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The second most-used page in Web Access is the Resource Center. You open the Resource Center by clicking the Resources tab on any Web Access page.
As you can see in Figure 22.32, the Resource Center page displays a page that lists all the enterprise resources stored on Project Server. From here, you can view your resources and resource assignments in a number of different ways, edit the custom fields for any particular resource, and use Portfolio Analyzer to analyze your resource usage.
Figure 22.32: Use the Resource Center to view all your enterprise resources.
The main Resource Center table displays all available enterprise resources, along with key details about each resource—Type, Material Label, Max Units, Checked Out (status), Last Saved By, Last Modified (date), and RBS (level). There are several ways you can configure this view of your resources, which is especially useful if you have a large pool of enterprise resources. You can sort, filter, and group resources, and search for specific resources.
The quickest way to reconfigure the Resource Center table is to re-sort the list of resources. You can sort on any column; click the top of the column once for a normal descending sort, or click twice to sort in descending order.
Tip | Sort your resources alphabetically by clicking once on the header for the Resource Name column. |
If you have an extremely long list of resources, you may want to filter the list to show only those resources that meet a specific criteria. You do this by clicking the Filter, Group, Search tab and then choosing Custom Filter from the Filter list. Click the Custom Filter button to display the More Filters dialog box; you can apply up to three filter criteria for each custom filter you create.
You can also apply AutoFilters to your resource list. Check the AutoFilter option to display AutoFilter buttons at the top of each column; click the down arrow to choose from a list of available filters.
Grouping similar resources is as easy as selecting the Filter, Group, Search tab and then making a selection from the Group By list. You can perform up to two subgroups by using the Then By lists.
Finally, you can search for specific resources by selecting the Filter, Group, Search tab and entering one or more keywords into the Search For field. Select which fields you want to search In and then click the Find Next button.
The Resource Center enables you to view a graphical representation of any given resource’s availability. Select a resource from the table, and click View Availability (above the table). The program now displays the Resource Availability graph shown in Figure 22.33. You can graph availability for a different time period by clicking the right and left arrows above the graph, or by selecting the View Options tab and entering new date ranges.
Note | The availability data for the selected resource is also displayed in a Details table underneath the graph. |
Figure 22.33: View the availability for a selected resource.
Project has four built-in views for the Resource Availability graph: Assignment Work by Resource, Assignment Work by Project, Remaining Availability, and Work. Use the Choose a View list to change to a different view.
If you have custom fields associated with your enterprise resources, you can use the Resource Center to enter values for these fields. Select a resource from the Resource Center table and then click Edit Resource Details. When the Resource Details page appears, enter or select a value for each resource field; then click Save and Close.
Viewing resource data is interesting; in many instances, however, it may be more useful to view the assignments for these resources.
You can view resource assignments by selecting View Resource Assignments from the Resource Assignments Activities pane. This opens the View Resource Assignments page, shown in Figure 22.34. The default view for this page employs a Gantt chart to show the current assignments for each resource; individual projects and to-do lists are grouped beneath each resource in the table.
Figure 22.34: View resource assignments in Gantt Chart view.
You can display this information in a timesheet format (shown in Figure 22.35) by clicking the Timesheet Format link in the Activities pane. You can also opt to view all assignments (not just the current ones) by clicking All Assignments, also in the Activities pane.
You can configure any of these views by selecting the View Options tab and then selecting which elements and date ranges to display. You can also use the Filter, Group, Search tab to filter, group, and search for specific resources.
Finally, you can use the Portfolio Analyzer to produce top-level charts and tables of resource-related data. When you click the Analyze Resources in Portfolio Analyzer link (in the Resource Center Activities pane), you’re taken to the Portfolio Analyzer utility. This is the same utility discussed in the “Creating Portfolio Analyses for Managers” section earlier in this chapter. Use the Portfolio Analyzer controls to create a custom analysis of your resource data.
Figure 22.35: View resource assignments in Timesheet view.
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