Hi,
I will explain how to share Resources among different Projects in MS PROJECT 2010.
Suppose that you have many Projects in your company, and you want to know which Resources do you have, and are they available. If you define your resources as “local” (e.g. in each project from the scratch, you will se there over allocation only at single project, but not among them.
So, we have to create “RESOURCE POOL”. To do that I will open a blank new Project and open the Resource Sheet, and I will put the resources in it:
Now, I will save this “Project” ad Resource file:
and:
How to link a Project with the Resource pool?
First, you should open your resource pool! (file that you have saved in my previous example). Now you should open your Project file:
I will assign Resources from the Resource pool to my Tasks:
and I will get:
I will use my ResPool.mpp Project file as a Resource pool, and I want that the Pool takes the Precedence if there will be conflict between local and pool calendar!¸Now you can see that all resources are visible in my local Project:
Now I will assign, for example, Mary to the Task1:
I will now open the brand new Project and I will do the same thing with Mary, using the Resource Pool:
You can see that Mary is over allocated in My Project #2, and if you look at the My Project #1, you will se that Mary is over allocated in that Project, as well:
You can see that Mary is over allocated in the Resource pool, as well:
When you are saving your Project files, be sure to save your Resource Pool as well! I will try to save my Project3.mpp and I will get:
To avoid any conflict I will click on the Cancel button, and I will save the Resource Pool first, and then my Project file! I will get the same message but I will click on OK button!
Be careful! When you will leave your Projects (exit), first close all your “regular” Projects (sharer), and then close the Resource pool (the last one!).
In my next Post I will explain how to reopen Resource pool and your Projects, how to check the Availability of Resources from the pool, and how to disconnect a Resource Pool from the Projects!
Until then,
Best regards!
Nenad Trajkovski 
Nenad,
Thank you for the article. I followed your instructions but I am running into a small issue. While my master project shows all the sub-projects and the attached resource pool in the resources sheet, when I attempt to assign the resource to the task using the pull down menu, none of the resources are showing. Do you know what is causing this and how do I fix it?
I am going to write a Post about it in next hour! Let me know if it helps!
Hi Nenad. Thank you for that information. I will advise my superiors and hopefully we can push to get Project Server alot quicker.
Hi,
I am having major issues with my resource pool. I currently have somewhat over 80 projects linking into this pool and I have noticed the file is growing to be over 15MB. This slows down the process of opening the file and potentially the individual project files that are linked to it. I have also noticed in my ‘organizer’ tool option in the ‘calendar’ tab it duplicates some of the resources multiple times? I have searched everywhere to find answers as to why this happens. It has come to that point that my projects are crashing. I have a strange feeling that there is part responsibility of cross compatibilities with our old version of MS Project 2007 and saving into a MS Project 2013 file. If you can help that would be greatly appreciated.
From my point of View, you will have this problem in the future. Thge only help which I can give to you is an advice: Move from Project Pro to Project Server as Central repository for all your projects. MS PROJECT PRo is not supposed to work with huge amount of data, as in your case!
Regards.
Hi,
I have a question about the Resource assignments report in PWA (http://project server/pwa/_layouts/PWA/RM/ResAvailability.aspx). I have about 15 projects and 29 resources, and for some reason one of those projects, along with the resources assigned to it, is not showing up on this report.
If i try to see how available are those resources allocated to that particular project, in this report, it says they are totally available.
I am digging around project server 2010 for 2 days now to see what is so special with this particular project, but no luck.
Can you help?
Just a hint, those resources allocated to that project are also allocated to other projects, and those assignments I can see on the report.
Hi Marko,
it is really hard to say what is happening. Do not think that I do not want to help you, but I can not figure it out what can it be!
Sorry for no help!
Project published successfully, with Enterprise resources (rather than local resources with the same name)?
Is the project is set to use a resource plan, and no resources are associated with the resource plan?