Assign a Role to an Activity

Assign a Role to an Activity Video

Assign one or more roles to an activity to designate the job titles or skills that are required to complete the activity. You can assign workspace and project roles to activities. In long-range planning, it may be advisable to first identify and assign the roles required to work on the activity and then staff the roles with the appropriate project resources at a later time.

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 role 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. In the Role Name column, double-click the empty field.
5. In the Assign Roles dialog box, in the Filter By field, select Workspace to view workspace roles or select Project to view project roles and workspace roles that have been assigned to the project level.

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

6. Select a role.
7. To view the role's current allocation for the project, select Show Details.
8. Select Assign.
9. All changes made to this page are saved automatically.

Tips

• You can assign roles 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 Roles.
• 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 roles assigned to your activities by adding the Role Names or Role IDs columns to the activity table. Double-click either of the fields to display up to 15 role assignments for an activity. You can also filter, group, and sort by these fields. If you make changes to a role's name or ID, or you add or delete role assignments using P6 XML import or Excel import, changes to the Role Names and Role IDs fields may not be immediately displayed. Refresh the Activities page to see your changes.
• To delete a role, select the  Context menu next to a role 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 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.
• Roles 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.