Some Questions and wonder how to do this...

[Richard B]

Dear Great People of this discussion group...

I'd like to ask a few moment of your time.. I'll return with linden dollars
for the helpful answer that may come...

1.
When resourcing a project with a resource that does not have an internal
user account (i.e. an outside consultant), how can i make an email be sent
automatically to his external email a/c telling him of the assignments?

2.
With the TimeSheet is it possible to have automatic approval so the users
submission can update the project without a project administrator having to
approve everything?

3. With Resources, is it possible to have two cost rates... One for internal
and one for external (to be billed to the customer). How can i set this and
report upon it for the total project ?

4. Is it possible to show in Project the planned timeline against the actual
timelines (accounting for slippage etc.) based upon the timesheet
submissions. (i.e.Report of summary of what happened.)

5. Is it possible to make a Task templates.. i.e. preset assigments (which
are common to all new projects to be imported into that new project when it's
created.)

 

[Mark Everett | PMP]

Dear Great People of this discussion group...

I'd like to ask a few moment of your time.. I'll return with linden dollars
for the helpful answer that may come...

1.
When resourcing a project with a resource that does not have an internal
user account (i.e. an outside consultant), how can i make an email be sent
automatically to his external email a/c telling him of the assignments?

2.
With the TimeSheet is it possible to have automatic approval so the users
submission can update the project without a project administrator having to
approve everything?

3. With Resources, is it possible to have two cost rates... One for internal
and one for external (to be billed to the customer). How can i set this and
report upon it for the total project ?

4. Is it possible to show in Project the planned timeline against the actual
timelines (accounting for slippage etc.) based upon the timesheet
submissions. (i.e.Report of summary of what happened.)

5. Is it possible to make a Task templates.. i.e. preset assigments (which
are common to all new projects to be imported into that new project when it's
created.)

Richard,

I will take a stab at it. You can donate the linden dollars to a nice
charity

1. Assuming you mean a Local Resource. The answer is no, since a
local resource is not known to the Enterprise Resource Pool. It is
certainly possible to give an external resource a user account with an
external email, but that consumes a CAL for as long as the account is
active.

2. Out of the box, no. That would require some customization.
(Obligatory PMP/Project Manager statement: That's a bad practice, but
I have seen it done for a fairly legitimate reason). I would start
with the CodePlex Psuedo Tied Mode Solution at Codeplex.com (it's
free). You can configure the Timesheet section for autoapproval but
not My Tasks. That's the part that would require some customization.

3. You can have something like 25 cost rates, but you can only use one
at a time so if a resource would be expected to use both rates in a
project (working on billable and non-billable tasks) you would have to
set up an Enterprise Resource Custom field and insert a rate in
there. You would have to maintain those rates and there could be some
sensitivity to exposing those rates, but it can be done.

4. Easy. Set a baseline and using the tracking view. Depending on
the method of status updates that you use, you may have to train your
users to adjust the actual start or actual finish date.

5. Easy. Set up your Enterprise template with those resources on the
resource sheet and assigned to those common, required tasks. You must
train your users to remove any resource assignment that won't be used,
to try to keep overallocation from becoming an issue.

 

[James Fraser]

3. You can have something like 25 cost rates, but you can only use one
at a time so if a resource would be expected to use both rates in a
project (working on billable and non-billable tasks) you would have to
set up an Enterprise Resource Custom field and insert a rate in
there. You would have to maintain those rates and there could be some
sensitivity to exposing those rates, but it can be done.

Generally I stick to the technical server questions, but I wanted to
add to Mark's advice on this point:

A resource has five cost tables (A through E). Within each table,
rates can vary according to date.

The cost table used is a property of the Assignment, so a given
resource can have up to five different rates in a project. Add the
column "Cost Rate" to a Project assignment view to see this. You could
designate one cost rate table to be external and one to be internal.
Depending on where you are using the cost numbers, you may need to
check back and see what tables are being used.


James Fraser

 

[Richard B]

Many Thanks Mark (and James) for your prompt replies ...

Richard