Chapter 4: Assigning Resources to Tasks

Chapter at a Glance

Assign work resource to tasks, page 79. Control how effort-driven scheduling affects task durations, page 84. Assign material resources to tasks, page 90. Assign cost resource to tasks, page 92.

In This Chapter, You will Learn How to:

• Assign work resources to tasks.

• Control how Project schedules additional resource assignments.

• Assign material and cost resources to tasks.

Tip 

Do you need only a quick refresher on the topics in this chapter? See the Quick Reference entries on pages xxv–xlviii.

If you completed Chapter 2, “Creating a Task List,” and Chapter 3, “Setting Up Resources,” you have already created tasks and resources. You are now ready to assign resources to tasks. An assignment is the matching of a resource to a task to do work. From the perspective of tasks, you might call the process of assigning a resource a task assignment; from the perspective of resources, you might call it a resource assignment. It is the same thing in either case: a task plus a resource equals an assignment.

Important 

When we talk about resources throughout this chapter, we are talking about work resources (people and equipment) unless we specify material or cost resources. For a refresher on resource types, see Chapter 3.

You do not have to assign resources to tasks in Microsoft Office Project 2007; you could work with only tasks. Yet there are several good reasons for assigning resources in your project plan. If you assign resources to tasks, you can answer questions such as

• Who should be working on what tasks and when?

• Do you have the correct number of resources to accomplish the scope of work your project requires?

• Are you expecting a resource to work on a task at a time when that resource will not be available to work (for example, when the resource will be on vacation)?

• Have you assigned a resource to so many tasks that you have exceeded the capacity of the resource to work-in other words, have you overallocated the resource?

In this chapter, you assign resources to tasks. You assign work resources (people and equipment) as well as material and cost resources to tasks, and you observe where work resource assignments should affect task duration and where they should not.

Important 

Before you can use the practice files provided for this chapter, you need to install them from the book’s companion CD to their default locations. See “Using the Book’s CD” on page xix for more information.