Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual

Chapter 9. Connecting Resources to Tasks

So far, you’ve created tasks in Project (Chapter 6), connected them in the correct sequence (Chapter 7), and told Project about the resources you need (Chapter 8). Now, that hard work on your Project file is about to pay off. You’re ready to turn it into a real schedule that shows when tasks start and finish—and whether they finish on time.

Although you may estimate hours of work or task duration early on (Getting Good Estimates), you don’t see the whole timing picture until you assign resources to your tasks. The number of resources you use, how much time those resources devote to their assignments, and when they’re available to work all affect how long tasks take and when they occur. And if you’ve set up your Project resources with costs and labor rates, resource assignments generate a price tag for the project, too.

This chapter clarifies how duration, work, and units interact and explains how to use this information to create and modify resource assignments. Assigning resources isn’t just picking a task team. You also specify how much time those lucky folks devote to their tasks. For example, once a giant construction crane is on a building site, it’s available 100 percent of the time until you move it to another site. However, when you need an attorney 10 percent of the time to resolve a legal fiasco, you don’t want 100 percent of her time—or the monumental invoice that comes with it.

Assigning Work Resources to Tasks

Project lets you assign ...