Tips and Tricks for Replacing Resources

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When you have resources on a project, you may need to replace them at some point in time. Learn best practices to replace a resource.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2013, 2019/365.

Quick reference

Tips and Tricks for Replacing Resources

When you have resources on a project, you may need to replace them at some point in time. There are a few ways to replace a resource. If you estimate the hours for a resource and then replace that resource, Microsoft Project will forget the original estimate and re-calculate the hours.

For example:

You assign a project manager to a 5 day task. Microsoft Project calculates 5 days * 8 hours, and calculates the assignment for 40 hours.

You keep the 5 days, but the assignment will only work 8 hours, so you change the work to 8 hours. Now the task is 5 days, but the resource assignment is only working 8 hours over that 5 day period.

Now, you go to the task’s detail (split) view and replace the project manager resource with Peter Smith. Microsoft Project will forget the 8 hours of working time and will change it back to 40 hours.

For this reason, it is a good idea to rename a resource, rather than replace, whenever possible.

There are some downsides to this method because any older tasks that might have been done will show as having been complete by the new resource. When you encounter situations where it is not acceptable to rename a resource, you will have to add the new resource assignment, match the original resource assignment’s work hours, and then remove the original assignment.

Steps

Whenever possible, follow these steps to replace a resource:

  • Go to the resource sheet.
  • Select the resource you want to replace.
  • Type the new resource name over the original resource.
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  • 00:05 So far, we've worked with two types of resources, work resources and
  • 00:10 cost resources.
  • 00:11 Now let's take a look at these work resources.
  • 00:14 So far, we've made them all generic, but really Microsoft Project doesn't treat
  • 00:18 a generic work resource any different than a named human being.
  • 00:24 The only difference is that there's this generic field with a yes or a no.
  • 00:29 Now it's true with that there's some other differences because some views and
  • 00:34 reports and filters can be used to say show me only generic resources or
  • 00:39 show me only named resources.
  • 00:41 But, really, Microsoft Project doesn't treat these
  • 00:44 generic resources any differently than a named resource.
  • 00:49 So at some point, you'll probably have a project manager assigned to your project.
  • 00:54 And you're going to want to add that project manager,
  • 00:57 the named person to your schedule.
  • 01:01 And I'm going to show you in this tips and tricks lesson
  • 01:03 how to replace a resource because it's a little bit trickier than it might seem.
  • 01:10 Let's come to the bottom of our resource sheet and type the name for
  • 01:15 our project manager.
  • 01:17 We're going to say the project manager is named Peter Miles.
  • 01:26 We won't make it generic, we'll keep it work, and we'll give him the same rate as
  • 01:31 our current project manager generic resource, and that'll be $150.
  • 01:36 Now I'm going to show you why this process actually will not work,
  • 01:41 just so you understand.
  • 01:43 So let's go up here to the task tab, click the chart.
  • 01:50 Choose Home Owner View and now we’re in our custom view that we created.
  • 01:56 And let’s add a column.
  • 01:58 We’re going to go to the Start column, and right click, and choose Insert Column.
  • 02:04 And let’s insert the Cost Column.
  • 02:09 Now we’re going to find the task that the project manager is assigned to.
  • 02:13 This is a very good example of one called, Acquire Permits.
  • 02:16 It's 38 days but only $2,400.
  • 02:20 Let's open up our split view,
  • 02:22 by coming down to the bottom of the screen, and dragging our split-view up.
  • 02:28 The reason for why even at $150 an hour this project manager is so inexpensive is
  • 02:34 because the project manager's only set to work 16 hours over the course of 38 days.
  • 02:42 So let's go ahead and replace the project manager with Peter Miles.
  • 02:51 And I'm gonna click the the OK button.
  • 02:54 Now what just happened here?
  • 02:56 The work has been replaced with 304 hours.
  • 03:01 And the cost is no longer $2400, it's $45,600.
  • 03:07 The reason for why this happened is because Microsoft Project assumed
  • 03:12 that we are deleting the project manager, and
  • 03:17 that 16 hour estimate, and we're replacing it with a new resource.
  • 03:22 And Project automatically calculated the work,
  • 03:25 which is an eight hour day times 38 days, that's 304 hours.
  • 03:32 So we're not going to use this method, so I'm going to Undo,
  • 03:37 I'm pressing the Control Z, until I get back to my original project manager.
  • 03:43 The better way of handling this is to come back here to the Views tab.
  • 03:49 Click Resource Sheet.
  • 03:52 And change the name of the project manager.
  • 04:02 And then, say that it's no longer a generic.
  • 04:10 And you can see that the cost is still the same.
  • 04:13 Now, that might have been a little interesting because I went into
  • 04:16 the resource sheet using that split view.
  • 04:19 So let's head back to the resource sheet for a moment.
  • 04:22 What we've done is we've replaced the word, project manager, and
  • 04:27 changed it from a generic resource to a non generic.
  • 04:31 So this other project manager we created,
  • 04:33 this Peter Miles, actually doesn't belong on our project anymore.
  • 04:38 I'm gonna delete that.
  • 04:39 Because all we did was we renamed this.
  • 04:42 So again, if the architect is actually Sally Rogers.
  • 04:48 We'll just replace that and say generic no.
  • 04:54 Our project cost will not change because we did it this way.

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