Forum Discussion
Resource headcount
I am working on a project schedule and using MS Project for the first time, having used P6 in the past. I am attempting to schedule a project with an expected headcount of 1500 concurrent field employees at peak. We group the employees into crews, each consisting of 10 people. Is it possible to assign a headcount to an individual resource? Or do I have to make each employee and assign them to a team in order to achieve the desired effect?
Also, is it possible to assign quantities to a task? For instance, the crews will be performing work on a test pack each of which has a total LF. I would like to identified the total LF per test pack within project if possible.
- Mike9865,
In Project you can set up resources either as individuals or as groups. In your case you want to create group resources (e.g. Engineers, Carpenters, Coders, etc.). Assuming a normal full time employee is represented by a Max Units of 1 or 100%, a group resource is simply the number of individuals in the group so for an engineering group with 10 people, the group Max Units would be 10 or 1000%
What exactly do you mean by "assign quantities to a task"? What type of quantities? And what is "LF"? Once we understand what you are trying to do, we can give a more definitive answer.
JohnJohn-project Thanks for the feedback. I believe I understand the direction for the resource and will proceed accordingly.
Regarding the second request, each crew will be working on sections of pipe. Each section of pipe has a quantity of linear feet (LF) associated with it. I would like to create a field in the task that identifies the linear footage of each task if possible.Have another question for you as well. Can MS project allow me to assign two constraints to a task? I attempted to use the deadline task and a start no earlier than constraint but the logic ignores the deadline when scheduling. P6 allows for secondary constraints but I don't see a field on the advance tab for that in Project.
Mike,
To associate the linear feet for a specific task use an extra field such as the Task Number1 field. Just enter the desired value. If however, the linear feet of pipe is really a material and you want to track cost for that material, create a material type resource. You can specify cost per foot.
With regard to your new question, I can't imagine a scenario wherein a task would have more than one constraint, but then "constraint" has a very specific meaning for Project and maybe all you are referring to is task dependencies. In a well structured plan there should be no constraints on tasks. Task starts are either determined by the project start date or a series of predecessor tasks with a normal finish-to-start dependency. Constraints such as start-no-earlier-than might be appropriate for certain tasks that have a start independent of any other task (e.g. a material or resource is only available after a certain date).
The Deadline field in Project is used for critical path calculations and is not a constraint on the task.
Hope this helps.
John
