Create resources to represent capacity

When analyzing which projects your organization can take on, an important factor to consider is the expected resource capacity. That is, a summary of what resources are available to work on a proposed project. In Project Web App, you can define resources to represent resource capacity by your organization's resource roles. You can use individual named resources ("real" people), non-named resources ("to be hired" people), or a combination of both.

Note:  Each resource used to represent capacity must be associated with a single primary role.

What do you want to do?

Configure non-named resources to represent capacity

Configure named resources to represent capacity

Use named and non-named resources to model capacity

Configure non-named resources to represent capacity

When modeling resource capacity without creating individual named resources, the idea is to create one resource for each role you defined in the Role lookup table. For example, one resource to represent all Developers, another resource to represent all Testers, and so on. If you haven't defined roles in a lookup table, see Define primary resource roles.

1. On the Quick Launch, under Resources, click Resource Center.

2. On the Resources tab of the Ribbon, click New Resource.

3. In addition to the required fields, complete the following fields:

   • Resource can logon to Project Server:    Cleared

   • Display Name:    <Role name> - Capacity (For example, "Developer - Capacity.")

   • Max Units:    Type a percentage that represents the number of resources you have available for this role. For example, if you have 10 developers available at 100% of their time, enter 1000%.

   • Role:    Choose the role that corresponds to the display name you've specified. For example, if you typed "Developer - Capacity" in the Display Name box, click Developer in the Role list.

4. Click Save, and then repeat Steps 2 and 3 for each role in your organization's Role lookup table.

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Configure named resources to represent capacity

To use named, or "real," resources to represent capacity, there are two considerations:

• Must be an enterprise resource    Each named resource must have been created as an enterprise resource in Project Server. Not all Project Server users are also available as resources. For more information, see Add a user.

• Must have a defined role    Each named resource should have an associated role set in his or her resource properties.

When you are evaluating whether your organization has the resource capacity to take on specific project proposals, you can use any named resource that meets both conditions.

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Use named and non-named resources to model capacity

The key to modeling capacity using both named and non-named resources is to flag them separately for reporting. First, you'll need to create a custom field that you'll use for flagging.

1. On the Quick Launch, under Settings, click Server Settings.

2. Under Enterprise Data, click Enterprise Custom Fields and Lookup Tables.

3. On the Enterprise Custom Fields and Lookup Tables page, in the Enterprise Custom Fields section, click New Field.

4. Type "Used for placeholder capacity" in the Name box.

5. In the Entity and Type section, click Resource in the Entity list, and then click Flag in the Type list.

6. Click Save.

With this custom flag set up, you can now identify named resources as placeholders by clicking Yes in the Used for placeholder capacity list, in the Resource Custom Fields section of the New Resource, Edit Resource, New User, or Edit User page.

For non-named resources, leave the Used for placeholder capacity list set to No. This way, in a list of resources with a specific role, you can filter named versus non-named resources using the Used for placeholder capacity flag.

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