Resources are typically people included in your project plan, whether or not they are assigned to tasks. However, a resource could also include anything that is used to complete a project, including equipment and other materials (such as cement or web servers).
You can add several types of resources to your project.
-
Enterprise resources An enterprise resource is a part of the list of resources for the whole organization; therefore, each of these resources can be shared across multiple projects. Typically, the list of enterprise resources is managed by an administrator, and each project manager adds these resources to their projects as needed.
-
Non-enterprise resources A non-enterprise resource, or local resource, is not a part of the list of resources for the whole organization. No other project manager can use your non-enterprise resources in their projects.
-
Generic resources Generic resources are used to specify the staffing requirements for a project, such as carpenters and developers, or a team of resources.
What do you want to do?
Add resources to your project
-
On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, choose Resource Sheet.
-
In the Resource Name field, type a job title, material, or generic resource name.
-
If you want to designate resource groups, then in the Group field for the resource name, type the name of the group.
-
Specify the resource type.
-
To specify that this resource is a work resource, in the Type field, select Work.
-
To specify that this resource is a material resource, in the Type field, select Material. In the Material Label field, type the label (for example, yards, tons, or boxes) for the resource.
-
To specify that this resource is a cost resource, in the Type field, select Cost.
-
-
In the Max. Units field for the resource, type the number of total units that this resource is available for this project. The maximum units value specifies how much of this resource is available for this project — for example, part-time or multiples.
For example, if you have a resource who is available for your project two days a week, you can enter a maximum units value of 40%. You can use maximum units to specify multiple availability of a resource designation. For example, suppose you have a resource named Engineers, a single resource that represents three individual engineers on your team. You can enter the maximum units for Engineers as 300%. You can schedule all three engineers for full-time work at one time without the Engineers resource being overallocated.
You can enter maximum units as a percentage (50%, 100%, 300%), or as a decimal (0.5, 1, 3).
Notes:
-
To create a budget resource, select the resource, right-click the resource name, and then choose Information. Select the Budget check box.
-
You can add a work resource and associated information by using your MAPI email address book, from the Active Directory, or from Microsoft Project Server. On the Resource tab, in the Insert group, choose Add Resources, and then choose Build Team from Enterprise (Project Professional only), Active Directory, or Address Book.
-
Add enterprise resources to your project (Project Professional only)
-
On the Resource tab, in the Insert group, choose Add Resources > Build Team from Enterprise.
-
In the Build Team from Enterprise dialog box, in the Existing filters box, select the filter that you want to apply. The filtered list of enterprise resources is displayed in the Enterprise Resource column. Any resources already assigned to your project team are listed in the Project Resource column.
-
To search for resources who are available to work a specific number of hours during a particular time range, select the Available to work check box. Enter the amount of time a resource needs to be available to work, and then select the date range by using the From and To boxes.
-
In the Enterprise Resource column, select the enterprise resource that you want to add to your project, and then choose Add. To select multiple resources, hold down CTRL while you select each resource.
-
To find enterprise resources that match the skills and other attributes of one of your team's existing resources, select the resource that you want to match under Project Resource, and then choose Match.
-
To replace an existing resource with an enterprise resource, in the Project Resource column, select the resource or generic resource that you want to replace. Under Enterprise Resource, select the new enterprise resource, and then choose Replace.
When you replace a resource, the replaced resource is not removed if they have completed any actual work. The replacement resource is assigned the remaining work.
-
-
To add a proposed resource to the project team, in the Book column, choose Proposed.
-
To view a graph of a selected resource's availability, choose Graphs.
-
Choose OK.
Notes:
-
Adding an enterprise resource to your project allows you only to assign the resource to a task on your project. You cannot make changes to the attributes of enterprise resources, such as pay rates or availability.
-
If you want to add resources to the list of available enterprise resources, you must import the resources.
Add generic enterprise resources to your project (Project Professional only)
-
On the Resources tab, in the Insert group, choose Add Resources > Build Team from Enterprise.
If there are more than 1,000 enterprise resources, you can filter the list of resources by using enterprise outline codes. Outline codes are defined based upon the requirements of your organization.
-
In the Build Team dialog box, choose
-
Under Customize filters, select Generic in the Field Name column, select Equals in the Test column, and then type Yes in the Values column.
-
Choose Apply filter to apply the filter settings to the list of enterprise resources.
-
To search for resources who are available to work a specific number of hours during a particular time range, select the Available to work check box. Enter the amount of time a resource needs to be available to work, and then select the date range by using the From and To boxes.
-
In the Enterprise Resource column, select the generic resource that you want to add to your project, and then choose Add. To select multiple resources, hold down CTRL while you select each resource.
Add non-enterprise generic resources to your project (Project Professional only)
-
On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, choose Resource Sheet.
-
In the Resource Name column, type a name for the generic resource, such as "carpenter."
-
Right-click the resource name, and choose Information. In the Resource Information dialog box, select the General tab, and then select the Generic check box
-
On the Custom Fields tab, under Custom Fields, enter values for any fields that are required for this generic resource.
Because these custom fields are unique to each organization, see your administrator for answers to any questions about their use.
Note: You can add any generic resource to the list of enterprise resources. You might have to specify other attributes for the resource, such as calendars and skill sets, depending upon the requirements of your organization.
There are two ways to add resources to your projects:
-
Build Team Using the Build Team feature, you can search for enterprise resources that have the required skills to complete the tasks in your project.
-
Resource plan During project initiation, before a detailed project plan with tasks and assignments has been prepared, you can use a resource plan to represent the resource requirements for the project at a high level. This is helpful when you need to advise the resource managers and department managers of upcoming work, but you do not know the specific tasks or resources that will make up the project plan.
Note: You can create and view resource plans only by using Project Web Access. The resource plans are not visible in Project Professional, and the plans do not limit the resource availability within Project.
What do you want to do?
Add resources to a project by using Build Team
-
On the Quick Launch, choose Projects.
-
Select the row for the project that you want to build a team for, and then choose Build Team.
-
On the Build Team page, a list of resources on the left shows all the resources that you have permission to see within the resource breakdown structure code for your organization. The list on the right shows the resources that are already assigned in your project.
-
Select the resources on the left that you want to assign to the project, and then choose Add. Select the resource by selecting the check box next to the resource.
-
To create a list on the left that contains only those resources that have skills that match a resource on the right, select the resource on the right, and then choose Match.
Finding resources in this way is particularly helpful when you have generic resources in your project and you want to find real resources (people) with the same skills to replace the generic resources.
-
If you want to replace the resource on the right with the resource on the left, select both the resource on the left and the resource on the right, and then choose Replace. If the resource has actual work values recorded for tasks, that resource cannot be used in the project.
-
Under Booking Type, select Committed if you want to commit the resource to the project, or select Proposed if you do not yet have authorization to commit the resource to the project.
Tip: To see a graph showing the availability of the selected resources before you add them to your schedule, select the resources on the left, and then choose Graph.
-
Choose Save Changes to add the new resources to your project.
You can also create a filter to see only a subset of resources on the Build Team page:
-
Choose View Options
-
In the Filter list, select the filter that you want to apply.
-
Select a field in the Field Name list and a test in the Test list. In the Value list, select a value to test for, or set a range of values by typing two values separated by a comma (,).
-
If the filter contains more than one criterion row, select an operator in the And/Or column to start a new row.
-
To test whether the filter will return valid results before you apply it to your resources, choose Validate Filters.
-
Choose OK to apply the filter to the list of resources.
Note: Project managers may not be able to view and assign all resources in their organization. See your server administrator if you need permission to build a team.
Create a resource plan for a project proposal
-
On the Quick Launch, under Projects, choose Proposals and Activities.
-
Select the project for which you want to create a resource plan, and then choose Resource Plan.
-
Choose View Options
-
In the Date range and Units boxes, type a date range and the time units to display in the timephased part of the resource plan table.
-
In the Display Units box, indicate whether you want the values in the resource table to show hours, days, or FTEs (full-time equivalents).
-
To determine how the summary resource assignments are presented in the reports that you can generate from Project Web Access, in the Calculate resource utilization from section, select one of the following:
-
Project plan If you want to calculate resource availability from all assignments within the project, but not from the project's resource plan, select this option.
-
Resource plan If you want to calculate resource availability by using resource information in the resource plan, select this option.
-
Project Plan until If you want to calculate resource availability from all assignments within the project until a specific date, select this option. The resource utilization from the resource plan will be used to determine the resource availability after the specified date.
-
-
Select the Show total work check box to show the total hours in the resource plan table instead of timephased values.
-
In the Items per page box, type the maximum number of lines to display in the resource plan table.
-
Choose Apply to apply the setting to the resource grid without saving.
-
Choose Publish to publish the plan so that it appears as a project proposal within the Project Center.
If you want to save the proposal without publishing it, choose Save. Other team members will not be able to see the proposal in the Project Center.
Why can't I perform some actions in Project Web Access?
Depending on the permissions settings you used to log on to Project Web Access, you may not be able to see or use certain features. Also, what you see on some pages may differ from what is documented if your server administrator customized Project Web Access and did not customize the Help to match.
