How To - Capacity Planning and Resource Management in Microsoft Project Online with Power BI

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+++ See part 1 of this series at youtu.be/OMEfeC0RF9M +++

This is part 2 of a 2 part series.
In this video, we show you how to do capacity planning and resource management using Microsoft Project Online and dashboards through Power BI.

Capacity Planning is looking out several months to help you ensure you have the right number of people with the right skills to get things done.
Resource Management is all about assigning and juggling people on projects and tasks to complete work.

Microsoft Project's Portfolio Management engine allows you to do easy "What-if" analysis and quickly make decisions that drive the best value from your staffing plans.

Microsoft Project's reporting and resource assignment engine makes it easy to find and fix allocation problems. A first step might be to try automatic leveling. This sometimes has unintended consequences, but it is good for looking at what-if analysis. Also - you can always undo the leveling with Project's Undo button. A second option is to use Microsoft's powerful resource query tool. Using a query tool, as part of the project management system, you can find an available person with the right skill. You can use this same option to replace an overallocated resource with an available resource. When you do this, past work history is left with the prior resource, while remaining work assignments are attached to the new resource. The third method is to use the Task Planner, where you can drag & drop assignments between resources, and even move assignments around in time.

Using spreadsheets or other systems, capacity planning and resource management are not trivial exercises. However, Microsoft Project Online brings you powerful tools to address capacity planning challenges and to find and fix resource management problems.

If you have questions, please reach out to us at [email protected] or 1.800.578.4155.