An Overview of Enterprise Resource Management

This chapter describes how project and resource managers use the new features and capabilities of Project Professional 2003 to successfully manage resources available in an organization.

One of the biggest challenges of today's organizations is to ensure that the right resources are assigned to each project, and that all projects in the pipeline are properly staffed, taking into consideration project requirements, resources' skills, proficiency level, and availability.

With the release of Microsoft Project 2003, project and resource managers will notice a few significant changes in areas of resource management, such as

• Definition and management of a broad variety of types of resources, including designation of resources as Committed or Proposed, allowing resource managers more flexibility in establishing project teams .

• Substitution of generic resources is more accurate due to new Enterprise Global Outline Resource Codes that permit multiple selections to be assigned to a single code.

• Actual work numbers can be protected to prevent subsequent alteration of electronic records.

• Time spent by resource on administrative tasks can now be reflected in Administrative projects, allowing organizations to gain visibility into tasks that are non-project related , but essential for good management of the organization.

• Improved functionality for timesheets allows for better collaboration. New with Project 2003 is the introduction of multiple approvals for timesheets. Functional/resource managers now can review timesheets before the project manager will update the project schedules. Also, timesheets can now be locked so changes cannot be made to previously posted time data unless approved by a manager that has the authority to do so.

One of the most important aspects of Microsoft Project is that it provides enterprisewide visibility of projects and resources.

The Resource Center provides detailed information about resources stored in the enterprise resource pool. Managers can quickly view and analyze resource attributes, assignments, utilization, and availability.

NOTE

Security rights and privileges apply to viewing and managing resources in Resource Center. If you can't see the Resource Center, please contact your manager and your System Administrator to determine if your security rights have been set properly.

The Resource Center can be accessed from either Microsoft Project Web Access (by selecting Resources tab) or from Microsoft Project Professional (by selecting Collaborate, Resource Center).

NOTE

When accessing the Resource Center from Project Professional, you can only see the View Enterprise resource in the Resource Center displayed (as described in "Managing Enterprise Resources in the Resource Center," later in this chapter). To take advantage of all Resource Center's features and functionality, you must access the Resource Center from Project Web Access.

Remember that you must be successfully logged in to a Project server in order to access the enterprise features described in this section. For information on how to log in to a Project Server, see "Logging in to Project Server from Project Professional," p. 1004 .

The System Administrator sets the permissions to see resource assignments in order for resource information to display.

NOTE

By default, project managers can only see the View Resource Assignments, Adjust Actuals, and View Timesheet Summary options. When the project manager chooses these options, only resources that have been assigned to his/her project(s) will display.

To view the resources in Resource Center from Project Web Access, select Resource, and then View enterprise resources in Resource Center.

To view resources in Resource Center from Microsoft Project Professional, select Collaborate, then Resource Center.

Resource Center has only one predefined view named Resource Summary.

The views available to users in Resource Center depend on the user 's specific authorization with Microsoft Project Server (granted by the System Administrator). The System Administrator has the ability to modify or create additional views by selecting Admin, and then Manage Views.

Depending on specific authorization with the Project Server and the role you perform in the organization, Resource Center enables you to perform up to six actions:

• View enterprise resources in Resource Center

• Analyze resource in Portfolio Analyzer

• View resource assignments

• Adjust actuals

• View timesheet summary

• Approve timesheets

Figure 27.1. Resource Center will only display enterprise resources. Resources that are local to any of the project plans in the Project Server database will not be displayed in the Resource Center.

By default, the first action (View enterprise resources) is common and can be performed by both project and resource managers, while the rest can only be performed by resource managers.

NOTE

The System Administrator has the ability to change the default views for specific users or groups in order to align these views with the roles and responsibilities of users within the organization.