Resource Scheduling / auto end dates question...

[LakeHills]

Hopefully an easy question; I'm trying to allocate resources to tasks that
have limited time (30-50%) to devote to my project. I can't seem to find a
way to have project automatically schedule the start and end dates
considering the duration I enter and the resource I assign. I'm sure I used
to do this...

E.g. Tom is available 50% of each of his 8 hour days. I schedule a task for
1 day (8 hours) and assign Tom to start on Monday. I expect him to finish
Tuesday but project shows him finishing the same day (Monday).

Any Ideas?

 

[JulieS]

Hello LakeHills,

It sounds as though you really wanted 8 hours of work, not 8 hours
in duration. It should take Tom 16 hours in duration to accomplish
8 hour of work if he is only generating 1/2 hour of effort for every
one hour of duration. Either assign Tom at 50% and enter 8 hours of
work which will recalculate the duration to 2 days or modify Tom's
calendar to only allow 4 hours of work per day and assign him. You
will see 8 hours of work and the end date of the task extend to
allow for the 4 hours per day working time.

I personally prefer to enter work and have project recalculate the
duration.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[LakeHills]

Ahhh the work column... just what I was looking for. I knew I had done this
before and couldn't remember how. The work column does, as you stated,
accomplish what I needed. Thanks Julie!

Thanks for the reply.
LakeHills

 

[JulieS]

You're very welcome. Glad to have helped and thanks for the
feedback.
Julie

 

[paul.burton]

Ahhh the work column... just what I was looking for. I knew I had done this
before and couldn't remember how. The work column does, as you stated,
accomplish what I needed. Thanks Julie!

Thanks for the reply.
LakeHills











- Show quoted text -

LakeHills,

Julie's method is good and valid but I find the impact of effort drive
and non-effort driven task types can be disconcerting when using
"work". An alternative might be to make the resource's maximum units
50% available in the resource sheet and then assign them 100% to the
tasks. This means the resource is assigned 100% of the 50% available
time (if you follow)...

Paul

 

[JulieS]

LakeHills,

Julie's method is good and valid but I find the impact of effort
drive
and non-effort driven task types can be disconcerting when using
"work". An alternative might be to make the resource's maximum
units
50% available in the resource sheet and then assign them 100% to
the
tasks. This means the resource is assigned 100% of the 50%
available
time (if you follow)...

Paul

Hi Paul,

Sorry, no, you have things a bit muddled. If you set a resource's
max. units to 50% and then assign them to a task at 100%, you are
overallocating the resource. It is *not* 100% of 50% -- it's 100%
which is 50% over the max. I would not recommend this method.

Effort driven and non-effort driven is not specifically tied to
specifying work. It only comes into play when changing resource
assignments (adding or subtracting named resources ) after the
initial calculation of D*U=W. Task types (Fixed Work, Fixed Units,
Fixed Duration) is different from effort driven.

I hope this helps.

Julie

 

[paul.burton]

Hi Paul,

Sorry, no, you have things a bit muddled.  If you set a resource's
max. units to 50% and then assign them to a task at 100%, you are
overallocating the resource.  It is *not* 100% of 50% -- it's 100%
which is 50% over the max.  I would not recommend this method.

Effort driven and non-effort driven is not specifically tied to
specifying work.  It only comes into play when changing resource
assignments (adding or subtracting named resources ) after the
initial calculation of D*U=W.  Task types (Fixed Work, Fixed Units,
Fixed Duration) is different from effort driven.

I hope this helps.

Julie

Thanks Julie,

You're right of course...what I meant to put across is that if you
only allow the resource to be allocated 50% then the whole of the
available resource (typing their name in, for example) is returned as
50%. If you know that the resource is only available to your project
50% of their time, maximum, this is an easy way to assign them....

But it doesn't answer the question asked in the first place...!

Embarrassed, but learning....

Paul

 

[JulieS]

Thanks Julie,

You're right of course...what I meant to put across is that if you
only allow the resource to be allocated 50% then the whole of the
available resource (typing their name in, for example) is returned
as
50%. If you know that the resource is only available to your
project
50% of their time, maximum, this is an easy way to assign them....

But it doesn't answer the question asked in the first place...!

Embarrassed, but learning....

Paul

Paul, I'm sorry and I really didn't mean to embarrass you. I hate
to count the number of times that I have said something in a less
than clear manner -- and had someone post a clarification. Please
don't stop learning and thanks for helping others out.
Best,
Julie