From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Replace generic resources with people - Microsoft Project Tutorial

From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Replace generic resources with people

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- [Instructor] When you find out who's working on your project, you can replace generic resources with specific people. Keep in mind the assumptions you make while estimating introduce risk. For instance, you might not get the number of resources you expect. They might not have the skills or experience you need. Or they're new to your company and need time to get up to speed. If your assumptions don't pan out, you have to adjust the schedule to reflect quantities, availability and productivity. Before you replace generic resources with specific people, you need three pieces of information. First, ask resource managers about people's level of experience or productivity. Second find out when they're available to your project. Third, find out how much of their time you're getting. For example, are they working full time on the project or some other amount? With that information, you know how many people you're getting, their experience and availability to your project. Now you can create or adjust resource assignments to reflect reality. Let's say two experienced writers have been assigned to your project but one of them isn't available until May 1st. In this case, on the first writing activity, replace the generic resources with only one writer, Jane Salvez. When you replace the two generic writers with Jane, duration on the activity doubles from two weeks to four weeks. The work is still 160 hours. When you assign Jane and Donald to the other writing activities, the durations stay the same because you have two writers as you expected. What if one of the writers is less productive than you planned for? In this situation, increase the work hours for the activity because it'll take more time for that person to get the work done. Suppose Jane is new to the company and she'll need some time to get up to speed. In the first writing activity, increase the work by say 40 hours for her to learn the ropes. Now that activity is five weeks' duration. If people don't report their time directly into your scheduling system, you might consider keeping generic assignments in place. With generic resources assigned, you can use average cost and save time editing assignments for individuals' availability and time off. In addition, you'll have more flexibility assigning and leveling resources. The downside is that your schedule might be less accurate and progress could be harder to track. By assigning specific people to activities, you can accurately schedule and track assignments and allocation.

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