Assigning work resources to an hourly task

[Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT]

Greetings,

I’m facing a problem in assigning two of my resources in one of my projects,
and I would really appreciate your input to help me resolve it. The scenario
is as follows:

I have two Work resources:
John: available to work on the project only two hours a day.
Linda: available to work on the project only four hours a day.

I have a task (Task.A) that is expected to take 1 hour in duration.

I need to assign these two resources to the task. At the same time, I need
MS Project to show the overallocation for John if his total assignments in a
day exceed 2 hours, and show overallocation for Linda if her total
assignments in a day exceed 4 hours.

Questions:
1.What is the resource Max Limit in the resource sheet for each?
2.What is the Assignment Unit for each resource on Task.A?
3.What is the task type?
4.What is the Effort Driven status for Task.A?
5.Are there any options/adjustments to be done somewhere in the project plan
(like Tools/Options, Resource Calendars, etc.)

I use the Standard MS Project calendar.
Actually I tried many scenarios but either MS Project calculations are not
correct to me or overallocation was not reflected correctly.

Kind Regards,
Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT

 

[Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT]

Dave,

Thank you for yor prompt reply. To be more specific in the scenario the task
is "Discussing the Project Purpose and Business Need" of a new project. So,
it is basically a meeting that I think would take an hour. I and the project
sponsor will meet (so, 2 resources are carrying out the task).

Yes the project is standalone with no reource pool. I and the sponor will
attend the full one-hour meeting.

Besides, the sponsor is available only for 2 hours per day throughout the
project, and I will be available only for 4 hours per day as I work on other
projects.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

 

[vanita]

Hi Mohammed

1. Create separate calendars for both the resources with their respective
time availability.
2. Max. unit in Resource Sheet would be 1 for both the resources, since John
and Linda are 1 each.
3. Assignment unit for John would be 50% and for Linda would be 25%.
4. You don't need to make any changes in Task type. Any change would be
required if after assigning the resources once, you try to modify the
resource assignment.

I hope it helps.
Vanita

 

[Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT]

Hi Vanita,

Thank you for your reply. I'm afraid the result was not as I expect because
the Work will be totalled to 0.75 hrs with duration 1 hr while as I expect it
to be is 2hrs for work and 1 hr for duration.

To be more specific in the scenario the task is "Discussing the Project
Purpose and Business Need" of a new project. So, it is basically a meeting
that I think would take an hour. John and Linda will meet (so, 2 resources
are carrying out the task).

John and Linda will attend the full one-hour meeting. I'm concerned with
overallocation since there will be other several meetings (tasks) to discuss
other topics in the Charter and in Scope Statement. So, when I schedule the
tasks I need to know that I'm not overallocating both resources.

Regards,

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Mohammed,

First, one major flaw in Project is that you cannot lock resources to work
together. If you resource level, ensure the meeting is given a priority of
1000 (=do not level) and you use Priority,Standard in the levelling dialog.
Multiple resource assignments can be tricky to work out. You might like to
have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the TechTrax ezine,
particularly #10 on multiple resource assignments, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP


"Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT"

 

[Steve House]

Note that "overallocation" doesn't mean you are using Linda for more than
her allowed 4 hours per day. Overallocation is an instantaneous thing and
Linda could be overallocated even if she is only booked on 2 2-hour tasks.
If those two tasks are occurring at the same time, you have assigned her to
somehow achieve 2 man-hours worth of work during only 1 hour of clock time.
That's a physical impossiblity - people can't be in two places at once. If
someone is double booked being assigned 100% each to two overlapping tasks,
even if the overlap is only for 1 minute, they're overallocated.
--
Steve House
MS Project Trainer & Consultant



"Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT" <Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS,
(e-mail address removed)> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

 

[Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT]

This hint makes sense to me, too. Thank you, Steve.

 

[Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT]

Mike, thank you indeed for the information. Your statement that "one major
flaw in Project is that you cannot lock resources to work together" actually
has answered a question that confused me all through yesterday. How can I
make John and Linda stick together in working on the same task taking into
consideration their different work capacities. When I was scheduling the
task, it expands to the next day and has Linda alone attending the remainder
of the meeting because John has reached his capacity that day which makes no
sense at all!

I've read the article and rated it...it is really helpful. Thanks.

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Mohammed and good luck

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials


"Mohammed Barakat, PMP, MCTS, MCT"