Creating a Resource Plan

Well, isnt this typical, I wanted to include some images, but always receive error messages when I upload the image. Lets try it wouthout then :)

CREATING A RESOURCE PLAN
On projects which run for a longer time, it is not always be possible to assign a resource directly to a task for the whole duration of a Project. The Project Manager knows approximately whom he/ she would like to be involved in the project, but does not know on which tasks.
In order to show the resources availability Project Server offers Project Managers the ability to create a resource plan. A resource plan gives PM’s the option to assign time to a resource for a project, but does not need to assign the resource to a Project task.

Please note, assigning a resource to a project via the resource plan will not automatically display the project tasks in the “My Task” screen for this resource.

1. 
   Go to the Project Center and highlight your Project
   Click on ‘Resource Plan’
   
2. You will be prompted with the Resource Plan Screen
   
   
3. Click Build Team
   Select the resources you whish to add to your resource plan
   
   
4. Click Save
   
   
5. Click Settings > View Options
   You can now set the resource plan
   
   Date Range = The date range you whish to view
   Column Interval =, Days, Week, Month, Year
   You can decide how the resource utilisation is calculated:
   - Project Plan: The utilisation will be calculated from the Project Plan
   - Resource Plan: The utilisation will be calculated from the Resource Plan
   - Project Plan until: you can specify a date until the utilisation will be calculated from the Project Plan. After this date, the Resource Plan will be the bases of the utilisation calculation for the resource that are on the resource plan
   
   Work Units ( the units you want to enter based on the date range you specify ) = hours, days, weeks, month, year,
   
   Show Total Work =Allows users to enter one total amount for the whole Project.
   
   
6. Enter the required resource time in to the data grid
   
7. Click Save and Publish
   The resource plan will now be published and the resource utilisation will be visible in Project Web Access
   
   Please note:
   If you use need to change some resource plan information you can do so by clicking on the resource plan within the Project Center of PWA
   

Proposal and Activities - things you need to consider

I have been trying to implement Proposals and Activities and here are some things you should know before attempting to use Proposals in Project Server 2007

1. When allocating a resource to a task ( under build a team ) you cannot allocate a certain unit ( e.g. 50%) to a resource. This makes it nearly impossible to use when you only want resource to work 4 hours a day on this task. Now that is NOT nice :)
2. You can only assign 1 resource to a task. NOT nice
3. When you don't use the time sheet, but only the task update ( which some customers do) and you want resources to update tasks by hours worked per day, the resource will need to drill down to the task and enter each day he/she has worked. So far so good. ( by the way this is a setting in Project Server that you can set). BUT when using the Proposal Project Server does NOT allow to enter time per day ( only total actual work). Also NOT nice

In total I am a little disappointed on the function of Proposals and Activities. It seems a "little" over promise was done by Microsoft ( Sorry Microsoft, I still love you :)

So in a nutshell, please investigate deeply before using the Proposal and Activities. Make sure that you have all posebillities covered. There are certainly great possibilities and lets face it. IT IS BETTER THAN NOTHING -- RIGHT :)

OK get your act together - The new formula

I know it has been a while. Work work work, but 2007 Work which is good. The more I become familiar with Project Server 2007 the more I love and hate it :)
Lets talk about fomulas. The way formulas worked in 2003 was based on MS Project Professional and it was ok to use. you had many different ways to generate formulas and show traffic lights etc.
The way 2007 works is that you will actually need to have enter the formula using the web client. That sounds generally good BUT you need MS Project in order to validate the formula. Why did you take it out of Project Professional in the first place ??? OK OK I know the answer to this, that is due the the new funcitonality of custom fields. ( Which I like, just a shame that is is much slower to use then in 2003, but that is just the way it is.)

what I did discover is that you now have variations to formulas and need to use the WSS formulas. Here is an example: This one displays if the finish date is on time or not. Plesae note the AND statement that we had to use to make this work:

IIf([Baseline Finish]=ProjDateValue("NA"),"No Baseline",IIf([Current Date]>[Baseline Finish],"Late Delivery",IIf([Actual Finish]<>ProjDateValue("NA") And [Actual Finish]>[Baseline Finish],"Delivered Late",IIf([Finish]>[Baseline Finish],"Possible Delay","On Time"))))

I then integrated the Traffic lights and it seems to work . The AND was used differently in the last release and makes 2007 "New" meaning I ( and you ) will have to get used to the new way of formulas.
PS: some fields dont work = e.g. Active Risks and Active Issues do not work, meaning that you cannot generate a formula based on these fields. Now that is a shame :)