Project "What if" tool

[yair o]

Hi,
I'm desperately looking for a way to create several scenarios of a project
that include assigning resources from the enterprise resource pool.
While using the scenario i want to see the total resource load (created from
all the resource's tasks in all of the projects in the server), but not to
affect it when assigning a resource in the scenario file.
Using Project versions is not good enough, because of certain limitations:
1. first i have to create a published version.
2. once i've decided which version is best i can't overwrite the published
one.

Do you know of any user friendly tools or solutions for this problem
thanks
yair

 

[mark.everett]

Yair -

I think I understand your question. Project Web Access includes
modeling. Using modeling, you can examine how doing different things
to your projects will impact your resource utilization.

To use it, select one or more projects from the Project Center and then
click on the Model Project link on the left.

Mark S. Everett | PMP

 

[yair o]

Mark,
I've tried using it and found that it did not answer my needs. It's kind of
a black box - i can enter parameters and receive comulative results, but
can't view the detailed planning results in a project professional file.

thanks anyway
Yair

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Yair --

I would recommend that your Project Server administrator set up an alternate
Version in Project Server called something like WhatIf. You could then use
this WhatIf version to study the results of alternate staffing in a project
without disturbing the current production version of the project. Hope this
helps.

 

[yair o]

hi,
The problem is : once i decide which version suites me - i can't overwrite
the published version.
yair

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Yair --

If you need to select an alternate version, save it as an .mpp file, delete
all of the other versions of the project including the production version,
and then import the desired version as the production project using Tools -
Enteprise Options - Import Project to Enterprise. Hope this helps.