Add resources to your project

There are two ways to add resources to your projects:

• Build Team     Using the Build Team feature, you can search for enterprise resources that have the required skills to complete the tasks in your project.

• Resource plan     During project initiation, before a detailed project plan with tasks and assignments has been prepared, you can use a resource plan to represent the resource requirements for the project at a high level. This is helpful when you need to advise the resource managers and department managers of upcoming work, but you do not know the specific tasks or resources that will make up the project plan.

  Note: You can create and view resource plans only by using Microsoft Office Project Web Access. The resource plans are not visible in Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007, and the plans do not limit the resource availability within Project.

What do you want to do?

Add resources to a project by using Build Team

Create a resource plan for a project proposal

Add resources to a project by using Build Team

1. On the Quick Launch, click Projects.

2. Select the row for the project that you want to build a team for, and then click Build Team.

3. On the Build Team page, a list of resources on the left shows all the resources that you have permission to see within the resource breakdown structure code for your organization. The list on the right shows the resources that are already assigned in your project.

4. Select the resources on the left that you want to assign to the project, and then click Add. Select the resource by selecting the check box next to the resource.

5. To create a list on the left that contains only those resources that have skills that match a resource on the right, select the resource on the right, and then click Match.

   Finding resources in this way is particularly helpful when you have generic resources in your project and you want to find real resources (people) with the same skills to replace the generic resources.

6. If you want to replace the resource on the right with the resource on the left, select both the resource on the left and the resource on the right, and then click Replace. If the resource has actual work values recorded for tasks, that resource cannot be used in the project.

7. Under Booking Type, select Committed if you want to commit the resource to the project, or select Proposed if you do not yet have authorization to commit the resource to the project.

   Tip: To see a graph showing the availability of the selected resources before you add them to your schedule, select the resources on the left, and then click Graph.

8. Click Save Changes to add the new resources to your project.

You can also create a filter to see only a subset of resources on the Build Team page:

1. Click View Options , and then click Filter.

2. In the Filter list, click the filter that you want to apply.

3. Select a field in the Field Name list and a test in the Test list. In the Value list, select a value to test for, or set a range of values by typing two values separated by a comma (,).

4. If the filter contains more than one criterion row, select an operator in the And/Or column to start a new row.

5. To test whether the filter will return valid results before you apply it to your resources, click Validate Filters.

6. Click OK to apply the filter to the list of resources.

Note: Project managers may not be able to view and assign all resources in their organization. See your server administrator if you need permission to build a team.

Top of Page

Create a resource plan for a project proposal

1. On the Quick Launch, under Projects, click Proposals and Activities.

2. Select the project for which you want to create a resource plan , and then click Resource Plan.

3. Click View Options .

4. In the Date range and Units boxes, type a date range and the time units to display in the timephased part of the resource plan table.

5. In the Display Units box, indicate whether you want the values in the resource table to show hours, days, or FTEs (full-time equivalents).

6. To determine how the summary resource assignments are presented in the reports that you can generate from Project Web Access, in the Calculate resource utilization from section, select one of the following:

   • Project plan      If you want to calculate resource availability from all assignments within the project, but not from the project's resource plan, select this option.

   • Resource plan      If you want to calculate resource availability by using resource information in the resource plan, select this option.

   • Project Plan until      If you want to calculate resource availability from all assignments within the project until a specific date, select this option. The resource utilization from the resource plan will be used to determine the resource availability after the specified date.

7. Select the Show total work check box to show the total hours in the resource plan table instead of timephased values.

8. In the Items per page box, type the maximum number of lines to display in the resource plan table.

9. Click Apply to apply the setting to the resource grid without saving.

10. Click Publish to publish the plan so that it appears as a project proposal within the Project Center.

    If you want to save the proposal without publishing it, click Save. Other team members will not be able to see the proposal in the Project Center.

Why can't I perform some actions in Project Web Access?

Depending on the permissions settings you used to log on to Project Web Access, you may not be able to see or use certain features. Also, what you see on some pages may differ from what is documented if your server administrator customized Project Web Access and did not customize the Help to match.

Top of Page