Maybe I am using the wrong tool

[Ervin D. Fowlkes]

Hello All,
Thanks again for the great reception.

Let me know if Project is truly right for me. Our Project don't end.
Let me explain:

We have a client let's call them MIE
for this client we have a list of tasks that don't necessarily depend on
each other, except for the limited resource pool
so John can only do one thing at a time obvioulsly. Every day MIE send us
new things to do, they may be mini-projects like add on an e-commerce module
to their website, sometimes they are bigger projects. but the client MIE
will never be finished. There will always be a ton of little odds and ends
to do.

I am asking because my project set ups in MSP are getting huge. I have them
broken down this way

MIE (client)
web development (main summary task)
clean up this page
add logos
etc (up to 25 - 30 items)
new e-commerce module
(blah blah blah )

so on and so forth.

Is Project the best way to sort out:
A. Who is doing what?
B. When are they doing it?
C. Let me know the next free day John(resource) has available so i can
forecast how long something with duration 'x' hours can be finished?

Bonus would be:
How much is this costign the company?
How long will all this take?

 

[Dave]

You can use Project for this. However, by allowing new work to be added
to your plan you haven't really got a project.

I would suggest that each of the activities listed below are 'projects'
in their own right and I would create a project file for each of them.

You may want to consider using a resource pool in order to achieve some
of your objectives (such as levelling the work so that you can see when
your resources become free).

If you want to see the work organised by client then a master file is
probably the answer. You can insert your current project files in a
master and organise them under summary tasks for each client for example.

So in terms of your 3 main objectives, the steps outlined above will
give you that and the other two will also fall out if the plans are
realistic and the cost of using the resource is representative (which is
not the same as the salary paid to the resource or the rate he is
charged out at).

 

[Ervin D. Fowlkes]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the insights. I have more questions but I'll post them
separately for easier searching by others.

Ervin