Hi to all,
in my company there are groups of project that share resource. The respective plans are on MS Project plan.
There is not MS Project Server (e in short time there's not intention to install it).
So I'm proposing to use Shared Resource Pool of MS Project.
The resource pool file will be in a network directory. Each plans will be in a indipendent working directory (at the discretion of project manager).
We are also preparing short slide to mentoring the project managers to use this tecnique.
Have you some suggestion, lesson learned of possible issues (technicals, organizationals or operatives) that could be raised?
Thank you in advance.
Daniele. Saving Changes...
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Vladimir LiberzonR&D Director| Spider Project TeamMoscow, Russian Federation
I see one problem:
If resources are used in many projects simultaneously then you will need to level resources across all projects that share resources. Saving Changes...
Your method should work, Daniele. This is the problem that the resource pool feature should work.
In practice, I have sometimes found problems with files being "locked" on the network. Sometimes if two or more people try to access their files at the same time, then the last person can be locked out. Generally speaking, MSP files are not great with shared access.
The MS Project Server solutions are complex to set up, but they help eliminate this problem. People check their schedules in and out of the server, and the server helps eliminate any "file lock" problems.
As long as your group is fairly small (10 people or less), and you can communicate with each other quickly, you should be OK. You will have to experiment to see if a resource pool works, or if you need an MS Project Server set up.
--Alex
www.alexsbrown.com Saving Changes...
Jack BlackChief Project Officer| PMConnectionJackson, Oh, United States
Your approach will work just fine. I have used this a number of times in the past.
Words of advice:
1. Pool takes precedence
2. Watch for multiple (archived) versions of the same project being connected to the resource pool. This can cause artificial or inaccurate resource allocations. Saving Changes...
