So naturally that file and this will not be in sync so when I say ok and say yes we are able to see this acts like a summary activity now and you can see that the row numbers are automatically gain ordered.So when you try to update it naturally the feasibilities of project will not get updated because I have unlinked it from the file. So these are the points which you need to remember when you are trying to work on a resource pool.So point number one create a blank project and this will be your master project so you can also say this could be your program or this could be your portfolio also and select the row where you want to insert the project sub project or program or portfolio and in the project tab choose the sub project button. I said that when you are trying to use this option you can insert that in read write or read only mode. Remember any changes you made to your master project will get automatically updated. So this statement assumes that the inserted projects are not in read only mode and finally to avoid changes to the subproject turn on the read only option on your advanced tab.So I have a few announcements here before we take some questions. If you are in Chennai we have a Microsoft project user meet on 23rd February 5 PM ok so there are no entry fees for it. So if you would like to know more about those events naturally you can go to this URL or you can visit my website for more details.

Video length - 00:41:25

368 attendees

Conducted on - 31 Dec,2012

5364 views

About Speaker
B Sai PrasadSenior Manager Learning & Development, Cognizant Technology Solutions India Pvt. Ltd
B Sai Prasad, Senior Manager – Learning & Development, has been with service provider Cognizant Technology Solutions India Pvt. Ltd since 2001 where he was named winner of the company's Global Trainer of t...
Project file can opened as read-write by one person at a time. Project 2010 has features to create a resource pool and share it among a group of projects with using Project Server. In this webinar, you will learn how to share resources and its restrictions.

Tags
Project ManagementMicrosoft Project 2010

More Webinars from this speaker
This page might use cookies if your analytics vendor requires them. Accept