MS Project

Question

I am using MS Project o create a schedule for my firm.  We have 5 disciplines in 4 different offices.  I am trying to schedule all the projects for the different disciplines and offices.

Currently I have the 5 disciplines listed as the Resource name.  However, I need to sub group the disciplines into the different offices.  For example - the disciplines are design, civil, mech, elect, consultant.  I need to then assign an office to each one of those disciplines.  This is for scheduling purposes and for cost purposes.  

Is there any way to do this?

Margaret

Answer 1

Margaret,

May I assume the column you call "team" is a renamed text field (e.g. Text1)? If it is not (i.e. it is really the Resource Names field that you have renamed as "team"), then you do not want to assign resources at summary level although the "tasks" in your plan (e.g. IDs 209 thru 212) aren't really tasks but look more like next level summary lines that need performance tasks defined for each of them. What is a "performance task"? A performance task, (often called a subtask), is simply an activity expressed in action verb form that has resources assigned to it. Resources should only be assigned at task level, not at summary level.

Resources can indeed be defined as group resources (or disciplines in your case). Just set the Max Units for group resources at the appropriate level. For example, let's say you have 5 civil engineers in the "civil" resource group (discipline) and each of those resources works full time. Then you would set the Max Units for the civil resource at 500%. That means that you can assign a "civil" resource full time to five simultaneous tasks and not have the resource overallocated.

With regard to office, I suggest you create a custom task field (e.g. Text2) with a lookup table. Then as you assign resources to each task, you would also select the office location from the lookup table. You can then use the Project's grouping feature to summarize work and cost for each discipline at each office location.

John

Answer 2

Margaret,

You're welcome. I assume then that you resolved your issue.

John

Answer 3

Thank you!

I actually used the Resource Group for Offices so that I could then Group the Resource Names by Group/ Office.

Margaret

Answer 4

The task is the project that has 5 disciplines in it.  The project/ task would be an architecture/ building project.  The disciplines/ resources would be design, mechanical, electrical, civil, and possibly a consultant.    

There are multiple individuals.  I was not going to put individuals due to the amount of individuals their are.  I was just going to keep just to disciplines. 

The disciplines are located in all our offices.  So we could have mechanical in office 1 and mechanical in office 2. When I select the discipline, I also need to select which office that discipline is working in. 

The end result would be to have a schedule showing all the projects, the disciplines, and what office the work is being done in - along with the amount of hours required to finish the job and cost.   

I hope I have made it a little bit clearer.

Answer 5

Margaret,

Your first paragraph says "5 disciplines in 4 different offices". Is that 5 disciplines in each of the 4 offices or 5 disciplines spread across the 4 offices/

The disciplines you list are indeed resources but what are the tasks? The offices are simply the location, without knowing something about the tasks to be performed at each of the offices there is no way to determine which disciplines should be assigned to tasks in each office locations.

Are there multiple individuals for each discipline (e.g. civil has 5 engineers, mech has 4 engineers, etc.) or is each discipline really an individual resource (e.g. Joe, Tom, etc.)?

There's just not enough definitive information that would allow us to help you in any meaningful way. If you can give us more insight on the above items, then we can help. And more importantly, what is your end goal?

John