Resource Management with Microsoft Project
Resolving resource issues in projects and departments
Even when a project has been well thought through, many companies find that there comes a point when the well-oiled machine begins to creak a little – and that point is usually related to resource planning. The reason for this is based on the matrix organization which is often used in European countries.
Project work is a part of everyday life for most companies today. As a consequence, project and department managers need to work together to achieve the project result they both want. So far so good – but things can get tricky when they discuss how each member of staff is going to be assigned to the various projects.
In some firms, the corporate culture may mean that these negotiations deliberately slip between the cracks in order to avoid conflict situations – and that may lead to bottlenecks or other problems. Yet this situation is easy to manage if companies have the right tools.
On this page, we're providing an overview of how a Microsoft Project environment helps resolve the issues.
Project portfolio in accordance with resource availability
The correct prioritization of projects is a major precondition for successful resource planning. Microsoft Project Server provides an enterprise-wide resource pool to facilitate resource management. The 2010 version of the project management system also comes with an integrated portfolio management feature. However, an additional product lets you optimize the project portfolio based on resource availability – and that product is TPG PortfolioPlanner. It lets you drag and drop entire projects with the mouse so that resource workloads can be optimized in seconds.
Project and line management – planning across two worlds
A project management system makes good business sense for project and department managers who want to carry out planning within their own environment and – most importantly – using their own data. It is not necessary for both sides to plan down to the last project detail – for example, department managers usually only want to know which of their people are involved in which project, as well as when and for how long they will be working on it.
Detailed task planning remains the responsibility of the project manager. On the project level, the Project Server database can be used as a bridge between the two environments - usually with Microsoft Project and Excel. The combination of TPG TeamLink for the project manager and TPG TeamManager for the department head provides a system that meets these exact requirements while achieving a high level of acceptance among users.
