Skills Based Scheduling for Projects? 1

[DD999]

Does anybody know of any good tools for tracking people working on projects by their specific skills?

An MS Project add-in or even an Excel spreadsheet might do the trick but I haven't found one yet.

My scenario is that I have a pool of developers working on multiple projects which make up several different release versions of a software product.

I want to be able to manage the pool of developers, assigning them to tasks based on their programming skills (Java, C++, Oracle, PowerBuilder etc). Any one programmer will usually have more than one skill area.

The tool should then allow me to see allocations of specific skill areas, such as how much of my C++ pool is busy. This should allow me to forecast when I'll need to bring in contract programmers.

Currently the job is being done manually. And, no, I can't have any of these developers write a new system for me.

I need an off the shelf solution.

Any suggestions?

 

[tav1035]

DD999,
Set-up your data into excel or any other digital database, then use a pivot chart function by craft code.
Your data will look something like this.

WO Craft Assigned ProjectDesc. ProjectCode VerCode StrtDate FinDate EstHr ActHrs
1 DBSE TOM Setup field names DB 1.2 1/1/2005 2/1/2005 120 240
2 JAVA JON Build server-side apps. JV 2.2 3/1/2005 4/1/2005 220 102
3 CPLS BOB Dev. GUI front-end apps. CP 3.3 9/1/2004 11/1/2004 80 98


With this data you can perform Resource versus WorkLoads
Count, est hrs, actuals, jobs per project.
Efficiencies, forcast yearlys, forecast cost (as another column), forecast crafts, etc. It's unlimited. If you never used pivot charts, you can drag and drop the charts which allows you to move though lots of data fast.
Let me know is you need more.
tav

 

[DD999]

Sounds like it's definitely time I get familiar with pivot tables.

Thanks for the great lead.