For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

ME4103 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND SOCIETY

Hands-on Sessions on using Microsoft Project

Exercise 2
Setting up Resources

Peter C. Y. Chen, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National University of Singapore

2019-2020

Contents of this document are based on material in Microsoft Project 2016: Step-by-Step by C. Chatfield and T. Johnson

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 For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Note: Depending on how the date format of your PC is set up, the date shown in the figures in this
document may appear different from what you see on your PC, e.g., Tue 06-02-18 instead of Tue
06/02/18.

File template required in this exercise is provided on LumiNUS. Please download a copy to the
local PC and use it for this exercise.

What will you learn in this exercise?

Resources include the people, equipment, and material needed to complete the work of a project. In
this exercise, you will practice creating resources and editing the information of these resources. The
main procedures are:

 Setting up work resources

 Entering the maximum capacity for work resources
 Entering work resource pay rates
 Adjusting working time in a resource calendar
 Setting up cost resources
 Documenting resources by using notes

What main functions of the software are to be used in this exercise?

This exercise focuses on the “resource editing” procedures. The functions to be used most
frequently are on the Resource tab. This exercise involves two types of resource, namely, work
resources and cost resources; the other type of resources, i.e., material resource, is not included in
this exercise. The main functions are:

 Add resources (work/cost)

 Resource name, Maximum capacity
 Work resource pay rates (standard/overtime)
 Change working time
 Resource information
 Resource detail
 Notes

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Set up work resources

The Context: You have set up a task list for the “new book launch” project. You are now ready to
set up work resources for the project. As with the tasks, some future changes to the resource details
may come about, but at the moment there are sufficient information to start setting up the
resources.

Open the file Exercise2_SetUpResources.mpp, the layout appears as shown below.

1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet to display the layout
shown below.

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2. Enter the following names:

 Jun Cao
 Sharon Salavaria
 Toby Nixon
 Toni Poe
 Zac Woodall
 Copyeditors

1) Click an empty cell in the Resource name column.

2) On the Resource tab, in the Insert group, click Add Resources, then click Work
Resource.

Project inserts a new row with the name <New Resource> in the Resource Name
column, and renumbers the subsequent resources.

3) With <New Resource> selected, enter Jun Cao and then press the Enter key.

4) Repeat 2) and 3) to enter the names shown in the figure below. When you finish
entering all the names, the task list should appear as shown below.

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Enter the maximum capacity for work resources

The Context: The default value of 100% for the Maximum Units for some resources need to be
changed. You learned that the equivalent of four full-time copyeditors will be allocated to the “new
book launch” project, and that one resource in the plan, Sharon Salavaria, is available for this project
on a half-time basis.

1. Change the Copyeditors resource maximum units value to 400%.

1) On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.

2) Click the Max. column for Copyeditors, and change it to 400%.

2. Change Sharon Salavaria’s maximum units value to 50%.

1) Click the Max. column for Sharon Salavaria, and change it to 50%.

After customizing the Max Units values for the two resources, the Resource Sheet
should appear as shown below.

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Enter work resource pay rates

The Context: You received the pay rates for the work resources involved in the project from the
payroll department. These pay rates are a mix of hourly and weekly rates. You now need to enter
these pay rates in the project plan.

1. Enter the following pay rates in the Standard (Std.) Rate field.

1) On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.

2) In the Resource Sheet view, click the Std. Rate column for Jun Cao, and enter
42.00/hour.

3) Repeat 1) and 2) but enter, in Std. Rate column, 1100/week for Sharon Salacaria,
2700/week for Toby Nixon, 55/hour for Zac Woodall, and 45/hour for Copyeditors. Do
not change the entry in the Std. Rate column for Toni Poe because he is the book
author.

2. Enter an overtime rate of $63 per hour for Jun Cao.

1) In the Resource Sheet view, click the Ovt. Rate column for Jun Cao, and enter
63.00/hour.

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The Resource Sheet should appear as shown below after pay rates are entered.

Adjust working time in a resource calendar

The Context: Some working-time updates are to be made to the project plan. Toby Nixon has
informed you that he will be away at a conference, while Jun Cao now works a full-time but
nonstandard schedule of 10 hours per day, four days per week (a “4-by-10” work schedule). You
need to update their resource calendars accordingly.

1. Make January 26, 2018 a nonworking time calendar exception for Toby Nixon. Name the
exception Toby attending a conference.
1) Click on Toby Nixon under the Resource Name column. On the Project tab, in the
Properties group, click Change Working Time.

The dialog box as shown below should appear. Note that the calendar year and month
displayed may be different from that shown in the figure below.

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2) In the cell For calendar (at the top of the dialog box), select Toby Nixon (if it is not
already shown). On the Exceptions tab, click the first cell in the Name column and enter
Toby attending a conference. Set the value for “Start” as January 26 2018 and the value
for “Finish” also as January 26 2018.

3) Double click on the text Toby attending a conference (under the Name column in the
Change Working Time dialog box) to bring up the Details for ‘Toby attending a
conference’ dialog box. Select the radio button for Nonworking.

4) Click OK in the Details for ‘Toby attending a conference’ dialog box, and click OK in the
Change Working Time dialog box.

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2. For Jun Cao, change the default work week to a “4-by-10” weekly work schedule (that is, 4
days per week, 10 hours per day Monday through Thursday, with Friday off). On the days
that Jun Cao works, she will work from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM with the noon hour off for lunch.
1) On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click Change Working Time.

2) Select Jun Cao in the For calendar cell. Note that the calendar year and month displayed
may be different from those shown in the figure below.

3) Click the Work Weeks tab.

4) Click [Default] directly in the Name column, then click Details.

5) A Details for ‘[Default]’ dialog box appears. Under Selected Day(s), select Monday
through Thursday (using the Shift-Click combination).

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6) To set working times that differ from the base calendar, click the Set day(s) to these
specific working times radio button. In the From and To columns, enter the working
times as shown in the figure below – note the “7:00 PM” in the To column. Click OK to
exit each dialog box.

7) To set Friday as a non-working day for Jun Cao, return to the Details for ‘[Default]’
dialog box. Select Friday under the Select day(s) heading, and select the Set days to non-
working time radio box.

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Set up cost resources

The Context: For accounting purposes, you need to track travel expenses in the plan. This is done
via a cost resource.

1. Create a cost resource named Travel.

1) On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.

2) In the Resource Sheet view, click the (empty) cell under Copyeditors in the Resource
Name column.
3) On the Resource tab, in the Insert group, click Add Resources, then click Cost Resource.

Project inserts a row for the new cost resource, with the name: <New Resource>.

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4) With <New Resource > selected, enter Travel then press the Enter key. The cost
resources should appear as shown in the Resource Sheet below.

Document resources by using notes

The Context: You collected some resource details that would be valuable to record in the plan.
1. Add this note for Toby Nixon in the Resource Information dialog box: Toby worked on
launch campaigns for Toni Poe’s previous two books.
1) On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.

2) Select the resource name, Toby Nixon.

3) On the Resource tab, in the Properties group, click Notes.

The following dialog box appears.

4) In the Notes box, enter Toby worked on launch campaigns for Toni Poe’s previous two
books.

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2. Use the Resource Form to add this note for Sharon Salavaria: Sharon’s standard pay rate is
adjusted for her half-time work schedule.
1) On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.

2) On the Resource tab, in the Properties group, click the Details button.

Click Sharon Salavaria in the Resource Name column. The Resource Form displayed in
the lower pane appears as shown below.

3) Click anywhere in the Resource Form view. This switch Windows’ focus to the Resource
Form pane. The label of the Format tab (as part of the main menu at the top of the
overall Project window) changes to Resource Form Tools.

4) On the Format tab, in the Details group, click Notes.

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5) Enter “Sharon’s standard pay rate is adjusted for her half-time work schedule.” in the
note box.

The two methods (for entering notes in the project plan) described above are essentially equivalent.

Use the “Save As” option to save a copy of the Project file that you have been working on for this
exercise. Make sure to use your Student Number as the file name, i.e.,

XXXXXXXXX.mpp

where “XXXXXXXXX” is your Student Number.

Upload the saved file into the folder Exercise 2 submission under the “Files” section of the ME4103
module page on LumiNUS.

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