You can plan future period resource or role assignments in the Spreadsheet view of the Assignments page. Once an assignment is in progress, if work is not being performed according to plan, you can adjust the remaining early units as necessary. Alternatively if you choose to reestimate the remaining work for an assignment, you can adjust the planned units.
To create a layout for future period planning:
- Click Resources.
- On the Resources navigation bar, click Assignments.
- On the Assignments page:
- Click Spreadsheet View.
- Click Customize View.
- In the Customize View dialog box:
- On the Columns tab:
- Expand General in the Available Columns list and double-click Curve, Start, and Finish to add them to the Selected Columns list.
- If you want to be able to assign total units to assignments which do not yet have units assigned, add the Planned Units and Remaining Early Units columns.
- On the Spreadsheet tab:
- Expand Units in the Available Columns list and double-click Planned Units and Remaining Early Units to add them to the Selected Columns list.
- If you want to be able to compare planned work against the actuals, add the Actual Units column.
- If you want to be able to view costs related to the assignments as you plan, add the Planned Cost and Actual Cost columns.
- Select a Timescale.
- Click Apply.
Tips:
- Group and sort your view in a way that allows you to identify roles and resources, the activities to which they are assigned, and the project to which the activities are assigned (because the same activity may appear in different projects). For example, you can group and sort the resource usage spreadsheet by project and by resource.
- Future period planning only supports a single line in the timescale. See: Future Period Planning: Settings.
- When you enter a value into a future period column for an assignment, P6 assigns the value Manual to the resource curve, so adding the Curve column to your view allows you to identify the assignments you have modified. Adding Start and Finish to your view makes it easier to identify the periods which you can plan.
- If you enter a value in the planned units or remaining early units columns for an assignment which does not yet have total units assigned, the units will be spread evenly over the duration of the assignment.