Direct and Indirect Relationships
In both the Resource Substitution Wizard and the Portfolio Modeler, Project Server determines the relationship between projects as either Direct or Indirect. Following are two examples of these relationships:
· Mickey Cobb is assigned as a resource in Project A and in Project B. Because both projects share the same resource, Project Server determines that the projects have a Direct relationship.
· Mickey Cobb is assigned as a resource in Project A and in Project B, therefore, Projects A and B have a Direct relationship. Dave Baker is assigned as a resource in Project B and in Project C, therefore, Projects B and C have a Direct relationship. Because both Project A and Project C have a Direct relationship with Project B, Project Server determines that Project A and Project C have an Indirect relationship.
The following illustration demonstrates the relationships between Project A and Project C:

Important Note: Project Server calculates the Indirect relationship between Project A and Project C to let you know that there might be a downstream ripple effect in Project C when you make changes to Project A, even though these two projects do not directly share resources.