How to create and share a resource pool in Microsoft Project

The Project Manager must always know who is available to collaborate on a project. This could be a demanding operation, especially in a multi-project management.

If you assign the same people to different projects or use shared resources in a project, it can be useful to merge all the resource information into a single central file called a resource pool. In this way it is possible to identify assignment conflicts and see the assignment of times for each project.

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We proceed to create a shared team of resources

1. On the R tabesources click on the arrow next to Team planning and click Resource list.

2. click on Add resources and import information about existing resources.

To enter information about new people, click Work resource, to complete Resource name add details.

After a shared resource group is created, the information for each shared project comes from this resource pool. All information, such as assignments, rates, calendar, and availability, is read from the common repository in the resource group.

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How to use the resource pool

1. Open the resource pool project.

2. Open the project that will share the pool resources and click resource > Resource pool > Share resources.

click on Use resources (at least one open resource pool is required), then in the box Da Click on the resource pool project opened in the step "Resource pool project".

click on Priority granted to the pool if you want the information in the assets to replace any conflicting information from the sharing project.

         Or

         click on Priority granted to the sharer if you want the information in the project to replace any conflicting information from the resources.

click on OK.

At this point you can use the resources for the project. Any resources in the project are automatically added to the pool.

To see the list of shared resources, click Activities > Gantt chart > Resource list.

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Use of resource usage information

You can view and update the resource pool file from the current project file (sharer file). It is good practice to update and periodically view resources to get the latest information on assignments and their possible impact on projects.

1. Open the resource sharer file.
2. In the dialog that appears, select Open resource pool to view the assignments contained in the sharer files. The resource pool will be opened as read-only.
3. To see the assignments between projects that share the resource pool, click Activities > Gantt chart > Resource use.
4. After making updates, click Resource > Resource pool > Update resource pools.

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Ercole Palmeri