Administrative Project vs. Resource Calendar

[jem]

I hate to post this question because I see several other posting regarding
this subject. However, I am unsure of a path to follow at this point so
I'll seek your help. I've searched the newsgroup and read all messages I
could find on this topic but I don't seem to find the best solution.

My company would like to track all non-project, non-working time (vacation,
training, sick, etc.). We would also like the planned time off such as
vacation and training to automatically reserve those days (i.e. show as
unavailable time in project schedules). The resource managers and
executives would ideally like to see all non-project/non-working time
reflected in Portfolio Analyzer. I have been asked to propose which we
should use: Resource calendars or Admin projects. If resource calendars
do not show time off as then the Portfolio Analyzer will be off. But if we
use admin projects, the time off is not reflected in other project
schedules. Correct?

Is one solution better than the other? Is there another alternative?

Thanks very much!
jem

 

[RickD]

Admin projects and calendars are not mutually exclusive.

You can update each resource's calendar to block out unavailable time, which
will then manifest itself on all projects to which the resources are assigned.

You can track the time spent all non-project time in an Admin project. The
major issue with Admin projects is that they are for tracking historical time
so one cannot forecast resource allocation or work. You can however use the
calendars to set a "virtual" forecast. If non-project time is forecast to
absorb 20% of each resource, then set the maximum availability to 80%. This
will affect projects because the resources can only be assigned 80%. It will
not affect time reporting on Admin projects because all time logged against
Admin is historical, so the calendars will have no effect on them. It's not
ideal but it reduces the administrative overhead of having to manage a "real"
project that tracks non-project time.

This solution does not impact reporting of non-project time in Portfolio
Analyzer. You just set up a report that selects the Admin project but the
only values that you can analyze are Actual Cost and Actual Work.

If you need more granular reporting of non-project time (i.e. vacation,
training, sick, etc) then you have to either use a PWA View or get into more
complex Portfolio Analyzer customization.

 

[bill_murphy]

As a further suggestion for the use of Admin projects you can enter the
time for 'booked leave' for example. If you have holidays in November
you can key the time in advance. This will show up in the cube and at
least give you visibility.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

jem --

You cannot meet all of your objectives using administrative projects. You
will need to decide what you want out of Project Server, which will then
limit your choice to either resource calendars or administrative projects,
but not both. If you want the system to automatically reschedule project
work around nonworking time such as vacation, then you should use resource
calendars. If you want to report on nonworking time, you should use
administrative projects. You can't have it both ways, however. Hope this
helps.

 

[jem]

Dale,

Thanks very much for the reply and your help. This is what I thought, but I
wanted to be sure before making a decision for the organization.

jem

 

[jem]

Thanks to everyone for your response. This helps.

jem