Concise Resource Reporting

[JP]

Hello all, I'm looking for a way to extract data in the following tabular
format (or close to it) for resource reporting:

Month 1 Month 2 Month 3
and so on
Project file 1
Resource 1 hours hours hours
etc
Resource 2 hours hours hours
etc
Total allocation hours hours hours
etc
Project file 2
(etc)

I have a resource pool consisting of around 30 staff, a project load of
around 35 - 40 projects that vary from 6 to 24 months in duration, and am
using Std 2003 (SP3). Any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks, JP

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

JP,

Open all the files you want, then activate the Resource Usage View.
Set the timescale in Year and Months : Format / Timescale...
Thats'all

hope this helps,

Gérard Ducouret

 

[JP]

Thanks, Gérard - but this doesn't seem to get me what I want. In fact, it
looks just like the exploded data I can retrieve from the Resource Pool that
I use.

I'm looking for condensed, concise data - not hours for each and every
subtask allocation, but on a scale of hours per project file only. I
ultimately will use this data to build a visual depiction on a 3D graph.
Exporting to MS Excel would also be a consideration in that case.

Is there a way I can get only the hours a resource is allocated to a project
(total) in a "coarse" manner, without the "fine" data of each and every task
allocation?

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Sorry JP, I misread your question.

If you assigned only one resource to each task, it'll be quite easy.
Otherwise, I hope that other people will have any ideas to help you:

Gather all your projects into one window:
Window / New Window
Display the Task Usage view
Create a new Group: Project / Group by / More Groups / New...
Group By: Project
Then By: Resource Names
Check the box: Group assignments, not tasks / OK/ Apply
Show drop down menu: Outline level 2

Hope this helps,

Gérard Ducouret

 

[JP]

No worries - I ran your suggestion, and I'm getting closer but am not there
yet. It does return a table based on resources assigned to specific projects
(good start) as well as a total of hours allocated to a project (getting much
better), but it's still somewhat fragmented. I *do* assign more than one
resource to a project; that's SOP for me.

This returns several groupings of resources - under the project - that
appear to be organized by some other factor. It looks like it's arranging
data based on which resources are assigned *together* to tasks for some
reason. But the same resource appears in several different *groupings* under
a project.

It's so close, but for these nagging groupings where a resource appears
several times - is there a way to improve on this method to return *only* the
hours a resource is assigned to a project in one sum per project?

Just to be sure I ran this again in hopes I was fat-fingering something, but
I have the same result both times.

Thanks in advance to any feedback, JP.

 

[vanita]

Hi JP

A suggestion:
In Resource Usage view, click on Minus sign in front of each Resource name,
to close down its sub-assignments. So, now you will only see total amount of
work to be done by each Resource for the project.

Also, as per Gerard's suggestion format the Timescale to show months. If you
go for 'One tier' option in Timescale, you can see only months.

Printout of this view should be the report required by you.

I hope this helps.
Vanita

 

[JP]

Thanks, vanita - but that doesn't solve the nagging problem of the
*groupings* under each project. Yes, I see the collapse icon (and have used
it) but the method so far returns something like this:

Project 1 (total hrs)
Resource 1 and 2 (hrs)
Resource 2, 3, and 4 (hrs)
Resource 3 and 4 (hrs)
Project 2 (total hrs)
Resource 2 (hrs)
Resrource 2 and 3 (hrs)
Resource 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (hrs)

....and so on. So you see my original problem remains: how can I get a
succinct summary of all hours each resource is assigned for the *entire*
project?

Thanks for any feedback, JP

 

[JulieS]

Hi JP,

Try going to the Resource Usage view. Create a group with the
following definition:

Group By
Field: Project
Field Type: Assignment
Order: Ascending

Then By
Field: Name
Field Type: Resource
Order: Ascending

This will group first by Project and then by each resource name.

Collapse the resource's assignments. You should now see each
resource listed once under each project.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Great idea Julie, the Assignment Type!
Just add to JP that we must check the "Group assignements, not resources"
box before that.
Thanks for your help!

Gérard

 

[JulieS]

Great catch Gérard.

Julie

Great idea Julie, the Assignment Type!
Just add to JP that we must check the "Group assignements, not
resources" box before that.
Thanks for your help!

Gérard

 

[JP]

My thanks to you all - even though in my version (2003 Standard) I had to
create the following as the first Group By criteria:

Group By
Field: Project
Field Type: Resource (unable to change this to Assignment)
Order: Ascending

But adding Julie's secondary Group By still got me what I needed (total
hours per resource per project) when I created a New Window in Resource Usage
view.

A tip to anyone else who wants to re-create this: don't open your resource
pool when creating your New Window; only use the project files. It seemed
that this data only added problems (especially for me, as my resource pool
isn't technically a project with tasks & subtasks).

Thanks again and Cheers,
JP

 

[JulieS]

Hi JP,

In order to group by Project using the Assignment field type, you
need to enable (check) the option "Group assignments not resources"
in the Group definition dialog box.

Anyway, glad to know you found what you needed and thanks for the
feedback.

Julie