{"id":1219,"date":"2019-05-14T12:06:02","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T10:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/licenceking.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2019-08-07T19:38:23","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T17:38:23","slug":"more-structured-and-organized-with-the-ms-project-resource-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/licenceking.co.uk\/blog\/more-structured-and-organized-with-the-ms-project-resource-management\/","title":{"rendered":"More structured and organized with the MS Project Resource Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to our latest blog post, even newcomers can easily use the MS Project Resource Management. It is the ideal tool for creating and saving new projects, entering tasks, structuring and organizing projects or specifying the amount of work required. The most important parameters are money and time besides the project goals. With our tips, you can get more control over your cost and effort planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you have created a project in MS Project, resource management is on the agenda. Finally, you need to define exactly how you want to define the resources you plan in Microsoft Project<\/a>, and then how you want to implement the project’s cost and effort planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

MS Project Resource Management with costs, material, people and machines<\/b><\/h3>\n

The resources that are plannable in MS Project are costs, materials, people and machines. There is no difference between machines and people as they have a limited capacity, which you define as <\/span>work<\/span><\/i> in MS Project. Machines and people are usually set in relation to costs per time unit.<\/span><\/p>\n

In reality, costs and material are not unlimited. In the proper sense, they do not have their own capacities and can be found in MS Project as resource types. Costs and material do not have to be set in dependence to the time. However, costs for these two resources are incurred on certain dates or periods.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore three resource types are distinguished in MS Project, namely <\/span>costs<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>material<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>work<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Creating Work and Material with MS Project Resource Management<\/b><\/h3>\n

As already described, machines and people are defined with the resource category <\/span>work<\/span><\/i>. Create calendars, maximum units, or hourly rates for resources that you want to schedule as <\/span>work<\/span><\/i>. You can calculate the cost of the resource <\/span>work<\/span><\/i> using MS Project via the option <\/span>work\/time<\/span><\/i> unit or the hourly rate. In MS Project resource management, add individual holidays and working times to the basic calendar, which, for example, contains the public holidays of the work location.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you create a resource in MS Project, use the labeling option. This allows you to define units of measure such as <\/span>kg<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>sqm<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>pcs<\/span><\/i>. When you create the resource <\/span>material<\/span><\/i>, however, you cannot define a basic calendar or maximum units. Instead of the time units per day, you simply enter the required quantity when assigning the <\/span>material<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Afterwards, you can easily calculate the cost of material resources using the field <\/span>work<\/span><\/i>. In the <\/span>work<\/span><\/i> column of the resource and operation masks, you see a corresponding value for the <\/span>material<\/span><\/i>, for example, the quantity. <\/span>Process<\/span><\/i>: <\/span>Mask<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Process<\/span><\/i>: <\/span>Usage<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>resources<\/span><\/i>: Specify exactly when you need the material and define the exact start and end of the assignment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"MS<\/b><\/h3>\n

Define costs with MS Project Resource Management<\/b><\/h3>\n

Assign real costs to the corresponding operation in the same way you do for the resource <\/span>work<\/span><\/i>. You do not need to enter units or work here. You enter the costs of an operation directly. The costs are automatically distributed linearly over the duration of the activity in the standard setting. Otherwise, you can enter the amount in the column <\/span>cost<\/span><\/i> in <\/span>Process<\/span><\/i>: <\/span>Usage<\/span><\/i> or <\/span>resources<\/span><\/i>: <\/span>Usage<\/span><\/i>. You can also define a general due date for the resource <\/span>costs<\/span><\/i>. This resource is defined as the default for each assignment. Simply select the required due date for the resource <\/span>costs<\/span><\/i> in the common view <\/span>Resources: Table.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Define a budget with MS Project Resource Management<\/b><\/h3>\n

Create budget resources for all types <\/span>work<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>material<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>costs<\/span><\/i>. By doing this, activate the checkbox with the same name. It is important to note that you can only assign the budget resources to the project collective activity. To enter the planned costs and assign the budget resources to the project collection activity, select the column <\/span>cost budget<\/span><\/i> in the <\/span>Process: Usage<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, assign team or department names in the column <\/span>group<\/span><\/i> that can be found in the resource table. In this way, you can summarize the workload and assignments of the individual group members hierarchically at a later time. Or you can create a new group name in the <\/span>Max. Unit<\/span><\/i> in the table view <\/span>resources<\/span><\/i> to determine the level of availability per time unit. For example:<\/span><\/p>\n