Hi there,

I'm new to the forum and would regard myself as a MS Project of novice/maybe intermediate level. I'm currently using MS Project 2013.

I'm having problems with using, creating and managing a resource pool linked to a project.

I have developed a project plan which I have assigned resource too. Within the resource pool itself I have added my work resources (employees) and recorded their holidays in the Change Working Time window under 'Exceptions'.



I have then added two tasks which require 5 and 6 employees respectively to complete the tasks at a clients site. I have then assigned these two groups of employees to each of the tasks and set the tasks to Fixed Duration.

In basic terms I'm looking for a simple way to manage employees availability for work on a project.

I was hoping/expecting MS Project to identify a problem with the resource when I allocate employees to tasks, possibly as a resource overallocation. However, no such luck and when I look at Team Planner view the vacations don't appear.

Can MS Project be used in this way?

Thanks in advance

Project will not flag a resource as overallocated because there is non-working time in his/her calendar. If the task is Fixed Work or Fixed Units, it will simply move the work for the assigned resource. If there are multiple resources assigned the assignments are scheduled during working time for each resource.

However, if the task is fixed duration, the story is slightly different. If the resource has non-working time s/he will simply have less work scheduled - assuming you changed the working time BEFORE assigning them to a Fixed Duration task.

For example: a task starting on April 13, 10 days duration. Fixed Duration. Task is scheduled to finish on April 24.

I have four resources: Mary, Mike, Pete, Sue. Pete is on vacation from April 21-24. I assign all four resources to the task. Mary, Mike, and Sue are all scheduled for 80 hours of work each. Pete is scheduled for 48 hours - the six working days in his schedule that fall between the 13 and 24.

Take a look at the Task Usage view to really see when each resource is working. I do see Pete's shortened work schedule in the Team Planner view, but by default the task bars extend through nonworking time. Try changing the Nonworking time display to a darker color and you should be able to see the non-working time for each resource.

Hi Julie, thanks for replying. Very helpful indeed.

I was wondering if I could pester you about another issue I have just experienced.

I have a project plan in place and have regularly been using the Filter to display 'Incomplete Tasks'. However, strangely when I tried to use this filter option today I found many of the standard in-built filters had disappeared, including the filter for Incomplete Tasks.

Any idea why this has happened and how I can resolve it?

Thanks

I see you've posted this as another question. I've answered you there.