Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Assigning People and Other Resources

People and their availability (when folks are scheduled to work, and when they’re taking vacation) ultimately control when tasks get done and how long the project takes. In Project, resources are any people, equipment, or materials needed to complete tasks in your project. Chapters Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 provide the full scoop on how to create and manage all types of project resources. This section provides a quick introduction to adding people to your project as resources and assigning them to tasks.

Add People to Your Project

Work could still be up for grabs when you create your schedule. Even if you don’t know resource names, you probably know what skills are required to do the work. You can use a person’s name if you have a lucky team member lined up, or fill in generic names when all you know is the type of work or skill required.

Project’s Resource Sheet view is specifically for listing resources. Here’s how to display it and fill it in:

1. In the View tab’s Resource Views section, click Resource Sheet.

   A new spreadsheet-like view appears with fields for recording information about your resources.

2. To add yourself as a resource, click the first Resource Name cell, type your name (in Figure 4-8, it’s Chris), and then press Enter.

   Project selects the next Resource Name cell.

3. Repeat step 2 for the colleagues you’ve corralled into cycling.

   If you don’t know who else will work on your project, then in the Resource Name cell, type a name that indicates the skill required of the resource, like Rider2, Rider3, and Rider4 in Figure 4-8.

Figure 4-8. Resource Sheet view captures information about the people, equipment, and/or materials required for your project, including costs and work schedules. For now, just enter the names of the resources. (Chapter 8 covers resource creation in intricate detail.)

Assign Resources to Tasks

At this point, you have a list of all the people who are pitching in. If you handed them your schedule now and told them to get to work, you’d have a free-for-all on your hands. To get the work done on time with a minimum of chaos, all team members need to know which tasks are theirs to do. Here’s how to assign your project’s resources to tasks:

1. In the View tab’s Task Views section, click the top half of the Gantt Chart button (where the chart icon is).

   Project switches to Gantt Chart view. The table on the left side of this view lists tasks with fields for details, such as Duration, Start, Finish, Predecessors, and Resource Names. The right side is the Gantt Chart timescale.

   Make sure you can see the Resource Names column. If necessary, adjust the Gantt Chart’s two panes to display it: Position the mouse pointer over the vertical bar between the panes. When the pointer changes to double arrows, drag the divider bar to the right until the Resource Names column is visible.

2. Click the Resource Names field for the “Research entry requirements” task.

   Project displays a box around the cell and displays a down arrow for the resource drop-down list.

   Note

   Summary tasks don’t get resource assignments, because the resources are already assigned to the individual tasks that belong to summary tasks. Likewise, don’t assign resources to milestones, because their zero duration means there’s no work to perform.

3. To select a name, click the down arrow, turn on the checkbox for a name in the list, and then press Enter.

   The name you selected appears in the task’s Resource Names cell. It also shows up in the timescale next to the task’s task bar (Figure 4-9). For other ways to assign resources to tasks, see Assigning Work Resources to Tasks.

   

   Figure 4-9. In addition to adding the name to the Resource Names cell, Project places the person’s name (here, it’s Chris) next to the task bar in the Gantt Chart timescale.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you’ve assigned resources to all the tasks.

   Or not. If you don’t know who to assign and can’t determine a generic resource, then leave the Resource Names field blank. You can come back and assign resources later.

Note

After you assign resources to tasks in the sample project, you’ll probably notice red icons in the Indicators column (the icon looks like a person). That icon represents a resource overallocation. You’ll learn how to balance resource workloads to eliminate resource overallocations in Chapter 11.

You’re now ready to proceed to the last step of the test drive.