Set up a resource query and project assignment

In this tutorial, you will learn how you to set up, create, and run a resource query. You will also learn how to assign team members to a project and replace profiles with resources.

60 minutes

Introduction

In the resource management phase of your planning, you will acquire, organize, and manage project teams. Project teams consist of team members who are entrusted with roles and responsibilities for executing the project. In this tutorial, you will use the resource query editor to create and run a query, and then share the query among project managers who will be working in your project. Also, you will use the resource assignment viewlet to allocate team members to a project, which will make the team members available for assignment to project tasks.

Learning objectives

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to do the following tasks:
  • Understand the concept of querying for team members
  • Use conditions and attributes within a query
  • Create and run a resource query
  • Share a resource query with team and team members
  • Allocate team members to a project
  • Assign team members to a task
This tutorial takes approximately 60 minutes to finish. If you explore other concepts that are related to this tutorial, it could take longer to complete.

Audience

  • Resource managers
  • Project managers
Before you begin, you must have the following installed:

Prerequisites

For your project, you must complete the following tasks:

  • Plan for human resource
  • Analyze resource requirements
  • Define the roles, responsibilities, and competencies for each team member

Expected results

>>Show me here<<

Module 1: Create a resource query

In this module, you will learn how to create and run a resource query. As a resource manager, you must delegate assignments within a project to team members. You can search for a team member to identify requirement matches that are based on attributes, for example, name, skill, or competency.

After you complete the lessons in this module you will understand how to do the following:
  • Learn how to use conditions and attributes within a query
  • Create and run a resource query
  • Share a resource query with teams and team members

Lesson 1.1: Add search conditions in a resource query

This lesson will help you to learn how to add search conditions, create, and save a query.

You must specify the required number of team members who will be a part of the project and the skill set they should possess. Set your query in such a way that you can get the best available team members from the resource pool.
  1. Open the resource query editor and click Create Query.
  2. Select User from the list.
    Resource query
  3. Specify search conditions about the team member by using the AND condition:
    1. Click the add iconicon, select an attribute, and click the Add attribute condition.
    2. Type or select the search string, and then select the scope of search from the list. For example, if the search attribute is Skill and search string is Java, select Java from the list.
  4. Specify search conditions about the team member by using the OR condition:
    1. Click the add iconicon, select an attribute, and click the Add attribute condition.
    2. Type or select the search string and select the search scope from the list.
  5. In the Name field, type a name and click Save.

Lesson 1.2: Run a resource query

In this lesson, you will learn how run a resource query.

You will run the query that you created in lesson 1, and then have the results display in the resource query editor. It is a good practice to save queries because you can modify them to perform searches whose logic is almost the same.
  1. Open the resource query editor and select the query that you created in lesson 1. Your saved queries are displayed in the My Queries list.
  2. 2. Click Run. The resource query editor displays the results for the query.
    Running a resource query

Lesson 1.3: Share a query

In this lesson, you will learn how to share a query with your team and team members.

After you are done using a query, you can remove a team or team member from the query.

The resource query that you create helps the other team members when you share the query. Resource managers create queries and share them with project managers. Project managers can run these queries to search for available team members.

Based on the security settings, a project manager can only edit a query.

  1. Open the resource query editor and select the same query that you used in lesson 2.
  2. Click on the Details tab.
    sharing a resource query
  3. To share the query with a team area, click Add Team Area, and select the team from Select Team Area window. The selected team can only view the shared query.
  4. To share the query with a team member, click Add User and perform either of the following steps:
    • In the Select Users window, type the name or a partial string and select the team member.
    • Click Show All, and select a team member from the list.
  5. Click Save.

Module 2: Assign team members to projects

In this module, you to learn how to effectively use the resource assignment viewlet to assign the team members to a project and later to the tasks.

After you complete the lessons in this module you will understand how to do the following tasks:
  • Allocate team member to a project
  • Assign team member to a task
This module takes approximately 15 minutes to complete.

Lesson 2.1: Allocate team members to a project

In this lesson, you will allocate team members to a project from the list of resources that are available in your organization.

To allocate a team member to a project, the resource manager has to create a record for the team member in the Resources view. The project manager must then create the resource queries in the query editor, and share the saved queries with the project manager.
  1. From the WBS tree, select a project. Open the Resource Assignment viewlet.
  2. Click the Query icon to search for the available team members:
    • To run an existing search query, select the query from the list.
    • To create a new search query, click New Query. In the Query Editor, create your query, and click Run.
  3. From the search results, select a team member, and then click Assign. By using the control button, you can also select multiple team members. The selected team members are allocated to the project for the duration (start and end dates) of the project.
  4. Click Save.

Lesson 2.2: Assign team members to tasks

In this lesson, you will assign a team member to a task from the project that you have allocated in the previous lesson.

To assign a team member to a task, the project manager must allocate the team member to the same project. When you assign a team member, by default, the assignment is for the entire duration of the task. You have the option to change the assignment dates.
  1. From the WBS tree, select a project task.
  2. Open the Resource Assignment viewlet. From the Project Resources list, click a team member to assign to the selected task. By using the control button you can also select multiple team members.
  3. Click Assign. The selected resources are assigned to the task for the duration (start and end dates) of the task. The task effort is divided among the selected resources.
  4. Click Save.

Tutorial summary

You have successfully finished this tutorial. You can now search for a team member and start assigning the team member to a project.