View Generic Resource Assignments

[Conrad Santiago]

In View Resource Assignments, I cannot see tasks assigned to the generic
resources. Is there a way to set Web Access to show these?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Conrad --

No. Generic resources do not have a PWA timesheet, and therefore, do not
show on the View Resource Assignments page. Sorry.

 

[Carl Dalton]

view them in OLAP )

 

[Conrad Santiago]

Our directors desire this functionality. One alternative discussed was to
create a named resource that we could use as a generic resource. This way
we could see those assignments.

First of all, will this work? I'm assuming there is a reason why generic
resources exist. Though, I'm not seeing how this will affect any of our
data or functionality at this point.

Do you foresee any hurdles in this approach?

--Conrad Santiago

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Carl --

Since one cannot see Task data in Portfolio Analyzer views by default, I
don't see how your solution solves the original problem. Please explain.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Conrad --

I believe your solution would work. The data will show up in the View
Resource Assignments page. Hope this helps.

 

[Carl Dalton]

Suppose it depends the level of granularity required on reporting (and
the reasons for this need). If you need task names, then yes, OLAP is
restrictive. However, if it is task categorisations (eg which phase a
task is in, etc), then you could extend OLAP to do this.

I worry about detailed granular data for senior level reporting as the
data can often be in flux, leading to mixed messages.

However if you need to see generic task level data you can use the
Resource availability view from Resource Centre (the table section) to
see these assignments. Alternatively you could use a "real" resource
to capture the data for view in Resource Assignments as you suggest
though you would probably want to categorise them using an outline code
to seperrate them from your individuals in PWA/Portfolio Analyser
views.

 

[jlbreyer]

I must be missing something. I use generic resources all the time to build
work hours estimates into project proposals. I went back and checked and I
have no problem seeing assignments. What's the difference?

jlb

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

jlb --

Are you going to the Resource Center page and clicking View Resource
Assignments, selecting your Generic resources, and then clicking Apply?

 

[jlbreyer]

Yes. That is exactly what I do. I just went throught the steps to make sure
I wasn't missing anything. Should that not work?

jlb

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

jlb --

Perhaps I'm losing my mind, but I have Generic resources assigned to tasks
in a project, and I cannot see their assignments in the View Resource
Assignments page in PWA! The plot thickens...

 

[jlbreyer]

I have the Resource Field "Generic" set to Generic for each resource and the
booking type for all is "Proposed". I also went through and set the email
address for each generic resource to my email address so I see a notice if
they have assignments published. Other than that, I can't think of anything
else.
jlb