Do I need Project server?

[andylv]

Up until now I have kept multiple projects in one master Gantt chart and
avoided using a resource pool. I'm now delegating the Gantt chart work to
multiple project engineers, we are going to seperate the projects into
individual Gantt charts and use a shared resource pool. There will be 8 to 10
people using Gantt charts that share the same resource pool.

When a project is kicked off there are three managers of the personnel in
the resource pool that approve that the proposed project fits into the
resource pool schedule.

When a project engineer makes a change to an Gantt chart that shares the
resource pool that affects the resource pool schedule can Project be set up
to either force approval from the resource pool managers or a least send out
notifications of a change occuring?

What version of Project do I need to do this?

I've surfed around the Microsoft Project website to try and find this out
and came up empty. If you can point me to the right link to find this info
I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

 

[Rod Gill]

A shared resource pool doesn't do any notifications. I would browse the web
for add on tools to do what you want, but even Project Server doesn't
require approval from resource managers for resource assignment changes, but
does send notifications to resources affected.

 

[andylv]

Rod, thank you for the response.

I'll do some searching on the web to look for addons.

Can I sent up Project to use Outlook's calendar function to reserve resource
time in a resource's calendar and then have Project send a meeting notice
update if the project engineer moves the timing for task?

 

[Rod Gill]

No to the calendar and yes to time updates. You need to remember that
Project is a scheduling tool: typically used to schedule hours per week.
Outlook is a time management tool, typically working in 30 minute segments.
Booking a week in the calendar doesn't help much when the week probably only
involves 10 hours. The resource needs to know on Monday morning what tasks
need to be worked on that week, the finish dates and the predicted hours of
work. They should then time manage their week. Neither Project or Outlook
can do that automatically.

Getting Project to schedule to the nearest 30 minutes would be very
unproductive unless you are scheduling an over-night cut-over.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Andy,

You might like to see out Project Companion page on our website:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP