Resources with different % Units

[Federico Bravo]

Hi everybody. I am using Project 2007 (Standard). I have a fixed work,
40 hours task. I have 2 resources assigned at 100% units, both with a
standard calendar (40 hrs/week). The duration is 5 days as a
conseguence. Let's say that resource A is now available at only 50%.
Project assigns 4 hours to resource A on each of the 5 days, while
resource B is assigned 8,8,4 hours in the first trhee days of the
week.
It seems like that when changing %Units assignments, Project tries to
keep the duration unchanged. Is there a way to tell Project to try to
minimize duration when changing resource %Units assignments? In this
case the assignments could be:

A: 4,4,4,0
B:8,8,8,0

The duration would then be 4 days instead of 5.

Thank you in advance for your kind help.
Federico Bravo.

 

[Federico Bravo]

Sorry, I mistyped... initial duration is 2.5days of course. Then it
changes to 5 days.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

When changing work on one assignment, Project leaves the other assignment(s)
alone, even with fixed work.
So no, Project does not optimize duration.

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Federico Bravo]

Hi.

Thank you for your answer.

If I actually delete (not modify) one assignment and then re-insert
it, the whole of the assignments are re-calculated proportionally to
their % Units (with respect with the total % assigned). That actually
assigns more work to resources that are more available in Units and
this kind of helps towards duration minimization. I was wondering if
there was a way to force that behaviour on changes, too.
By the way, it looks like the re-allocation after deletion and re-
insertion takes in account only of the % Units values neglecting the
respective calendars, although the resulting duration will vary
depending on each resource's calendar: that poses another problem to
me in order to minimize duration.
Thanks again for taking care of my questions.

Federico Bravo.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Now you mention a whole different ballgame - deleting resoruces and adding
them to a task.
But before I explain that, just this.
Forget, completely forget, don't even dream about OPTIMIZING DURATION.
That is not, repeat not, one of Prpoject's objectives.
Durtion is calculated according to a well-known set of rules but none of
them are "optimizing".

OK, now for adding and deleting.
The parameter governing that is called EFFORT DRIVEN, it is found on the
Advanced Tab af task information.
For effort driven off, there is no interaction among the assignments:
deleting just deletes the assignment and nothing else happens, adding adds
the assignment (for the whole duration of the task, with the units given)
and the other assignment(s) don't move

With Effort driven on, after the deleting/adding as above, Work is
proportionally redistributed among the assignments. Needless to say that
fiwed work tasks are always effort driven.

Hope this helps,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf