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Creating a Microsoft Project Resource Management Portfolio using OnePager Pro

How to summarize resources across multiple schedules into a single portfolio report

Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) involves multiple projects, often interrelated, complex project issues, and the need to present solutions clearly, concisely, and with focus. Being successful in the PPM environment means dealing with these dimensions effectively, handling issues efficiently, and communicating clearly. So what happens with a Portfolio Manager has to address a complex issue involving multiple projects and resources with one chart?

This article describes how OnePager Pro, a reporting app for Microsoft Project, can pull in multiple subprojects and create a consolidated portfolio view. You can download a free trial of OnePager Pro to follow along.

Suppose there are three projects: Projects A, B, and C. They all share resources, and they compete for these resources. What we want to show here is how OnePager Pro can address resource conflicts by showing resource assignments across multiple projects. Here's how to get started:

  1. Filter your project plans using a flag column ("Flag 20" in Project C is shown below). This enables you to bring in only the important tasks and milestones into your portfolio report.
    Microsoft Project plan filtered with a Flag field.
  2. Double-click the OnePager Pro button on your desktop. From the Start screen that appears, choose New.
    OnePager Pro Start screen.
  3. Select Project A.mpp as the first Microsoft Project source file. Then, click the Change... button to launch the Data source selection dialog box, from which you can add Project B.mpp and Project C.mpp. Hit OK.
    Import multiple Microsoft Project files into your OnePager Gantt chart.
  4. Then, answer the simple questions in the wizard as shown below:
    OnePager Pro easily imports multiple Microsoft Project plans and summarizes them on a single page.
  5. Clicking the Create new project view button above generate the following portfolio timeline:
    Portfolio summary report created in OnePager Pro using multiple Microsoft Project plans. By default, OnePager Pro organizes the swimlanes (labels on the far left) by project name, and colors are assigned to each resource group (Team 1 through Team 4). However, this can be customized to meet your portfolio reporting requirements.
  6. What we want to see is how the tasks line up with respect to resources so we can look for potential resource conflicts across the portfolio. To do this, we click on the Project View Properties button on the OnePager Pro Home toolbar and select the Rows and Swimlanes tab. Then we tell OnePager Pro to organize the swimlanes by "Resource Names" as shown below:
    OnePager Pro allows you to group your portfolio summary report by resources.
  7. We can then go to the Task Bars tab and color-code each task based on the project name:
    OnePager Pro allows you to color-code your portfolio summary report by subproject.
  8. Applying both of the above changes will refresh the portfolio report to look like this:
    View of a multi-project portfolio grouped by resources and color-coded by subproject. This makes it very easy to spot resource conflicts across different projects. With this reorganization, not only do the team assignments to tasks stand out, but the color coding done by OnePager Pro assists in seeing how teams are assigned to tasks across different projects in the portfolio.
  9. You can now right-click on any task to add a comment box to highlight resource conflicts. You can also select two conflicting tasks and add a link between them to show the conflict as well:
    Using Microsoft Project portfolio reporting software -- OnePager Pro -- to create a view of a multi-project portfolio with resources conflicts highlighted.

The purpose of this article was to show you how OnePager Pro can represent multiple projects from a single Microsoft Project integrated master schedule, providing several ways to focus on resources across projects in a portfolio. OnePager Pro provides a versatile, clear, focused, and easy way to accomplish your portfolio reporting objectives.

OnePager Pro can help you create useful and effective PPM level presentations for executives, team members, and customers all using the same Microsoft Project plan.

Try it for yourself today by downloading a free trial or attending one of our demonstration webinars.

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