MS project for long term scheduling

[BigSean]

Hi,

I'm new to MS project and I need to set up resources (people) and assign them to an enduring/reoccurring task. We have an office on the east coast and an office on the west coast. I have 30 people and I have to man 10 of them at all times on the west coast and 20 of them on the east coast. Those positions rotate so for instance a single person would do roughly 4 months a year on the west coast and 8 months a year on the east coast. I would like to primarily use the 'team planner' to schedule when someone will be transitioning to the west coast. Also, the 'reports' side I need it to generate a ratio 1:2 (east coast time to west coast time). I'm just getting started in MS project so any help would really be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[JulieInMaine]

Hello BigSean,

You'll need a couple of calendars: East Coast and West Coast. Create the calendars through Change Working Time on the Project Ribbon. I'd set what ever time zone you (or the PM) as the base - so if you are on the east coast (I am assuming US), create the West Coast calendar as 3 hours later. If the standard East Coast US working time is 08:00 to 17:00, for the West coast it would be 11:00 - 20:00.

If you operate multiple shifts (is this what you mean by "at all times"?) then create a second and third shift calendars for each region.

You can then assign different base calendars to the resources and assuming you are tracking work (marking tasks complete) you may change the base calendar for the resources as they move locations. It will only affect the schedule of incomplete tasks.

Not sure why you are interested in the team planner - I'm not sure what benefit it offers over scheduling using the Resource Usage view.

Regarding the 1:2 - that should be taken care of by the work assignments. I'm assuming the tasks themselves cannot be segregated by region?

 

[remeng]

Hi BigSean,

Welcome to MS Project. This is a fantastic program and it has a lot of depth. I would recommend that you pick up a book called Microsoft Project (2010) or (2013): The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore. The book is a great entry level to mid level book that goes through many of the commonly used features. It is written for beginners but isn't dumbed down so much that as you get more advanced it isn't useful. Also, Bonnie does reply to e-mails really quickly if you need clarification on something.

If you plan to go to MS Project Server, I would recommend taking a class too. The server will allow everyone in both offices to see timelines, show the resource pools, and generate reports, as well as not only time sheets, without everyone needing MS Project Pro.

MS Project has a ton of depth and my company is just expanding into it for all of our planning, project budgeting, time sheets, reports, traffic light status, resource allocations, and really anything else that can be applied.

I hope you have fun with it. Julie is a fantastic resource too. She has answered a ton of my questions.

Mike

 

[JulieInMaine]

Thanks for the kind words, Mike. Cheers!