[P2007] - Best practice on resource manager

[godrid]

Hi,

Is there any best practice on the resource manager role for project server?
Should I setup generic resource for PM to select and then resource manager
replace generic resource with actual work resource under his charge? Do
resource manager normally given edit permission to project plan to assign
resource to the task or he is just restricted to build team permission in PWA?

I would appreciate if you could share your experience of using resource
manager in your implementation.

Regards
Godrid

 

[KaBa]

Hi Godrid,

We've used 2 methods for our customers.
The first one is what you describe: working with generic resources. PMs
request generic resources and Resource managers look at the availability, add
resources to the project team (build team) and assign them to the tasks. In
that case Resource managers will need more than just build team permissions.
There will be a very strict distinction between RM and PM functionalities.

Second method is where we allow PMs to add resources (from their team) to
the project and assign them to the tasks.
A macro runs in the background (before publish-event) to check whether the
user is RM or PM. If he is PM he will not be allowed to publish the
assignments (only the tasks).
The RM will later on check the requests (non published assignments with a
resource on it), look at availability (eventually modify) and then publish.
The advantage of this is that RMs can see which resource would be the PMs
prefered one. You could accomplish this in the first method as well, but
would then have to work with comment or other text field.

Both methods work fine, but are used in different circumstances. All depends

 

[godrid]

Hi KaBa,

Thanks for your inputs.

For your 2nd method, does your macro make use of the Publish field to set
which task should be published? If that is the case, everytime PM approves an
update, he could not publish the update accordingly and requires the RM to
make the publishing, am I right?

There are few concerns that my clients have regarding resource management in
EPM:
1) If the schedule is extended by the PM, the RM would not be kept in the
loop whether he could still spare his resource for the project or not. His
resource might be tied up in another projects.
2) PM does not want RM to have edit permission to his project plan, in that
case Method 1 or 2 is out. It might be possible for PM to assign the task to
RM and let RM reassign the tasks to his subordinates but I don't see a way
that he could reassign a task to multiple resources by using this method.

Regards
Godrid

 

[KaBa]

Hi,

Indeed PM can't publish assignments, only tasks.
But then you don't want the PM to extend the schedule, so changes to the
schedule will only appear in the resource's tasks unless it was published by
RM.
1) When the PM saves the project, the macro looks at the fields work, start
and finish date and compares that to the baselines taken (in the macro) when
the RM published. If this has changed, the RM will have to confirm the new
schedule by publishing it again. A custom field indicates that republishing
is needed.
2) I understand the concern, but I think your customer should start from the
idea that modifications to tasks by RMs are accidental. (if not he might have
another problem that won't be solved by any tool). No matter which method you
would choose to intercept unwanted modifications, it will need programming,
either in PSI or macro, depending on where you want to do the checks.
We have looked in-depth at the possibilities of reassigning as you
mentioned, but it was percepted as very user unfriendly, too much hassle and
didn't meet all the requirements (reassign to multiple resources)...
We managed to intercept all unwanted manipulations with clear processes and
macros, both equally important, I would say.

Let me know if I can help you any further.

Karin