graphing resources

[minorm2]

I need to be able to graph the resources by name, per week, per task. Is
there a way for me to do this? I have over 20 projects with multiple tasks
within them and over 30 resources to use....any suggestions would be great.
thanks in advance.

 

[Rob Schneider]

I'm not sure how you graph a "resource" since it's not a number. It's a
name. Can you please be a little more specific about what you are
expecting on the graph's axes?

And what about the Resource Graph (in the View Menu) is not good enough?

--rms

 

[minorm2]

I have been asked to "graph" each person on what they are allocated to
(project) per week. So I am trying to graph individuals to each project
showing % of allocation to that particular project. Does this make sense?

 

[Rob Schneider]

Makes perfect sense. Many things are possible. Try this to get your
started in your exploration of the possibilities:

1. Menu: Window/Split
2. Mouse click into the top window, then Menu: View/Resource Usage
3. Mouse click into the bottom window, then Menu: View/Resource Graph
4. Menu: View/Zoom ... and pick the time scale you want (or press the
little magnifying glass icons on the toolbar to get same effect)
5. Mouse click on the bottom window, and right mouse click on the graph,
and get on the graph the field of interest

For further experimentation and learning, try:

1. In top window, pick Task Usage view instead.
2. In top window, right mouse click to see other numbers that can be
displayed
3. try different time scales
4. In top window, pick Resource Vew instead
5. To get a summation of all selected resources in graph, see
explanation aleady written at:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm#Combined Resource Graph



--rms

 

[Rob Schneider]

I would think executive management would only be interested in the
overall view. Once built in Project, then screen shot it and import the
screen shot into a graphics program (even PowerPoint works) and crop it.
Then paste into a report for mgmt which not only has the graphic
but also has words to explain it.

Project also has the little camera icon for taking screen shots. It
works, but I think (can't test as I'm away from Project at the moment)
only on the top window. For me no matter as I don't usually bother. I
just get it looking on the screen as I want it and put into Photoshop to
do what I want ... or pass on to the graphics gurus to do their thing.

The key is not the graphics, but to put it into some sort of report
which tells the story of the project.

--rms

 

[jp]

Ohhh, Ok.
That would be a great new feature for Microsoft. That's because that
kind of report is very very needed in the fields. Doing the extra steps to
get the graphic and pu it into another application HAS to work for now.
However, that is a key item that Microsoft should have as a feature in
future versions of the product.

Thank you for the answers Rob.

-jp

 

[Rob Schneider]

Maybe. Project is a great project calculation engine and I, for one,
wouldn't want it to have more redundant graphical capabilities that are
trivially accessible due to the magic of Windows.


The Visual Reports part of Project may have some features of interest to
you. Have you looked?

Re using the camera icon button, I just tried it and reminded myself
that it does indeed capture the image just fine. So use it. This also
means that if you are are looking to automate export of graphics, you
can use the same function call to do it in your own macros. I'm reminded
that I did that in the 1990's on a project where we dumped a lot of
graphs to web pages for viewing by the project team (which was
distributed around the world using the "intranet" ... something we setup
despite IT telling it it was "non-strategic").

This automation will eliminate the extra steps you wish to avoid. Go for
it now. Don't wait for Microsoft.

--rms

 

[Bob C.]

We do this with Excel. As far as I know, MS Project only will graph the
resource's total utilization, and not broken down by task/project.

If you look at the resource usage view, you can get a summary of which tasks
the resource will be working on in each time period. We cut & paste this
block to Excel, then make some "pretty" (actually quite useful) graphs for
management.

One caveat: We have the Project Server, and I don't know if it is so easy to
look at multiple resources with MS Project Standard.

-Bob C.

 

[jp]

I'll give it a try, thanks.

-jp

Maybe. Project is a great project calculation engine and I, for one,
wouldn't want it to have more redundant graphical capabilities that are
trivially accessible due to the magic of Windows.


The Visual Reports part of Project may have some features of interest to
you. Have you looked?

Re using the camera icon button, I just tried it and reminded myself
that it does indeed capture the image just fine. So use it. This also
means that if you are are looking to automate export of graphics, you
can use the same function call to do it in your own macros. I'm reminded
that I did that in the 1990's on a project where we dumped a lot of
graphs to web pages for viewing by the project team (which was
distributed around the world using the "intranet" ... something we setup
despite IT telling it it was "non-strategic").

This automation will eliminate the extra steps you wish to avoid. Go for
it now. Don't wait for Microsoft.

--rms

 

[jp]

Hi Bob,

I only have the standard no the server. Yes that's the thing. I want to
create
the Excel files for presentations that if they say, what if...
I would be able to change them right away.

I'll give it a try and the recommendation from Rob Schneider.
Thanks alot every one.

-jp