Updating All Plans Working Times in a Resource Pool

Updating All Plans’ Working Times in a Resource Pool

In the previous exercise, you changed an individual resource’s working time in the resource pool, and you saw the change posted to the sharer plans. Another powerful capability of a resource pool enables you to change working times for a base calendar and see the changes updated to all sharer plans that use that calendar. For example, if you specify that certain days (such as holidays) are to be nonworking days in the resource pool, that change is posted to all sharer plans.

Important 

By default, all sharer plans share the same base calendars, and any changes you make to a base calendar in one sharer plan are reflected in all other sharer plans through the resource pool. If you have a specific sharer plan for which you want to use different base calendar working times, change the base calendar that sharer plan uses.

In this exercise, you set nonworking time in a base calendar in the resource pool, and you see this change in all sharer plans.

1. On the Window menu, click Resource Pool 19.

The entire company will be attending a local film festival on May 12, and you want this to be a nonworking day for all sharer plans.

2. On the Tools menu, click Change Working Time.

The Change Working Time dialog box appears.

3. In the For calendar box, select Standard (Project Calendar) on the drop-down list.

Changes in working time to the Standard base calendar in the resource pool affect all project plans that are sharer plans of the resource pool.

4. On the Exceptions tab in the Change Working Time dialog box, click in the first row under Name and type Local Film Festival.

5. Click in the Start field and type or select 5/12/2008, and then click the Finish field. Project fills in the same value in the Finish Date field.

6. Click OK to close the Change Working Time dialog box.

To verify that this change to the Standard base calendar in the resource pool was updated in the sharer plans, you will look at working time in one of the sharer plans.

7. On the Window menu, click Wingtip Toys Commercial 19.

8. On the Tools menu, click Change Working Time.

The Change Working Time dialog box appears.

9. In the For calendar box, click Standard (Project Calendar) on the drop-down list.

Tip 

Base calendars, such as 24 Hours, Night Shift, and Standard, appear at the top of the list in the For Calendar box. Resource names appear below the base calendars.

Note the Local Film Festival exception on May 12. All project plans that are sharer plans of the same resource pool will see this change in this base calendar.

10. Click Cancel to close the Change Working Time dialog box.

If you want, you can switch to the Parnell Aerospace Promo 19 project plan and verify that May 12 is also a nonworking day for that project.

11. Close and save changes to all open project plans, including the resource pool.

Important 

When working with sharer plans and a resource pool, it is important to understand that when you open a sharer plan, you must also open the resource pool if you want the sharer plan to be updated with the most recent changes to the resource pool. For example, assume that you change the project calendar’s working time in the resource pool, save it, and close it, If you later open a sharer plan but do not also open the resource pool, that sharer plan will not reflect the updated project calendar’s working time.