Mastering Resource Management Using Microsoft� Project and Project Server 2010
344
Mastering Resource Management Using Microsoft� Project and Project Server 2010
344Paperback
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781604270655 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Ross, J. Publishing, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 08/01/2011 |
| Pages: | 344 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Resource Management: What Is It Good For?
Resource management is an area of project management that is often overlooked. However, it is a critical part of the process of providing value to customers. Whether your projects are for internal or external customers, the ability to understand resource needs is critical.
Consider this example, when a manufacturing company gets a one million dollar sale for 1000 widgets, they should know the costs, how long it will take to produce the widgets, what the profit margins will be, and numerous other variables. This is because they know the costing variables, the machine production rates, the capacity of each machine in the plant, the number of other jobs in the queue, and they have tracked these variables over time to gain a perspective of what the numbers should be for a normal production run. However, this is not always the case when an organization gets a one million dollar sale that involves human resources. Most organizations that rely on their human resources to produce an end product usually do not have a great tracking method, and therefore do not have a historical perspective of the timelines and costs involved in producing the deliverables for a new sale.
In the manufacturing example, a key variable that is usually known is what effect a new job will have on existing jobs if it is given a higher priority. This is not the case when dealing with work that involves people. For some reason, there seems to be an assumption that capacity is always available and that all work gets done on the original timeline, even as new work is added or as priorities shift.
While there is a myriad of reasons why some projects fail, it is our experience that resource management is a key factor. Failing to realize the effects of changing priorities on existing work or on additional work will almost always result in a failed project, whether by missing the deadline, in costing more than estimated, or through poorer results.
This book is about human resources and how Microsoft Project helps to better manage and understand an organization's ability to utilize them. This book does not assume that people and their productivity are just as easily quantified as a machine that makes widgets. In fact, it is this very distinction of people vs. machines that makes resource management so difficult.
When executives or other stakeholders need to know the capacity of the workforce, they should be able to easily obtain an answer. In fact, they should be able to ask a number of questions and get answers very quickly. For example, they should be able to ask:
* What is the resource capacity?
* What is the capacity for a given skill set?
* What are our available skill sets?
* What is the existing utilization of our capacity?
* What is the utilization of our specific skill sets?
* How long does it normally take to do this type of project?
* What is the existing portfolio of our projects?
* How does the portfolio of projects affect our resources?
* What types of skill sets do we need for proposed projects?
* How will existing projects be affected by a new project?
* If we take on a new project, when can we realistically tell the customer we can complete it?
* What will our resource costs be for a new project?
* What are the costs for our existing projects?
* What existing projects are on track?
* What projects are late or costing us more due to lack of resources?
* How can we resolve resource issues?
* Does the resource know what work they are expected to do this week?
* Does the resource know what work they are expected to do next week, or next month?
* Does the project manager know how much capacity and utilization a resource has to help on their project?
Resource management is a valuable tool that can answer these questions, and in the level of detail that you want in order to track and understand the answers. In other words, it is possible to know what every resource in your organization is doing every minute of the day. Although, you would have to be willing to track at a level that would be burdensome on resources and make reporting so voluminous as to be meaningless. However, it is possible to track at a level that gives the detailed information desired without being burdensome.
It isn't that difficult to track detailed information, but it does require a level of discipline and a desire to use the information. At this point, saying "it isn't that difficult" doesn't always agree with experience. And, that statement is not taken lightly.
Think of it this way: starting a project with any new tactic can be difficult, but the authors contend that you are already doing this at one level or another. Let's start at the end. How do you know when a project is complete? There is a deliverable or task that is completed, and then the original intent of the project is done; however, how do you know that the work is done? Does the resource manager or project manager ask the resource responsible regarding when the work is done? Does the resource tell you it is done? There is some method that you know to call the project complete when the work is done. So start there, and build on that foundation.
When a task is assigned, how do you know how long it will take? Does the resource give you the number of days it will take? Great, we have some information with which to start. As we track durations over time, the ability (and that of the resource) will get better and at some point we will know how long it takes to do a job. That new knowledge will give us a better ability to assign resources and understand their capacity and utilization.
There are lots of opportunities to set up Microsoft Project Server and Microsoft Project Professional to gain better information about resources so that managers can be better schedulers. Like many programs produced by Microsoft, there are numerous configurations and options available. The authors do not advocate using every option and feature on the first day, but, rather, developing the ability to set up more and more of the options, so that information is available that provides real value.
Resource management should be about making information available to those that need it in a timely manner, so that better business decisions can be made. Better decisions can become a competitive advantage over other businesses or can become a center of excellence within an organization. This ability can also avert lots of frustration.
When a customer is told that their organization will receive a product or service from you on a certain date, he or she will expect it on that date. If you can't deliver it on time, the customer may not have a choice but to stay with you this time. However, if a competitor can explain to the customer how long it will take them and give some sort of data to back it up, then the competitor will probably get the business next time. How many times can a project be late before the market in general takes notice and stops dealing with your organization? There are some customers that have other commitments that are based upon yours, and the cost to them of your being late can be huge. Resource management alone is not the sole cause for being late, nor is it the sole answer to being on time, but it does seem to be a substantial cause. There seems to be an assumption that human capacity is unlimited in our organizations, and another sale is always a good thing or another internal project is acceptable. Generally, this leads to issues if relying on resource skill sets in short supply.
We have seen numerous lawsuits that have roots in poor resource management. One involved bidding against another company for some work that involved a large number of people over a period of a few years. We produced a few reports based on experience and also showed the customer a schedule in Microsoft Project. Our competitor promised the same deliverables at a slightly higher cost within a significantly reduced time period. We explained to the customer that we had no understanding of how they could do it in that time period without a lot more resources and more cost. Our competitor also didn't produce a schedule or other reports for the customer. Well, the customer went with the competitor. After a couple years, the project was cancelled because it was drastically over budget and was behind on deliverables. The customer is suing our competitor and now has wasted two years and millions of dollars and still has nothing to show for it.
Different Perspectives of Resource Management
Let's take a moment to view resource management from a few different perspectives. Resource management is not just for the benefit of a project management office or to be able to create a set of reports. It is to benefit all persons and organizations involved.
The Resource
First, take the perspective of a resource. Put yourself in the place of the resource. You have project work to do; you always have project work to do! But, is there a comprehensive list of that work somewhere, and, how does that project work coordinate with all of the other things you have to do — like going to company meetings, required training, administrative duties, and other time consuming items that aren't accounted for on the project list? Do the project managers and resource managers know about all the things you have to do that aren't on the one project? Do they know about the vacation that you are taking next month? How do you let all the project and resource managers know about your upcoming vacation when none of them are in your corporate chain of command?
In addition to similar things to worry about, do you have a way to demonstrate your workload to the project and resource managers? Do you have a way to show your supervisor that work? It is one thing to claim that you are busy, but it is another to demonstrate how busy you are. Also, how do you go about updating your tasks to show what work you are doing, what you have done, and what might be late? If you are overcapacity and supposed to be working on two separate projects at the same time, which one is the priority?
The Resource Manager
Now, put yourself in the place of the resource manager. This is the person responsible for a group of resources. For this case, let's say you are the resource manager of 25 people, all of whom have different capabilities. You will want to know:
* Who is available, and when?
* Who has what skill set?
* When each of them is going on vacation?
* Can they be assigned work by other resource or project managers, and are they being requested for other projects?
* What is the capacity of each resource, and what is their utilization?
* What hours and days do resources work, and what time zone are they in?
From a functional viewpoint as the resource manager, you want to also make sure that the resources are updating their tasks in a timely manner. How are they updating them? Are all the resources doing it the same way? Are they updating tasks to show which ones they will be on time with or late in completing?
The Project Manager
Switch perspectives to the view of the project manager. The focus is on resource management, so thinking about how resources are affecting the project schedule as a project manager will lead you to having the same questions as the resource manager. You will also be thinking about how a resource's updating affects your master schedule. Assuming a waterfall schedule format, if a resource isn't updating at all, it can affect your schedule since you have to assume that the work isn't done and you can't move on to the next task. Or, if a resource is updating a task and states that he or she will be two weeks late, how does that affect your schedule? What if you are expecting a task to be completed on a certain date, but don't know if that is the time period when a resource is on vacation? How are your projects and that of other project managers interrelated, and being affected by a particular resource?
The Executive
Now, put yourself in the place of an executive in charge of the portfolio selection process. You will want to know:
* How many resources with a certain skill set are needed next month? What about next year?
* What schedules are sliding because you don't understand current resource issues?
* How are resources being utilized?
* How much time is being spent on certain projects?
* How much cost is associated with those projects?
* Which projects have the same resource promised to them?
* How do you communicate the priority level of each project to every resource (not just to project managers or other executives)?
* Which of the proposed projects can you do now and which should you wait on due to resource constraints?
Proper resource management helps a resource, resource manager, project manager, and executive answer all of those questions, and more. As long as managers assume that there is unlimited human capacity, the practice will continue of over-promising and under-delivering to customers. Or, will surprise events drive "all hands on deck" situations where everybody stops what they are doing on multiple projects to concentrate their work on one project — all because the resource situation was not managed well from the beginning!
Now, let us review what is new about Microsoft Project 2010 as it pertains to resource management.
What's New in Project 2010?
Standard and Professional Editions
Throughout this book we demonstrate and discuss the features and functionality of Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010 as they relate to resources and resource management. The authors do not always indicate when an item is new, modified, enhanced, or a previous feature or function. However, the authors wanted to provide an indication of what is new in the latest version in regard to resource management. Before discussing what is new, we want to explain the Project 2010 editions on the market.
To clarify, there are two editions of Project 2010. This is the software that is installed on the client machine (the project manager or resource manager's computer). There are the Project 2010 Standard and Professional editions. The only edition that can connect to Project Server is the Professional edition. The Professional edition has more functions and features. If you are in the market for this software, you can purchase the Professional edition even if you don't currently have Project Server. This edition may be more useful because you would have to upgrade to Professional if you want to use Project Server later, and because it has some more capabilities that you may wish to use as project needs change.
Microsoft provides documentation from a high-level view about differences in the Standard and Professional editions. A summary chart of edition differences can be found on Microsoft's website. The part of this chart that is most pertinent to resource management is "At-a-Glance Resource Management." This refers to the new Team Planner view and other capabilities of Project Professional 2010. We cover the Team Planner in detail in Chapter 7, Assigning a Resource. The chart appears in Figure 1–1.
Microsoft Project Versions
Now that we have clarified some differences between the Standard and Professional editions, we want to show some differences in the versions of Microsoft Project. Again, Microsoft has provided a document to review all of this information, which can be downloaded as a PDF file from the Microsoft website.
We have copied the part of that chart that most directly applies to the resource management aspects of Microsoft Project. To help understand the symbols in the chart, the key is in Figure 1–2.
When the word PRO appears (next to Team Resources and Team Planner), it represents capabilities that are available in Professional 2010 but not Standard 2010, as shown in Figure 1–3.
Microsoft Project Server 2010 has new features and functions. Microsoft has produced a document for this as well on its website. The key is the same as in the Project Professional versions documentation shown in Figure 1–4.
This document covers many items. The pieces of this document that are most pertinent to resource management are given in Figures 1–5, 1–6, 1–7, and 1–8.
As can be seen by the starred items in the figures above, many new capabilities have been added to Microsoft Project Server 2010. Also, as shown by the darkened circles, there have been a lot of improvements. These modifications have made the information flow faster and easier between the resources and the resource manager. The new modifications have also allowed resource information to be seen from multiple viewpoints.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Mastering Resource Management"
by .
Copyright © 2011 Collin Quiring.
Excerpted by permission of J. Ross Publishing, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements,
About the Authors,
Introduction,
Chapter 1: Resource Management: What Is It Good For?,
Chapter 2: Microsoft Project 2010: Why Use it?,
Chapter 3: Things to Think About: Resource Calendars, Tasks, and Security,
Chapter 4: Who Can Work When: Project Calendars,
Chapter 5: Resources in the Pool,
Chapter 6: Who Is Working When: Resource Calendars,
Chapter 7: Assigning a Resource,
Chapter 8: Update Cycle and Approvals,
Chapter 9: Timesheets,
Chapter 10: Leveling Resource Assignments,
Chapter 11: Utilizing Resources,
Chapter 12: Information Is Everywhere,
Chapter 13: A Portfolio Perspective,
Chapter 14: Questions and Answers,
Chapter 15: Conclusion,
Appendix A: Resource Planning,
Appendix B: Resource Manager Guide,