Assign Work on a Project to a Group of Resources

To assign work on a project or opportunity to a group of resources, display and select the resources in the Resource View grid and specify the assignment information in the Add Assignments to Selected Resources dialog box.

This feature enables you to quickly get a plan started by assigning a group of resources to a project all at once. In the Add Assignments to Selected Resources dialog box, you can pick all or some of the resources in the group and assign those resources to one or more WBS elements. Then, without closing the dialog box, you can pick a different set of resources from the group and make different assignments for those. When you have made all assignments for the group of resources and the selected project, you save them all.

In addition to resources that you assign using the planning grids, employees with no planned hours but with JTD hours charged to a WBS element are assigned automatically and display in the grids as well.

When adding resources to projects in Project Planning, you must make sure that the plan is checked out to you and that the row is eligible to have assignments.

To assign work on a project or opportunity to a group of resources:

1. In the Navigation pane, go to the Resource Management section and click Resource View.
2. If necessary, use a search to display, in the grid, the resources to which you want to assign work on a project.
3. Select the check box next to each of the resources you want to include in the group.
4. Click + Add Assignments on the Resource View toolbar.

   If this option is disabled, make sure that the selected resources have the Active status. You can only add assignments for active resources.

5. In the Add Assignments to Selected Resources dialog box, use the search field to search for and select the project or opportunity for which you want to assign work to the resources.

   When you select a project or opportunity, the plan is automatically checked out to you. However, if a plan is currently checked out to someone else, you cannot select it. In that case, appears next to it in the list, and the name of the person who has it checked out displays below it.

6. In the Selected Resources grid, select the check box next to each resource to which you want to make an assignment.
7. Expand the project or opportunity levels to display one or more WBS elements for which you want to assign work to the resources.

   You can only make assignments for the lowest, or "leaf," level of each branch of the project or opportunity structure. A + displays next to the WBS elements for which you can add assignments.

8. When you mouseover a Resource/Level row, click + next to each of the WBS elements for which you want to assign work to the resources. The Add Assignments dialog box appears.
   

   The resources are added to the list of assigned resources for each of the selected WBS elements. You can expand those elements to display all currently assigned resources.

9. To assign work to this group of resources for other WBS elements, repeat steps 6 - 8.
10. If you consider the new assignments hard booked, select the Hard Book check box.

    This check box is only available if DPS is configured to use soft and hard booking and if you have the required security access to hard book assignments.

11. To add all of the new assignments to the plan, click Assign.
12. In the Resource View grid, select the assignment start and end dates for the new assignments and enter planned hours.