MS Project - Lesson #2 - Managing Project Resources Objectives - Microsoft 2010 · Create a list of resources · Assign resources to tasks · Enter resource information · Assign costs to resources and tasks · Assign variable resource pay rates and costs rate tables Resources are the people, equipment, and materials necessary to complete a task. MS Project focuses on two aspects of resources: availability and cost. Availability determines when a specific resource can work on a task and how much work they can do and cost refers to how much money will be required to pay for that resource. MS Project works with two types of resources: work resources and material resources. Work resources are the people and equipment that do the work of the project. These can be a single individual, a group of people who have common skills (such as electrician), or equipment (such as a truck or diagnostic tool). Equipment resources need not be portable; they can be fixed, such as a conference room or lab. Material resources are consumables that you use up during the project, such as cabling or bricks. We will be creating our resources and assigning them to tasks. Please follow all instructions carefully! Adding Resources 1. Log onto Windows. 2. Open your completed file MyLab1b_XXX.mpp (or download the MyLab1b_XXX.mpp file from Doc Sharing.) Check the addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure that your beginning file is correct. If it is not, then correct your file as needed or download the completed MyLab1b_XXX.mpp file from Doc Sharing. 3. Save as MyLab2_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials. It is important to note, that when entering resources in MS Project to NEVER add resources to a summary task. ONLY ADD RESOURCES TO THE WORK PACKAGES. When adding resources to summary tasks, MS Project will add the value of that resource to each work package below the summary and add that time to the resource's usage. This will affect both cost and potentially cause resource over-allocations. Also, MS Project does not add the value of the cost on some reports, when the resource is assigned at the summary task level. Resources can be entered into Project in several different locations. The Assign Resources dialog box is one method. The Resource Sheet is another method and the Task Information box is a third method. 4. Make sure you have not clicked or highlighted any of the tasks in your project! 5. On the Resource tab, click on the Assign Resources button. It is the one with the "faces" on it. The Assign Resources dialog box appears. 6. In the first Name field, type Project Manager and press enter. (Do not press Assign!) See Figure1 Figure 1 7. After the first resource name as been entered, the selection moves to the next row. 8. Type Systems Manager and press enter. (Do not press Assign). 9. Type Systems Administrator and press enter. You should now have three resources displayed in the Assign Resources dialog box. Do NOT enter anythi.

1. MS Project - Lesson #2 - Managing Project Resources
Objectives - Microsoft 2010
· Create a list of resources
· Assign resources to tasks
· Enter resource information
· Assign costs to resources and tasks
· Assign variable resource pay rates and costs rate tables
Resources are the people, equipment, and materials necessary to
complete a task. MS Project focuses on two aspects of
resources: availability and cost. Availability determines when a
specific resource can work on a task and how much work they
can do and cost refers to how much money will be required to
pay for that resource.
MS Project works with two types of resources: work resources
and material resources. Work resources are the people and
equipment that do the work of the project. These can be a
single individual, a group of people who have common skills
(such as electrician), or equipment (such as a truck or
diagnostic tool). Equipment resources need not be portable; they
can be fixed, such as a conference room or lab. Material
resources are consumables that you use up during the project,
such as cabling or bricks.
We will be creating our resources and assigning them to tasks.
Please follow all instructions carefully!
Adding Resources
1. Log onto Windows.
2. Open your completed file MyLab1b_XXX.mpp (or download
the MyLab1b_XXX.mpp file from Doc Sharing.) Check the
addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure that your

2. beginning file is correct. If it is not, then correct your file as
needed or download the completed MyLab1b_XXX.mpp file
from Doc Sharing.
3. Save as MyLab2_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.
It is important to note, that when entering resources in MS
Project to NEVER add resources to a summary task. ONLY
ADD RESOURCES TO THE WORK PACKAGES. When
adding resources to summary tasks, MS Project will add the
value of that resource to each work package below the summary
and add that time to the resource's usage. This will affect both
cost and potentially cause resource over-allocations. Also, MS
Project does not add the value of the cost on some reports, when
the resource is assigned at the summary task level.
Resources can be entered into Project in several different
locations. The Assign Resources dialog box is one method.
The Resource Sheet is another method and the Task Information
box is a third method.
4. Make sure you have not clicked or highlighted any of the
tasks in your project!
5. On the Resource tab, click on the Assign Resources button.
It is the one with the "faces" on it.
The Assign Resources dialog box appears.
6. In the first Name field, type Project Manager and press enter.
(Do not press Assign!) See Figure1
Figure 1
7. After the first resource name as been entered, the selection
moves to the next row.
8. Type Systems Manager and press enter. (Do not press

3. Assign).
9. Type Systems Administrator and press enter. You should
now have three resources displayed in the Assign Resources
dialog box. Do NOT enter anything in the Units column and do
not press Assign.
10. Click Close.
11. You can also enter resources on the ResourceSheet view,
which is preferred.
12. From the Task tab, select the Down Arrow in the View
dropdown on the words Gantt Chart.
13. Select ResourceSheet. The Resource Sheet displays the
names you entered on the Assign Resources dialog box. Your
screen should look similar to Figure2. The values you see are
default values when you create a resource.
Figure 2
14. Click in the Resource Name field below Systems
Administrator.
15. Type Wiring Contractor and press enter. The name is
entered along with the default information for that resource and
the cursor should move to the next entry for a resource.
16. For Type, leave the default of work, since this is a work
resource. Work resources are people and equipment. The other
options are material and cost.
17. Type Financial Officer for the next resource and press enter.
18. Type Conference Room for the next resource and press
enter. (Why is conference room a work resource and not a
material resource?)
19. For your final resource, enter Systems Analyst.
20. You should now have seven resources listed.

4. You will notice that the “Max Units” field defaults to 100%.
For an individual resource, this represents the amount of that
resource’s time you have available to your project. For
example, if you only have one Systems Manager, 100%
maximum units means that 100% of the Systems Manager’s time
is available to work on the project. You can assign different
percentages, but it will change the availability of the resource.
For example, if you have the maximum units at 50% for the
Systems Manager, the 50% of the Systems Manager’s time is
available to you, which could mean 4 hours out of a 8-hour day.
For a group resource, people with common skills, it would
represent the number of people assigned, though not necessarily
the same people. For example, if you had Systems
Administrators at 200% maximum units, that would mean you
would have two Systems Administrators available for your
project or task, but not necessarily the same two administrators.
While each resource (whether group or individual) can be
assigned to a task at less than their maximum units, if you
assigned more work (or units) than the maximum, you will be
overallocating that resource.
Assigning Resources to Task
While there are several ways to assign resources to a task, we
will use the following method:
1. From the View tab, change to the Ganttchart view.
2. Selecttask #6, "Proposal to Accounting".
3. On the far right of the Task ribbon, in the Properties group,
select Details.
4. Your screen now is divided in an upper and lower half. The
upper pane is the Gantt Chart View and the lower pane is the
Task Details Form .

5. Lower Pane
Upper Pane
Figure 3
5. Right click in the lower pane. Notice there are 8 different
views. Scroll through them all so you can see the differences.
6. Next select the Resources and Predecessors view.
7. In the Lower Pane, in the Resource Name column, select the
Project Manager.
8. Then press OK.
9. The Project Manager has now been assigned to the task and a
unit value of 100% is displayed. The resource name is also
display next to the task on the Gantt chart.
10. The concept of unit is sometimes confusing. You can think
of it as one whole person being assigned to the task, but a better
way is you are saying that this resource will be devoting 100%
of his/her time to this particular task. Therefore, if the task is 3
days of work (or 24 hours given a normal 8-hour day), the
Project Manager, in this case, will be spending all of his/her
time on this task for these 3 days. It also it very important to
say that you have just assigned 24 hours of work to the Project
Manager. (Please note that the column says Units, not Max
Units). We will return to resource scheduling later.
11. You can also assign a resource to a task with a unit other
than 100% (as long as you do not exceed the maximum units
listed on your Resource sheet).
12. Selecttask7, "Research Products and Services".
13. In the Resource Name column select the Systems Analyst
and type 50 in the Units field (for 50%). You do not have to
enter the % sign. Then press OK.
14. To assign multiple resources to a single task, follow the
next procedures very carefully.
15. Select the task, "Design and Diagram New System". In the

6. Resource Name Column, select Systems Manager. Do not press
OK or the Enter key, just select the name! (If you accidentally
pressed OK, select the Systems Manager and press the Delete
key and then the Enter key, which will only remove the
assignment to the task, not the resource.)
16. On the row below the Systems Manager. Select the Systems
Analyst.
Figure 4
17. Then press OK.
18. What we have indicated to MS Project is that both the
Systems Manager and the Systems Analyst will be assigned to
this task and each will be assigned 40 hours of work (5 days).
More about this in the next lab.
Figure 5
19. Check to make sure the time duration for this task is still 5
days, if it is not, you need to remove the resources from the
task, reset the task back to 5 days and repeat steps 13-16 again.
Providing Resource Details
Resource details provide additional information about a
resource and usually are entered on the Resource sheet.
Information includes maximum units, costs, project/accounting
codes, calendars, etc.
1. In the Upper Pane, In the Task tab and the Properties Group,
press Details, to remove the Lower Pane, then From the View
group, select the ResourceSheet view.
2. Select the Project Manager name and tab to the column,
Initials. (We will not be using the material label for work
resources or Cost label for costs).
3. The Initials column is where you can give abbreviated
"nicknames" to each resource. You should give each distinctive
letters or names of at least two characters.

7. 4. Enter PM.
5. The next column, Group, again is optional for giving a name
for a group of resources, such as Network Staff, Project Team,
etc.
6. Assign each resource to a group in the Group Column as
below:
Resource NameGroup
Project Manager Management
Systems Manager Management
Systems Administrator IT Staff
Wiring Contractor Contractor
Financial Officer Administration
Conference Room Equipment
Systems Analyst IT Staff
7. A maximum unit is where you enter the number of units for
each resource available to you for the project. Since there
usually is only one project manager, leave this default of 100%.
8. Tab to Standard Rate.
In any project, there are two types of costs: resource costs and
fixed costs. This information is crucial in identifying project
budgets, cost overruns, etc. Each resource and task can have a
cost associated with it (with the exception of summary tasks).
Costs can be an hourly wage, rental on equipment, license fees,
contractor expenses, material charges, etc. Costs can be
prorated, paid up front or paid out at the end of the project.
As you create budgets for your project and assign costs, it is
important to determine whether the cost is a resource cost or a
fixed cost. Resource costs are fairly easy, with one exception.
Wages, salaries, etc are resource costs. However, a fixed
contract, say for installing wiring, is a fixed cost and is
assigned to the task not the resource. The exception, and one

8. that is hard to discern, is cost per use. Cost per use is a
resource cost and is applied when then is a set charge every
time you use the resource. For example, if you have a piece of
equipment delivered to a construction site, you might be
charged a delivery fee for the equipment (as well as an hourly
rate). The delivery fee would be a cost per use.
Let's start with the easiest: resource costs.
1. Under the Standard Rate for the Project Manager, enter 125.
Tab to the next column. (Note: if the resource is paid other than
hourly, you can enter weekly, monthly or yearly salaries).
2. The next column, Overtime Rate, you would enter the amount
of overtime pay rate for the resource. Please note that on this
sheet you cannot enter a formula to calculate overtime rate, you
must calculate it for yourself. (Microsoft left this one out!)
Since our Project Manager does not technically qualify for
overtime rate, one might leave this blank, however, I would
enter the sameamount for overtime as standard.
3. Enter 125 for overtime rate for the Project Manager.
Let's go to the next easiest: fixed costs
1. Our wiring is being done via a contractor. This is a typical
example of a fixed cost. Even though this task is being done by
a resource, the Wiring Contractor, it is being done at a fixed
price. Unlike resource costs, the fixed cost is notdependent on
the amount of time or the number of resources it takes to
complete a task. (Note: you can have both fixed costs and
resource costs assigned to the same task, such as the contractor
is working on a fixed price for materials, but a resource cost for
labor).
2. First let's assign the WiringContractor as the resource for the
task14, Install Wiring.
3. From the View tab, change to the Gantt chart view. Split the
Window and assign the Wiring Contractor to task 14, Install

9. Wiring. (100% unit).
4. The Wiring Contractor will be charging a fixed contractual
price (materials and labor) of $4,000 to install the necessary
wiring. The amount of $4,000 is NOT a resource cost, but a
fixed cost and must be assigned to the task!
5. We now need to change the current table we are using, which
is called the Entry table.
6. Select the Upper Pane, Go to the View tab and in the Data
group select the Tables dropdown.
7. Select the Cost table and the figure 5 should appear on your
screen. (Move your Gantt chart if you have problems seeing the
table).
Figure 5
8. Notice the column Fixed Cost. For task 14, enter 4000 for
the fixed cost.
9. Tab to the next column. The word Prorated is now
highlighted in a pull down menu box. Press the down arrow and
select End. This means the charge will not be added to our
project until this task is completed.
Let's go to the hardest: cost per use
1. Return to the Resource Sheet and Highlight Conference
Room.
2. Tab over to the Cost/Use column.
3. Since we have a very cost-conscious company, they charge
for use of the conference room. This would not be a fixed cost,
but a cost per use. Every time I use the conference room there is
a charge!
4. Enter 100 for the Cost/Use for this resource.
5. To see the effect of this, return to the Gantt Chart View.
6. Change from the Table: Cost to Table: Entry. (Can you

10. figure how to do that?).
7. Go to the summary task Project Meeting. Expand the
summary task to see all the project meetings.
Figure 6
8. Select Project Meeting 1 and assign the Conference Room as
a resource.
9. Switch from Table: Entry to Table: Cost.
10. Notice the $100 under the Total Cost column, but not the
fixed cost column.
11. Assign the Conference room to all the Project Meetings.
(Hint: Return to the Entry table. One easy way to do this is in
the Entry Table to select the Resource Name column in the
proper row, and select the Conference Room resource for each
of the meetings)
12. Check now the cost for the summary task, Project Meetings,
on the Table: Cost. Why $800?
Assigning Cost Rate Tables and Variable Resource Rate
Variable resource rates are time-stamped so new rates are
applied to the project at an appropriate time. For example,
during a project a resource earning $20 an hour at the beginning
of the project receives a pay increase later in the project. By
entering a pay rate effective on a certain date, the resource costs
can be tracked appropriately. (You can also enter pay rates this
way rather than resource sheet).
1. If your Window is still Split, close the split now.
2. Go the ResourceSheet.
3. Select the SystemsAnalyst.
4. Double-click on the name Systems Analyst and the Resource
Information window appears:
Figure 7

11. 5. This is the Resource Information dialog box. Here you can
enter information about the resource, including e-mail
information, working schedule, etc. Spend some time looking
over all the information you can enter by clicking on the four
tabs.
6. Click on the Costs tab. In the Cost Rate table area, tab A is
selected by default: (Figure 8)
Figure 8
7. Leave the effective date for the firstrow blank; do not put a
date in it.
8. In the first row for Standard Rate, enter 40.
9. Tab to the Overtime Rate; enter 60.
10. Go to the second row, under Effective Date.
11. A down arrow appears. Click the down arrow and select
November 15, 2013. This is the date that the new cost rate for
the resource will become effective.
12. Click in the Standard rate field for this row and enter 10%
for a 10 percent raise! (Include the % sign.) This time MS
Project will automatically calculate the new hour wage.
13. Click in the Overtime rate field for this row and enter 10%
again. What happened?
14. Before we leave, you will notice the tables B, C, etc. These
are cost rate tables. They are used if your resource can do more
than one type of work each at different rates. For example, a
worker may charge one rate for painting, but another rate for
plastering. Another example would be a different rate for
hazardous work. To apply different rate tables, you would go to
the task usage sheet, find the task the resource is assigned and
apply the correct rate table there. For the purposes of this lab,
we will not be doing that in this project.
15. Click OK to accept the changes made to the rate table and
close the Resource Information window.

12. (Note: To set up material resources on the assignment sheet,
you would enter the name of the resource (such as wiring or
nails), then enter Material in the type field, and in the Material
Label field the unit of measurement (such as Feet for wiring or
Pounds for nails). You would then enter the amount charged
per unit of measurement in the Standard Rate column, such as
1.50. However, we will not be dealing with material resources
for the purposes of these labs.)
On Your Own
Finish the Resource Sheet with the following information:
Resource Name
Initials
Max. Units
Std Rate
Ovt Rate
Cost/Use
Systems Manager
SM
100%
$75000.00/yr
$75000.00/yr
0
Systems Administrator
SAD
300%
$25.00/hr
$37.50/hr
0
Wiring Contractor
WC
100%
0
0

13. 0
Financial Officer
FO
100%
$85.00/hr
$85.00/hr
0
Make the following additionalresourceassignments to the
appropriate tasks: (Hint: go to Gantt Chart view and, if
necessary, change to Table: Entry, and remember to split the
window). Try using the Task Information box to assign these
resources. Make sure to change the percentage of each resource
BEFORE assigning!!
Inventory Current Equipment Systems Administrator 200%
Assess Current Dept Needs Systems Administrator 100%
Issue RFP's Project Manager 100%
Evaluate Bids Project Manager 100%
Purchase Equipment Financial Officer 50%
Install Hardware Systems Administrator 200%
Install Software Systems Administrator 300%
On the last one, be very careful to select each resource BEFORE
entering OK!
Test System Systems Manager 100%
Systems Analyst 100%
Systems Administrator 100%
From the Project tab, select Project Information and then press
the statistics button. Check your project information statistics
with the one provided in the addendum to this lab. If it is not
correct, you will need to un-assign all resources from all tasks,
check your resource sheet cost values and then go back to the
beginning of the lab and re-assign your resources. Your project
duration should never change from 41 days! After verifying

14. that everything is correct – save the file.
If you look at the resource sheet you will see that the Systems
Administrator is RED and marked with an Exclamation Point.
Do not be alarmed. This means that the resource is over-
allocated (has more work than hours available). We will fix
over-allocation problems in Lesson 5.
When finished with the lab, print out the following after
checking all column widths and proper header/footer
information. Then staple the printouts IN ORDER to the back
of your question/answer sheet:
1. A printout of your Task Table: Entry showing all columns,
but no Gantt chart. (Format to print on 1 page)
2. A printout of your TaskTable: Cost showing all columns but
no Gantt chart. (Make sure to widen Task Name column so the
entire column can be read).
3. The project Summary Report.
4. Your project's Budget Report. (Print on one page)
5. Your project's Who Does What report.
6. Your project's Overallocated Resources report. (You should
have overallocated resources. If not, make sure your
assignments are correct and all your resources are 100% default,
with the exception of the Systems Administrator)
7. Save the file.
Again, with the exception of the Summary report, all printouts
must contain the proper header and foot information.
When submitting required printouts, if you are not bringing
them to class, from the Print Preview Page, take a screen shot
(in Windows <ALT><Prt Scr>) of the report and paste the
screen shot to a MS Word Document. Make sure to crop the
screen to show only the report. After cropping, resize the image

15. appropriately. If the printout is on more than 1 page, paste each
page individually. Save the Word document containing printouts
as Week_2_Printouts_XXX.docx (where XXX are your initials)
and submit this file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.
When you have completed this lesson please save it as
MyLab2_XXX.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab
Dropbox.
Also complete the Review Question page and submit this page
to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.
Addendum
Task Information for Beginning of Lesson 2
Project Information at end of Lesson 2 Review Questions
Name ____________________________
Answer the following questions:
1) What is a resource?
2) Why aren't resources assigned to summary tasks?

16. 3) What is the difference between Start, Prorated and End in
association with costs?
4) Give a real-world example of the difference between a fixed
cost and a cost per use?
5) Why is a fixed cost entered with the task and not the
resource?
6) Why is the resource cost for the Wiring Contractor $0.00?
7) Which resource is Overallocated and why?

17. Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 2 iLab
Dropbox.
MS Project Lesson #2 Page 14