Tips and Tricks for Replacing Resources

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About this lesson

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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  • 00:03 In this video we're going to talk about replacing resources on our project.
  • 00:08 Now let's take a look at these generic resources we have here.
  • 00:12 Specifically, let's first start with the project manager.
  • 00:16 The project manager is $150 an hour.
  • 00:19 Now let's go back to the Gantt chart and choose the homeowner view.
  • 00:24 Now I added the cost column in here, and
  • 00:27 I'm going to look at this task right here acquire permits.
  • 00:31 Why is it that this is 38 days, but it's only $2,400?
  • 00:36 You'd think it would be $150 an hour times 8 hours and then that times 38 days.
  • 00:43 Well actually, let's take a look at the split view.
  • 00:46 So I'm in the View tab and click on Details.
  • 00:49 And remember when we were originally estimating this project,
  • 00:54 we added the project manager and only estimated 16 hours.
  • 00:58 We did that because permits take a long time to complete.
  • 01:02 The project manager is not working full time on this.
  • 01:05 Project manager is probably just waiting around, waiting for the work to be done.
  • 01:10 So what are some strategies for
  • 01:13 putting the project manager into the plan with a named person?
  • 01:18 That's what we'll cover now.
  • 01:19 One way we can handle putting a project manager with a named person
  • 01:23 in there is to just makes sure we have the homeowner view selected so
  • 01:28 we can go to the resource sheet.
  • 01:30 And, I'll just go in and type in a new person, Peter Miles.
  • 01:35 And I'll give that person a $150 rate, same thing as the current project manager.
  • 01:41 Now go back to the Homeowner view.
  • 01:44 And we can see that 38 day tasks with the project manager,
  • 01:49 if I just add Peter Miles and click OK,
  • 01:52 you can see that by adding Peter the work is 304 hours.
  • 01:57 That's a total of hours that meets a 38 day duration.
  • 02:01 So now you're going to have to go in everywhere the project
  • 02:06 manager is listed and change Peter to 16 hours and
  • 02:11 then delete the project manager.
  • 02:14 And so that's not the best strategy.
  • 02:16 So I'm going to do a Ctrl+Z undo here.
  • 02:19 Another strategy is to go and just change this from project
  • 02:25 manager to Peter Miles, and then click the OK button.
  • 02:31 And you can see that the work actually remains the same, some times.
  • 02:37 Now depending on the version of project you have,
  • 02:41 this 16 hours might change back to 304 hours.
  • 02:45 So there is a difference in various versions of Project.
  • 02:50 So that's why I'm going to undo this one more time.
  • 02:52 I'm going to select the homeowner view up here.
  • 02:56 Go to the resource sheet.
  • 02:58 What I'm going to do is delete Peter Miles and
  • 03:02 then I'm going to change the project manager name here
  • 03:07 to Peter Miles and then change it from generic to no.
  • 03:12 Now when I go back to my homeowner view, and this 38 day tasks require permits,
  • 03:19 you can see Peter Miles was there with the 16 hours.
  • 03:23 So let's do this one more time, just to recap.
  • 03:27 The best practice here, when you're putting new people into
  • 03:32 a project where you're replacing generics is to go in.
  • 03:36 And I'm just going to take this architect generic resource,
  • 03:40 type in the resource name.
  • 03:41 I'll type Sally Rogers and then change the generic form yes to no.
  • 03:47 And now it's changed throughout the rest of the project for you.
  • 03:52 There's Sally right there.

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