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Define Cost and Material Resources

In this exercise, youll define cost resources for travel and training, and material resources for lumber and
paint. Then youll apply these resources to tasks in your project plan, and display project statistics to find out
the impact of these resources.

1. Open Home Construction Project 4A.

This project plan is identical to the plan at the end of the previous lesson, except that a task
has been added as a result of homebuyer Rita Langdons desire to select interior furnishings
and finishes. Task 10 has been inserted into the project plan, and Rita Langdon and Tracy Lynn
have been assigned to the task. Because Rita and Tracy will travel for this task, you decide to
create a cost resource and apply it to this task.
2. Choose View >Resource Views > .

3. Follow the steps below to add two cost and two material resources.
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A. Enter the cost and materials resources in lines 17 through 20

B. From the Type column, choose Cost or Material
C. In the Std. Rate column, be sure to enter the per-unit costs for the material
resources you identified

Youve now created two cost and two material resources. When you assign the cost resources,
you also enter an amount for each. For the material resources, the Material Label column can
be thought of as the unit of measure column. When buying these resources, you will buy
cement by the cubic yard, and paint by the gallon. Next assign these resources to tasks.

4. Choose View >Task Views > .

5. Choose Task 10 Select interior furnishings and finishes.

You want to assign the Travel cost resource to this task.

6. Choose ResourceAssignmentsAssign Resources .

7. Scroll down to locate the Travel cost resource.

8. Select the Travel cost resource, and click Assign.

9. In the Cost column, enter $2,000.

10. Choose Task 44 Paint interior walls and ceilings.

11. Choose TaskEditingScroll to Task to display the Gantt bar for Task 44.

Interior designer Tracy Lynn will receive training for this task.

12. Using the same technique as above, assign the Training resource to task 44, and enter a cost of
$1,500.

13. Close the Assign Resources dialog box.

14. Choose Task 21 Lay foundation.

Laying the foundation for the custom home will use significant amounts of concrete and
generate significant costs to the project.
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15. Choose TaskEditingScroll to Task to display the Gantt bar for Task 21.

16. Choose Resource-AssignmentsAssign Resources .

17. Select the Cement material resource, and click Assign.

18. In the Units column, enter 1100, and tap (Enter).

When you enter the Units value, Microsoft Project calculates the number of units times the per-
unit cost.

19. Close the Assign Resources dialog box.

20. Choose Task 44 Paint interior walls and ceilings.

21. Using the same technique described above, assign the Paint material resource to this task,
and set the Units value to 20.

Setting the Units value to 20, assigns 20 gallons of paint to the project at a cost of $1, 800.

22. Close the Assign Resources dialog box.

Next, display project statistics to view the impact of these resources assignments on project
cost.

23. Choose ProjectPropertiesProject InformationStatistics.

In a home construction project, material costs will be significant. By adding the cement and
paint material resources plus the smaller cost resources, the projected project cost is now
$176,860.

24. Click Close to close the Project Statistics box.

25. Save and close the file.