Resource planning - people and projects
Discussion
Hi, can anyone give me some indication on how they address the following kind of problem?
I am working for a small R&D company at the moment who have around 10 full time staff and 5 part timers too. They are working across 4 projects that are funded from grants and another couple of projects 100% funded by themselves on core research. They need to be able to monitor and plan how much time each person spends on each project so that they can account for each person's input and hence the cost. The challenges are to split the grant funded time from the self funded time, monitor each person's labour on projects that may be running simultaneously, but have different start and finish times, claim periods etc.
I am trying to fathom out the best way to tackle this and whether to embark creating a raft of Excel spreadsheets and then pivot tables. However, it does start to get quite complicated especially if a new person joins the company, someone gets a pay rise, or another new project is commenced. I have to find some way of doing this that can monitor spend historically, and use to plan resources for the future. e.g. a person can only work a max of 100% of their time, and assume this to be 220 working days in a year - therefore we can not plan them to be working 260 days on projects in a calendar year!
Any ideas then? This cannot be an unusual scenario in companies that are project driven e.g. R&D, construction etc.
I am working for a small R&D company at the moment who have around 10 full time staff and 5 part timers too. They are working across 4 projects that are funded from grants and another couple of projects 100% funded by themselves on core research. They need to be able to monitor and plan how much time each person spends on each project so that they can account for each person's input and hence the cost. The challenges are to split the grant funded time from the self funded time, monitor each person's labour on projects that may be running simultaneously, but have different start and finish times, claim periods etc.
I am trying to fathom out the best way to tackle this and whether to embark creating a raft of Excel spreadsheets and then pivot tables. However, it does start to get quite complicated especially if a new person joins the company, someone gets a pay rise, or another new project is commenced. I have to find some way of doing this that can monitor spend historically, and use to plan resources for the future. e.g. a person can only work a max of 100% of their time, and assume this to be 220 working days in a year - therefore we can not plan them to be working 260 days on projects in a calendar year!
Any ideas then? This cannot be an unusual scenario in companies that are project driven e.g. R&D, construction etc.
Edited by TUS 373 on Thursday 15th February 12:44
sjwb said:
Sounds like a job for Microsoft Project.
For modelling and forward scheduling of projects like you describe Microsoft Project is BY FAR the best tool for the job. Its also fairly cheap in the scheme of things. You go with any of the big boy tools for the doing this and you will spend real money.
You could look into "Project Server" side of things too - for monitoring progress and recording staff time. You'll pay more for that but at least it gives you a handle on "actuals" (what the staff are really doing).
If you need better control of the "effort collection" or time recording aspects of managing your staff you will need a proper dedicated Timesheets system. There are loads of these but of course I'd like to sll you ours!
www.aballantine.com To be honest, though, our stuff is the absolute Rolls Royce of systems for doing this and you may not need its functionality or expense for the number of staff you have...Thank you Gentlemen.
Yes, I have some basic experience of MS Project. What I was stumbling with for that package was how to combine the resources from several projects (as in MS Project files) together to see at a glance. Also, how to identify where there are spare resources we can use when planning future projects. Can MS project do all of that without becoming too complicated. At the end of the day, I am one guy with a laptop and more experience with MS Excel.
Yes, I have some basic experience of MS Project. What I was stumbling with for that package was how to combine the resources from several projects (as in MS Project files) together to see at a glance. Also, how to identify where there are spare resources we can use when planning future projects. Can MS project do all of that without becoming too complicated. At the end of the day, I am one guy with a laptop and more experience with MS Excel.
TUS 373 said:
Thank you Gentlemen.
Yes, I have some basic experience of MS Project. What I was stumbling with for that package was how to combine the resources from several projects (as in MS Project files) together to see at a glance. Also, how to identify where there are spare resources we can use when planning future projects. Can MS project do all of that without becoming too complicated. At the end of the day, I am one guy with a laptop and more experience with MS Excel.
Yes, I have some basic experience of MS Project. What I was stumbling with for that package was how to combine the resources from several projects (as in MS Project files) together to see at a glance. Also, how to identify where there are spare resources we can use when planning future projects. Can MS project do all of that without becoming too complicated. At the end of the day, I am one guy with a laptop and more experience with MS Excel.
Yes it can.
Its a a bit fiddly but you can create a "multi-project" environment with a single resource sheet and do resource leveling and/or analysis. You will need a grunty machine to do it with as much memory as the slots will take. If you ask MSP to open fifty files and analyse 'em it needs RAM to do it.
You can GROUP resources together so that you can analyse how loaded an individual is but also what group that individual belongs to.
I used to do MSP Consulting from time to time for my sins: I recommend you get one of the big thick books on using MSP and read it cover to cover. It can do what you need.
Don said:
TUS 373 said:
Thank you Gentlemen.
Yes, I have some basic experience of MS Project. What I was stumbling with for that package was how to combine the resources from several projects (as in MS Project files) together to see at a glance. Also, how to identify where there are spare resources we can use when planning future projects. Can MS project do all of that without becoming too complicated. At the end of the day, I am one guy with a laptop and more experience with MS Excel.
Yes, I have some basic experience of MS Project. What I was stumbling with for that package was how to combine the resources from several projects (as in MS Project files) together to see at a glance. Also, how to identify where there are spare resources we can use when planning future projects. Can MS project do all of that without becoming too complicated. At the end of the day, I am one guy with a laptop and more experience with MS Excel.
Yes it can.
Its a a bit fiddly but you can create a "multi-project" environment with a single resource sheet and do resource leveling and/or analysis. You will need a grunty machine to do it with as much memory as the slots will take. If you ask MSP to open fifty files and analyse 'em it needs RAM to do it.
You could, but for the size of team and projects in this case, I would just run them all within the same project file as separate parallel workstreams.
TUS 373 said:
Now that could be an idea. Problem is that I have one project in Excel, one done poorly in MS Project, and one done properly in MS Project. Its great software but I really am a beginner with this at the moment.
Actually trooper probably has given the right advice for this situation. No reason why you can't manage many "work streams" within a single MSP document. And it will be a LOT easier.
Go out and buy the big book and read it. You will get back the time invested twenty times over in short order. MSP isn't a black art: but there is plenty to know. I used to do training courses in it - and that can be another option - but you'll pay £250 to learn the basics instead of £40 to learn absolutely everything by reading the book.
Buy the book!
Off to Amazon and do a search. Do it now!
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