Create and share a resource pool

Knowing who's available to work on your project can become a challenge when you're working across multiple projects.

If you assign the same people to several projects or use shared resources in your project, it helps to combine all the resource information into a single central file called a resource pool. The resource pool is also useful for identifying assignment conflicts, and viewing time allocation for each project.

Create a resource pool

Note:  If you use Project Professional 2013 and resources exist in your organization's enterprise resource pool, you don't need to create another resource pool.

1. Open Project 2013, click Blank Project > Resource tab.

2. Click the arrow next to Team Planner and click Resource Sheet.

3. Click Add Resources and import existing resource information.

To type in new people information, click Work Resource and add Resource Name and details.

Note:  If you're using Project Professional with Project Server, you'll have access to the enterprise resources. To learn more about Project versions, see Project Professional 2013 Version Comparison. The enterprise resource list is usually managed by an administrator, and each project manager can add from these resources to their projects.

After you create a shared resource pool, the information for each shared project comes from this resource pool, and all information like assignments, cost rates and availability are in this central location.

Use the resource pool

1. Open the resource pool project.

2. Open your project that'll share resources from the pool and click Resource > Resource Pool > Share Resources.

1. Click Use resources, and in the From box, click the resource pool project you opened in step 1.

1. Click Pool takes precedence if you want information in the resource pool to override any conflicting information from your (sharer) project.

Or

Click Sharer takes precedence if you want information in your project to override any conflicting information from the resource pool.

1. Click OK.

You can now use the resources for your project. Any resources in your project are automatically added to the pool.

1. To see the shared resource list, click Task> Gantt Chart > Resource Sheet.

Working with resource usage information

You can view and update the resource pool file from your current project (sharer file). It's a good practice to periodically update and view resources to get the latest information on allocations and its impact on your projects.

Note:  To directly edit a resource pool file, you'll need read/write access to that file. Otherwise you can only view resource usage and make changes to your project's resources.

1. Open your project sharer file.

2. In the box that appears, click Open resource pool to see assignments across all sharer files. This opens the resource pool as a read-only file.

3. To see assignments across projects that share the resource pool, click Task > Gantt Chart > Resource Usage.

Tip:  Resource names that appear in red indicate resource over allocation.

You can update with new resources, update total scheduled, and the work information. Find out more about assigning people to tasks.

1. After you make any updates, click Resource > Resource Pool > Update Resource Pool.

Tip: If Update Resource Pool isn't available from your project, you might have opened the resource pool file in read/write mode. Close and reopen the resource pool in read mode.

Some next steps

• You might be interested in learning about adding people and assigning them to tasks.

• Working on keeping a large project organized? Try creating a master project to link multiple projects.

• If you've wondered about the impact of resource allocation to your project, take a look at the section on how resource assignments drive the schedule.