Microsoft Project Fundamentals

Lesson 6Set Up Resources

LESSON OBJECTIVES

• Explain the three types of resources in Project and add them to your plan.
• Enter cost information for the three types of resources.
• Define cost per use and the cost accrual choices.
• Describe resource units or max units.
• Change the max units for a resource.
• Describe how availability affects the project schedule and resource allocation.
• Customize a normal work week for a resource calendar.
• Specify an exception to a resource calendar.
• Explain how Project calculates a resource's availability using max units and the resource calendar.

With your schedule now built, your project is looking like a solid guide toward achieving your deliverables and milestones on time. Your project is mapped out based on your project start date, project working times calendar, task durations, linked task dependencies, and any hard date constraints. With this information, Microsoft Project is able to calculate your task start and finish dates.

You don't necessarily have to add information to your project plan about the people responsible for carrying out the tasks. If you do, though, you'll be able to create a more realistic and accurate schedule. This is because the Project scheduling engine can figure in information about the people's working hours and days, in addition to whether they're working part time or full time on this effort. Project can also show how well resources are being used, and whether you have resource gaps that will hold up progress. ...