GREAT GREAT NEWS!!!
Please sit down, relax and be ready to manage your resources like a PRO using Project Online / Project 2016 and the GREATEST NEW Resource Engagements… J
Microsoft is saying that they have learned about resource managers and project managers finding it challenging to agree on and assign resources for specific projects and tasks.
With no clear way:
to track who is working where,
who is over-allocated
and with crossed lines of communication,
then things start to break down.
To solve this GAP Microsoft is introducing a new capability in the next update of Project called Resource Engagements. YES!!!
Microsoft will address this old issue helping Project Managers and Resource Managers or Team Managers to align about specific amount of work and time period associated.
Sounds like magic, but the recipe is not simple like that… let’s check it out…
What can project managers do?
As a project manager, in Project Professional you’ll be able to create requests for resources in the new Resource Plan view.
You can specify the dates and amount of work, and also request either a specific resource or a generic one. When you’re ready, submit your requests.
Simply refresh your view to see the status of your requests and the decisions made for each. NOTE: If you requested a generic resource, the resource manager may have swapped it out for a named resource in that role. You can always make edits and re-submit if you need to negotiate.
What can resource managers do?
As a resource manager, you can view the requests for the resources that you manage across all projects on the new Resource Requests page.
You can make decisions about who is available using the capacity planning heat map. In the example below, you see that Allie Mack already has too many engagements for most of June but Kat Larrson has availability starting the week of the 6/14/2015. You wouldn’t want to accept any more incoming requests for Allie Mack in June, and can also look back at the existing engagements to see what needs to be updated.
You can then edit, accept, or reject the requests on the Resource Requests page. In this example the resource manager is about to reject the request for Allie Mack since she is already over engaged.
You can create a New Engagement, which is automatically accepted and visible to the project manager who owns the project.
What happens to my old Resource Plans?
Existing Resource Plans in PWA will all be automatically converted into Engagements, and the old Resource Plan view will be removed. If you’re an on-premises customer, this will happen when you upgrade to Project Server 2016. For those of you on Project Online, you’ll be able to decide when you want to activate the new features, which will then migrate your old Resource Plans into Engagements.
What about reporting?
If you want to generate reports on how resources are being used in relation to engagements, you can create a custom report using OData, which supports the new engagement fields.
If you open your current Project Online OData Feed you will be able to see the new entities added to support the Resource Engagements reports
I will update this post with a nice a beautiful drawing of the process and show HOW SHOULD BE DONE PROPERLY IN YOUR ORGANIZATION… Have a nice and engaged weekend… J