The Team Planner in Microsoft Project
The Team Planner in Microsoft Project is a new feature from Microsoft Project 2010. The Team Planner is a useful method of viewing assignments, although it does not allow you to create or edit the assignments. This blog acts as a short tutorial in the use of the Team Planner.
Here is a short video clip on the subject.
Accessing the Team Planner
The Team Planner is available from the Resources Menu, and also from the View Menu.
Team Planner View Tab
Team Planner Resources Tab
The 4 Areas in the Team Planner
In the following project, Automatic Tasks are defined as Scheduled and Manual Tasks defined as Unscheduled.
Team Planner 4 Areas
- Task 1 Unscheduled and Unassigned task
- The second task, Task 2 Unscheduled but Assigned task
- Task 3 Scheduled but Unassigned task
- Task 4 Scheduled and Assigned task
There are four areas to look at in the Team Planner:
It is possible to drag the tasks around these four areas to assign them to resources, or to schedule them.
The Team Planners Four Views
Unable to Assign Two Resources to a Task
Note that there is no method to add two resources to a single task – this must be performed using one of the other methods of assigning resources:
- Double Clicking the Task
- The Resources Column in the Entry Table
There are several other methods available to assign resources.
Dragging the Tasks Constrains the Tasks
It is very tempting to drag the tasks around to balance a workload or solve resource overload issues. However, it should be remembered that moving tasks is not the same as adding task dependencies. Also, dragging a task will also change the constraint on the task from “As Soon As Possible” to “Must Start On”. Therefore, the plan will not become a dynamic plan.
Conclusion
The Team Planner is a useful method of looking at tasks an resources, however it does not allow adding two resources onto a task, and can lead to poor practice in the use of Microsoft Project.
