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How to prevent overallocation of enterprise resources RRS feed

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    We encounter a problem when updating 2 projects by 2 different Project Managers, but with in common resources, simultaniously.
    When you open a project and look at the resource usage view to see availability, you are not sure you have the most up to date information.

    The changes made in one project don't reflect in the other project resource usage view even after the first one is published. This results in many over allocations.
    Only closing the second project and reopening it will update the resource usage view.

    Before Project Server there was the "refresh resource pool" option. Does something similar exists for Project Server?

    How can we handle this problem?

    Wednesday, May 9, 2012 4:11 PM

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    Hi bplessers, there isn't anything similar for Project Server - the shared data is pulled in when opening Project Professional so re-opening is the only way to be sure you are seeing the up to date availability information.  Likewise, until you have saved and published others will not have the benefit of seeing what assignments you may have made.

    Best regards,

    Brian.

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    • Marked as answer by Plessers Bart Thursday, May 10, 2012 9:16 AM
    Wednesday, May 9, 2012 5:25 PM
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    Hi Brian, we managed to solve the problem.

    It was indeed not a permissions problem, but an issue with the checkin.
    We used the following method:

    - we looked at a resource usage total that was incorrect and opened the project from where the hours were missing.
    - we then first created a generic dummy resource and assigned all the resources tasks to that resource and published.
    - then we changed the tasks back to the original resource and published again.

    After this, totals were correct.
    Without the switch to a generic resource it dit not always work..

    Kind regards and thanks for your help.

    Bart

    • Marked as answer by Plessers Bart Tuesday, July 3, 2012 9:14 AM
    Tuesday, July 3, 2012 9:13 AM

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    Hi bplessers, there isn't anything similar for Project Server - the shared data is pulled in when opening Project Professional so re-opening is the only way to be sure you are seeing the up to date availability information.  Likewise, until you have saved and published others will not have the benefit of seeing what assignments you may have made.

    Best regards,

    Brian.

    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
    Project Server TechCenter | Project Developer Center | Project Server Help | Project Product Page

    • Marked as answer by Plessers Bart Thursday, May 10, 2012 9:16 AM
    Wednesday, May 9, 2012 5:25 PM
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    Thanks Brian for your answer. Now I know I can stop Searching.

    Do you have ay suggestions on how this is best handled when overallocation occurs? I know for sure Project managers won't close and reopen their project to update availability.It just gives them an excuse to overallocate resources.

    Thursday, May 10, 2012 9:16 AM
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    Hi Brian, in addition to this question: do you know what is going wrong if those totals are incorrect?
    I tried rebuilding the reporting database, but that doesn't seem to help.

    To be more specific: the totla can state 8 hours, but when we expand the view, we only find 4. In the oposite direction the same problem occurs: resources can be assigned4 hours of work but the total staes 2....

    Monday, July 2, 2012 12:01 PM
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    These details aren't coming from the reporting database Plessers, but from data help at the summary resource assignment (SRA) level.  There could be a couple of different reasons the data may not expand - firstly permissions - so the toal may be correct, but the PM may not have permissions to see the plan containing some of the data that makes up the total - but more likely from your description the data has gone out of sync.  It is possible for this data to get our of sync if for example a publish fails - and we have seen some issues around publishing to the SRA.  If you re-publish all the plans that affect that particular resource then I'd expect the data should look ok - and if it doesn't I'd suggest opening a support incident.  Back to the more doifficult question of over-allocation - Project is just a tool and it gives the PM the best available information - but at the end of the day if you find this is an issue then process needs to be put in place to assist.

    Best regards,

    Brian.

    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
    Project Server TechCenter | Project Developer Center | Project Server Help | Project Product Page

    Monday, July 2, 2012 2:21 PM
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    Hi Brian, we managed to solve the problem.

    It was indeed not a permissions problem, but an issue with the checkin.
    We used the following method:

    - we looked at a resource usage total that was incorrect and opened the project from where the hours were missing.
    - we then first created a generic dummy resource and assigned all the resources tasks to that resource and published.
    - then we changed the tasks back to the original resource and published again.

    After this, totals were correct.
    Without the switch to a generic resource it dit not always work..

    Kind regards and thanks for your help.

    Bart

    • Marked as answer by Plessers Bart Tuesday, July 3, 2012 9:14 AM
    Tuesday, July 3, 2012 9:13 AM
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    Hi Brian, I read some more about the SRA.I also read it is very useful for medium and long term planning. 
    Now I realise it is not exactly what we need. You seem to know what you are talking about, so maybe you can help me out.
    Let me explain to you how we use MS project in our business, which is marketing.
    We create project files for all projects currently running, these range from projects of a few weeks to several months.
    Since our business is marketing, our project plans change daily, god knows why :)

    This means our project managers update their projects on a daily bases and we need to keep track of resource over allocation.
    Changes very often impact workload for the next day.

    We also have a traffic manager who is responsible  for leveling resource assignments.

    So before noon, about 10 project managers start updating project plans for about 50 resources. They save and check in their changes.
    We ask project managers to try not to over allocate resources when updating.
    In the afternoon our traffic manager will look at the changed files, solve any issues and publish the projects. Only traffic manager can publish the projects because a quality check must be done and we want to prevent our resources from getting 1000 email notifications about changed work.

    As I understand, the summary resource assignment only shows data from published projects. This is where our problem starts, this means our project managers can not see actual availability, since other project managers have done changes that are not visible unless they open up all changed files....

    We caould enable publish rights for our project managers, but first come first served is not realy correct.
    We could also leave all resource leveling to our traffic manager, but then all hell brakes lose :)

    Is there a way MS project can facilitate this short term resource allocation overview? Or can you tell me where to find more info?
    So we need a view on resource assignments in all saved and published projects. The way you have it with all changed projects open, but then without opening the other projects.

    Tuesday, July 3, 2012 1:44 PM
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    Hi Bart,  Thanks for the follow up on the switching to generic and back again - I can see why that might be needed as it forces the full updates.

    In terms of best practice for your scenario I don't have an easy answer (or even an answer at all!) it is a tricky problem.  I did however see this in my inbox which might help - a webinar from the Microsoft Project User Group - http://www.mpug.com/Lists/Event%20Calendar/DispForm.aspx?ID=629 on Managing Resource Overallocations in Project Server 2010.

    Hopefull someone else on the forum may have a good process that works for them.  Might be worth asking a new question as this one is correctly marked as 'answered'.

    Best regards,

    Brian.

    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
    Project Server TechCenter | Project Developer Center | Project Server Help | Project Product Page

    Tuesday, July 3, 2012 6:31 PM