Assign a Resource to an Activity

Video

Assign one or more workspace and project resources to an activity to indicate the specific resources required to complete the activity. Resources may include labor, non-labor items such as equipment, and material items such as bricks. If a role that is associated with the resource you want to assign is already assigned to the activity, you can choose to staff the role with that resource rather than create a new activity assignment.

If you are replacing a current resource assignment with a different resource, you may be prompted to choose which Units/Time, Rate Source, and Price/Unit values you want to use on the assignment, or it may occur automatically depending on your preferences. To configure or change these preferences, see Configure the Assignment Settings Dialog Preference.

If a resource or role is assigned to an activity without existing assignments, and the activity has unit and cost values, the values in fields of the same type as the new assignment will be overwritten by the assignment's corresponding values. For example, assigning a nonlabor resource will overwrite the activity's nonlabor unit and cost values. Depending on its type, an assigned resource can overwrite labor, nonlabor, or material values. Assigned roles always overwrite labor values. If a resource staffs a role, the values that are overwritten will depend on the resource's type.

To assign a resource to an activity:

1. Navigate to the Activities page
   1. In the object selector, select ﱆ Project or  Program, and then select a project or a program from the list.
   2. From the  Main Menu, select  Schedule, and then select Activities.
2. In the table, select the activity.
3. On the Layout menu, select  Activity Details, and then select the Resource Assignments detail window.
4. Select Assign to assign a new resource, or select the  Context menu next to an existing resource, and then select Assign Resource to replace it.
5. In the Assign Resources dialog box, in the View By list, select a method to view the list of resources.
6. In the Filter By field, select Workspace to view workspace resources or select Project to view project resources and workspace resources that have been assigned to the project level.

   Note: If a workspace resource has not been assigned to the project level, assigning it to an activity will make it and any associated roles available at the project level. The resource's workspace availability and rate details will also be made available at the project level and used on the assignment. After a workspace resource is available at the project level, new resource assignments will always use the resource's rate values set for the project.

7. Select a resource. If you need to assign more than one resource to the activity, you can multi-select resources from the list.
8. To view the resource's current allocation for the project displayed in a chart, select Show Details.
9. Select Assign.

   Note: If the resource has an associated role marked as the primary role, the role will also be assigned to the activity.

10. If you are prompted to choose which Units/Time, Rate Source, or Price/Unit values to use on the assignment, make your selections from the options available, and then select Save.
11. All changes made to this page are saved automatically.

Tips

• You can assign resources to multiple activities at the same time. Select multiple activities, select the  Context menu next to a selected activity, hover over Assign, and then select Resources.
• You can also make resource or role assignments to activities in a project or a program from the Assignments List. See Assign a Resource or Role to an Activity from the Assignment List.
• Quickly see the resources assigned to your activities by adding the Resource Names or Resource IDs columns to the activity table. Double-click either of the fields to display up to 15 resource assignments for an activity. You can also filter, group, and sort by these fields. If you make changes to a resource's name or ID, or you add or delete resource assignments using P6 XML import or Excel import, changes to the Resource Names and Resource IDs fields may not be immediately displayed. Refresh the Activities page to see your changes.
• To delete a resource, select the  Context menu next to a resource in the Resource Assignments detail window, and then select Delete. If all labor or nonlabor assignments have been deleted from an activity, you will be prompted to retain or delete all unit and cost values of that assignment type. Select Yes to reset all activity labor or nonlabor unit and cost values to 0. Select No to retain the activity labor or nonlabor unit and cost values. After all material resources have been removed, all activity material costs will be reset to 0.
• If your project is configured to enable status updates by resource assignments, users who are assigned as resources to in-progress activities can use the My Activities page or Timesheets page to update the status of their resource assignment.
• If an activity's type is Resource Dependent, the activity's dates are calculated using the calendars associated with each resource or role assignment. Role assignments staffed with a resource use the resource's calendar. If the activity is any other activity type, or if there are no resource or role assignments on the activity, its dates are calculated using its assigned calendar.
• Resources are assigned to activities with several configured default options for calculating assignment costs. For more information on modifying these options, see Configure Assignment Calculation Options.