Master Resource Pool

[Cheryl]

I have created resource pools for all my departments and
have inserted these into a master resource pool. I can
tell projects to use resource from this master pool,
however no resources are displayed. Is there a way to use
this set up or will I have to merge all resources into one
pool. The advantage to having separate resource pools is
to that each functional group can get a "Big" picture of
who is working on what project and how much available time
they have. Maybe I am going about this all wrong.
All suggestions welcome.
Cheryl

 

[John]

Cheryl,
Maybe I still don't understand your structure. Having individual
resource pools for each functional department should work fine. And,
inserting those individual pools into a consolidated master should work
fine. However, there are a couple of things I don't understand.
1. If each working project uses resources from the master pool (i.e.
Tools/Resources/Share resources) then where are the resource
assignements not showing up?
2. How is each function group going to get a "big" picture of who is
working on what from its individual resource pool? This information is
only available in the working file where assignments are made. Note: a
true resource pool file should not have any tasks.

John

 

[Cheryl]

Here is my Structure:
Folders:
1. Resource Pools (Contains individual resource pools for
each department & a master resource pool which is a ms
project file with all the individual resource pools
inserted)
2. Schedules (This folder contains all active projects
across the company. We have already established schedule
templates for each department. These have been inserted
to the Master schedule.

My delima is that some department's resources cover
several functional areas.....sw eng, hw eng....etc. So if
I have a sw mgr resource loading the schedule, they may
need to use resources from several pools. My question is
how do I handle this? Is there a way, other than having
only one resource pool? I tried to go to the master
schedule (task Loaded) and tell it to use the Master
Resource pool under share resources. However, No resource
show because the Master contain sub project resource pools.

 

[John]

Cheryl,
Ok, I see your problem. Now I am puzzled. When I posted a reply a couple
of days ago, I tried a master resource pool and as I recall it worked
fine. However, today when I try to duplicate the scenario, it doesn't
work for me either. The link shows up in the master pool but as you
noted, no resources appear to be available in the master working file.
One thing I did do since then was install Project 2003. I don't know if
that messed something up but it will take me some time to figure it out.
Meanwhile maybe someone else has an answer.

Sorry I can't be of any more help at the present.
John

 

[Cheryl]

John,
I am running 2002 standard, just for your reference.
Thank you for responding and trying to help. If you find
a "Fix" for this please respond to me directly.
Thanks Again,
Cheryl

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello Cheryl,
Did you inserted the resource pool projects in the Master resource pool with
the Insert / Project feature ?
If so, the Master Projet can't *see* the resources even if they are listed
in its Resource Sheet.
Nb : In its Resource Sheet, the resources ID are discontinuous.

All the files have to share the same resource pool.
For example, the resource pool B will share the ressources of pool A, Pool C
will also share the resource of pool A... and the Master pool will share the
ressources of pool A...
It works for me (Project Pro 2002) but I never tried this structure in a
real project...

Good luck,

Gérard Ducouret [Project MVP]
PragmaSoft ® - Paris

 

[John]

Cheryl,
I did some more research with the master resource pool concept and here
is what I determined.

When I said I thought a master resource pool worked when I tried it a
couple of days ago, I was only half right. To better understand what is
happening, the basic structure of a Project master file must be
examined. A dynamically consolidated master (i.e. master file with
linked inserted projects) is only a file of pointers to the subproject
files. Unless data is specifically entered into the master file itself a
master consisting only of subprojects has no data in and of itself. When
that concept is applied to a master resource pool with inserted
individual resource pools, the master resource pool has no resources
itself. That is why you do not see any resources when you try to assign
resources from the master. However, if one or more resources is entered
onto the Resource Sheet of the master itself, those resources (and only
those) will be available for assignment. That is actually what I did two
days ago so I got misleading results.

Basically the bottom line is that because of the structure of master
files in Project, a master resource pool made of up individual resource
pools will not work.

Ok, now that you can't get there from here, here is my suggestion. Even
though you did not want to have a single common resource pool for all
functional areas, that is the way to go. I would identify each
functional area as a resource group and create filters for each group
such that functional managers can apply the filter and see only their
resources.

I hope this clarifies what is happening and gives you a viable
alternative.

John

 

[Mark Etheridge]

I would create 1 resource pool with all resource in one sheet, and then use
the "Group" column. Insert this column and then add department name beside
each resource.

For example:
WEB - Web Developers
ID - Instructional Designers
GA - Graphic Artist