Im not stranger to Excel, and Primavera, and Microsoft Project... But I'm struggling with Resourcing / Scheduling of an office with 50 people...

We have about 15 different Engineering Roles / Disciplines, and about 50 people into those 15 roles... And we are running about 15 different projects...

Any ideas on how to tackle this!? We already know we are slightly overloaded, but we want to get a more accurate gauge on things! LoL!

Does anyone have any "models" like this to follow... ?

Hey Simondo,

I haven't used this feature, and I am sure you know about it, but MS Project has the ability to nest projects off a master resource list. Not sure how to implement it, but I did find some handy tutorials on YouTube. Might be worth a look, as I am sure this will show you which resources are over allocated - as well as the potential impact to the project schedules.

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Simondo said..
Im not stranger to Excel, and Primavera, and Microsoft Project... But I'm struggling with Resourcing / Scheduling of an office with 50 people...

We have about 15 different Engineering Roles / Disciplines, and about 50 people into those 15 roles... And we are running about 15 different projects...

Any ideas on how to tackle this!? We already know we are slightly overloaded, but we want to get a more accurate gauge on things! LoL!

Does anyone have any "models" like this to follow... ?

Who does the resource allocation? Who requests the resources?

From my experience from being a resource, PM's will request as many resources as they can in order to ensure their projects are successful. This doesn't necessarily benefit the business as a PM only cares about their own performance.

So, can you allocate a cost, a real one or a virtual one, to each resource that makes the PMs prioritise their own use of resources? I have seen a situation with sales people where they will try and get resources for all their leads as they have no disincentive to do this, and if one of their leads pay off, they are ahead. Putting a cost to using resources has an effect of making them work out which ones they think are really likely to lead to a sale, as they can't just ask for resources for everything.

Is that the sort of thing you were asking, or something else?

And then overlaying that with Christmas Holidays, and Summer Annual Leave?...

Thanks GPA... The Schedules are all in Primavera... But I'm wondering if Project isn't more user friendly for this particular situation! ???

You gotta look at it in terms of people (work allocation per person) and by project, people allocated to the project.

That way you can see the work load of all your folks and the whether projects have the right people to be delivered on time and on budget ...

All leaves, public holidays etc go into such a system as projects and you allocate the people to the leave "project".

Simples. Can be done in excel.

Rest is up to you, coz you are paid to do it

When I worked in a business exactly as you describe, about same size, maybe a few more projects, we arranged the group into teams based on their area of expertise (we had four areas). I was team leader for one if the teams for 3 years and that description above is exactly how I did it...

If ya talking about tracking and a bit of scheduling on linear, simple tasks, then the aforementioned tools should be good enough, just that it's a bit of repetitive work, that's all. I'll bet you that's your beef with the tools, am I right?
In that case, I agree with FormulaNova: yeah, PMs, esp. the certified ones, are not into the success of the shop, just into asking where you're at once-a-week.

If you're referring to heavy project planing, whiteboarding, new businesses, that sort of stuff,
or if the projects are all different, of varied complexity and range and risks,
then of course MSP is not the tool - it's the finality once a project is all architected. The last 1% of the intellectual chain.

Nothing beats a board-and-markers session for the actual planning then.
People (and certainly PMPs) often confuse actual project planning with the end result of just keying into MSP...

'luck !

i don't think you can put all that into a software package. just round table with a white board then excel spreadsheet with your group mangers.

budget vs invoicing vs costs vs profit vs volume vs timing vs long or short term clients vs what the contract requirements are
some jobs get more or less based on the situation, profit, benefit to the company of each project

a gut feeling as you go through each project is the end result

Sounds to me like you're yet to completely define the task at hand, so I'm with Poida with the exception that I would use paper so you don't erase useful stuff before you can get it into something more permanent. Then the other suggestions should take you to a workable productive solution. Any one of those programs should provide adequate tools, just a matter of user skills both present and future, and how much customisation you're prepared to do or purchase.

MS Project has some very useful reporting functions around resource allocation, but it really depends on how project is set up. I use Project for project management but from a gannt chart or timing perspective. Resources are allocated to tasks but if they were fully allocated to the time on the project I would need 10 more staff and I would blow the budget on every project.

as with others, we break our people up into smaller discipline based teams, each with a team leader responsible for the allocation of labour to projects. We also use project cost and labour forecasting systems that linked to our financial system. Sounds a bit of an overkill but allows us to correct job financials and overruns earlier in a project.

Excel...really? (Bunch of dinosaurs, haha). I have no idea what would suit but I recently took over a training role from an experienced trainer with many years experience that was an 'excel-junkie' and decided that his system would not provide the reporting that I wanted. Even if it did, the amount of inputting and doubling up would take many hours out of my life (volunteer position).

I simply went online and sourced a training attendance and scheduling software package from a software developer that specialised in training and quality assurance that was close to what I needed. I trialled it, then sent the developers a 'wish-list' of mods that would make the software a complete package that would do everything I needed.

The result is a customised package that tracks attendance, competencies, deadlines, trainer's lessons, scheduling, costs and provides many customised reports... at a cost of less than $250. It takes me less than 2mins to input each training session now that all the learners names and details are on file.

My point is - don't bash your head against the wall reinventing the wheel... there are developed programs for every need and if you ask - many developers will customise their software at a small cost to suit your application.