Problem linking resource pool to large existing project plans
Here is a quote from a mail that I recieved from James Terris from UK:
"The problem is... the project plans and the resource pool have different working hours. When I try to associate the plan to the pool all the start/finish dates are shifted. I've tried setting all tasks to "fixed duration" before linking to the resource pool but the dates still move. Is there any way I can link the two together and have the dates in the project plans remain the same?"
To answer this question we have to know how MS Project handles calendar times.
MS Project has a couple of levels of working times: project, task and resource. One could have a problem because when you map the resource from the pool to your existing project, MS Project takes the working hours (Calendar) from the MSPS (resource pool). If you want to disable that you could try the following:
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Go to each of the tasks where you want to add a resource from the resource pool
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Click on the Task information (right mouse button on the task, or select the task and then go to Project->Task information).
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Since you have specified a different default calendar for the project, you should select it in the Calendar dropdownlist. Your MSPS administrator probably declared a couple of default working hour calendars (for each of you subsidiaries or departments) and you obviously have your own calendar for your project
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Now you should select (check) the checkbox right to that dropdownlist
This way the MS Project will ignore the resources calendar for the task that was selected.
Of course this has a downside (as always :)). Each task, by default, inherits the project calendar. This way you will override the task, to use, in your case, the same calendar as the project (this way the checkbox field get enabled). Now if you change the projects base calendar, it will not affect the tasks :(
But, in my experience, I have never changed the initial base calendar in the middle of the project.
HTH,
L.