2 related questions

[PenE]

I have been assigned the task of creating a project to track all of our
projects. (Yes, I know). Basically we want to be able to prove to management
that we have people way overallocated and that we need more staff.

So, what I thought I would do is this, create an Administrative Time Project
with each project as a task and assign my resources to it, then publish it
up. However, the majority of the resources we are going to track time for
are not enterprise resources, but will probably be setup as enterprise
resources in the future. (MS Project Server is still not fully utilized at
my employer).

My questions are this:
1. Is utilizing an administrative time project the best way to accomplish
this?
2. What's going to happen when I have all of these local resources in this
project and have been tracking their time for awhile - and suddenly they are
available as an enterprise resource?

Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks,
PenE

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

I have been assigned the task of creating a project to track all of our
projects. (Yes, I know). Basically we want to be able to prove to
management
that we have people way overallocated and that we need more staff.

So, what I thought I would do is this, create an Administrative Time
Project
with each project as a task and assign my resources to it, then publish it
up. However, the majority of the resources we are going to track time for
are not enterprise resources, but will probably be setup as enterprise
resources in the future. (MS Project Server is still not fully utilized at
my employer).

My questions are this:
1. Is utilizing an administrative time project the best way to accomplish
this?
2. What's going to happen when I have all of these local resources in this
project and have been tracking their time for awhile - and suddenly they
are
available as an enterprise resource?

Let me know if you need more info.

Thanks,
PenE

I would add them all as enterprise resources. Create a regular project for
each of your projects. If they dont have schedules at this point in time
then just add a single task for that project. Assign the resources from
the enterprise pool. If they are not ready to enter time themselves then
get their updates manually and enter it for them directly in Project. Then
when they are ready to come on or when the project gets a real schedule
you are all set. you get what you need witout the risk of painting
yourself in a corner for down the road. It is a bit more work up front but
not a ton.

 

[PenE]

I would add them all as enterprise resources. Create a regular project for
each of your projects. If they dont have schedules at this point in time
then just add a single task for that project. Assign the resources from
the enterprise pool. If they are not ready to enter time themselves then
get their updates manually and enter it for them directly in Project. Then
when they are ready to come on or when the project gets a real schedule
you are all set. you get what you need witout the risk of painting
yourself in a corner for down the road. It is a bit more work up front but
not a ton.

Unfortunately, I am not the administrator of the MS Project Server - I have
very limited Administrative access to it, and have no access to the
appropriate AD groups etc. Getting them added as enterprise resources has a
cost, and an entirely separate team has to do it (and it takes forever). We
need to show management this information quite quickly (I just found out
today). Is there any other way to do this?

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

Unfortunately, I am not the administrator of the MS Project Server - I have
very limited Administrative access to it, and have no access to the
appropriate AD groups etc. Getting them added as enterprise resources has
a
cost, and an entirely separate team has to do it (and it takes forever).
We
need to show management this information quite quickly (I just found out
today). Is there any other way to do this?

Do the things I said but do it with Local Resources instead of the
Enterprise Resources. Then if they get added you would just need to
replace the local resource X with the new Enterprise resource X.

The super quick way would be to have all the projects as tasks in a
single, normal project with resources assigned to the task(project) for
the number of hours projected for each of them. I would use the Resource
Usage view and change the time scale to Months and estimate the number of
hours of Work needed for each resource for each task\project for each month.

You might also see about shaking loose some control of the Project Server
box. A system like Project server (or any other system for that matter)
can be seriously hamstrung if the IS shop holds on too tightly. If a
change needs to be made it needs to be made quickly or the system looses
utility and credibility.

Good Luck.

 

[PenE]

Thanks! That helps and doesn't back me into a corner.