Acceptable overallocations?

[Sandie K]

I read somewhere recently that some measure of overallocation is acceptable.
The rule of thumb was that the workload for individuals should not exceed:
1) 150% of their regular availability within any wekk, and
2) 120% for periods longer than a week

I can't wrap my head around this. Could someone come up with an example?
Thanks.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Sandie,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

I've never heard of such a metric, but the most likely reference is the
PMBOK. However, I would be reluctant to put any figures forward as it all
depends... My guide has always been that inferred from the levelling
parameters in Project. For a project of several weeks, levelling
minute-by-minute seems to be over-managing. Levelling week-by-week allows
local management to sort out any overallocations by working overtime,
allowing tempory help or what ever the local manager sees best to keep on
track. Similarly for long projects, levelling month-by-month could be more
appropriate.

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

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

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

 

[Sandie K]

Hi Mike,
Thanks, as always, for your helpful response. I'm glad I'm not the only one
who never heard of this rule. It's good to get validation from an expert. (It
was from a book I will not name here, but it wasn't the PMBOK Guide.) I was
planning on leveling week-by-week, but based on what you say below, since
this is a long project with a small team, I might even recommend
month-by-month. I need to let my boss know my recommendation tomorrow, so
thanks again for helping me out!
Sandie

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Sandie, and good luck Let us know how you get on.

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

In my opinion, any signifigant overallocation is unacceptable. An
overallocation essentially means two or more tasks overlap and you've
scheduled the resource to be in two places at once, something that's not
possible. Now I wouldn't worry about a 15 minute overlap, but 150% over a
week means that you've scheduled that resource to do 7.5 days worth of work
over the course of a 5 day workweek and that's obviously just not going to
happen, heck at 7.5 days worth of work they're giving up their days off and
still not getting it all done. Consistently scheduling people to do 50%
more work than their official hours of work encompass is well into territory
that I would consider sweatshop conditions, blatantly exploitative of the
worker. IMHO, don't create calendars that call for hours of work in excess
of statutory limits or that exceeed normal practices and don't allow any
signifigant overallocations to stand. If the firm doesn't have enough
resources to get the work done by the required deadlines without
over-working the staff, hire more resources.

 

[Steve]

The PMBOK is not specific in this case but another method to use
overallocation effectively is to consider the folloiwng:

1. Identify your most critical key strategic resources by resource pool
(project team).
2. make sure that this resource(s) is optimized in the workload for the
period measured.
3. These resources dictate the delivery speed of the work for everyone in
the team.
4. Thus overallocation is fair to practice on these folks but beware of
burnout.
5. I recommend no more than 120% overallocation. Everyone else is
subordinated to these people thus their full allocation is not that important
if the project progresses at speed.

In my opinion, any signifigant overallocation is unacceptable. An
overallocation essentially means two or more tasks overlap and you've
scheduled the resource to be in two places at once, something that's not
possible. Now I wouldn't worry about a 15 minute overlap, but 150% over a
week means that you've scheduled that resource to do 7.5 days worth of work
over the course of a 5 day workweek and that's obviously just not going to
happen, heck at 7.5 days worth of work they're giving up their days off and
still not getting it all done. Consistently scheduling people to do 50%
more work than their official hours of work encompass is well into territory
that I would consider sweatshop conditions, blatantly exploitative of the
worker. IMHO, don't create calendars that call for hours of work in excess
of statutory limits or that exceeed normal practices and don't allow any
signifigant overallocations to stand. If the firm doesn't have enough
resources to get the work done by the required deadlines without
over-working the staff, hire more resources.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I read somewhere recently that some measure of overallocation is
acceptable.
The rule of thumb was that the workload for individuals should not exceed:
1) 150% of their regular availability within any wekk, and
2) 120% for periods longer than a week

I can't wrap my head around this. Could someone come up with an example?
Thanks.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

The thing is, you have to be careful because the project plans when
published become an official company document. If your resources are
non-exempt with an over-allocation of 120% you have just officially declared
your intention to work them beyond the normal statutory limits without
overtime compensation. If they are exempt you have just declared that you
intend to *require* them to work beyond the normal contracted hours as
delineated by the "normal workday" hours that are listed in the company's
policies and procedures documents. Although your corporate culture may be
that everyone works 10 hours a day even though the official workday is 8
hours, to base your project schedule on the assumption that all resources
will always be willing to do that is IMHO a very bad practice. Sure as
shootin' the time you need it most, your resource will put his foot down and
tell you it's his wedding anniversary and his spouse will kill him if he's
not home for dinner and he's leaving at 5 o'clock. Any repercussions and
you'll be looking at a million dollar constructive dismissal lawsuit! I
think the best choice is to schedule based on a worst-case assumption that
no one ever works more than the letter of the law or their contract says.
THEN, if you really DO get the 10 hour workday from time to time it's gravy
and only makes your project perform better than expectations. I stand by my
statement that one should never allow overallocations extending over any
signifigant period of time to remain unresolved and never, ever use them as
a scheduling tool to force the work to fit into the time frame you would
like it to take.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

The PMBOK is not specific in this case but another method to use
overallocation effectively is to consider the folloiwng:

1. Identify your most critical key strategic resources by resource pool
(project team).
2. make sure that this resource(s) is optimized in the workload for the
period measured.
3. These resources dictate the delivery speed of the work for everyone in
the team.
4. Thus overallocation is fair to practice on these folks but beware of
burnout.
5. I recommend no more than 120% overallocation. Everyone else is
subordinated to these people thus their full allocation is not that
important
if the project progresses at speed.

In my opinion, any signifigant overallocation is unacceptable. An
overallocation essentially means two or more tasks overlap and you've
scheduled the resource to be in two places at once, something that's not
possible. Now I wouldn't worry about a 15 minute overlap, but 150% over
a
week means that you've scheduled that resource to do 7.5 days worth of
work
over the course of a 5 day workweek and that's obviously just not going
to
happen, heck at 7.5 days worth of work they're giving up their days off
and
still not getting it all done. Consistently scheduling people to do 50%
more work than their official hours of work encompass is well into
territory
that I would consider sweatshop conditions, blatantly exploitative of the
worker. IMHO, don't create calendars that call for hours of work in
excess
of statutory limits or that exceeed normal practices and don't allow any
signifigant overallocations to stand. If the firm doesn't have enough
resources to get the work done by the required deadlines without
over-working the staff, hire more resources.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I read somewhere recently that some measure of overallocation is
acceptable.
The rule of thumb was that the workload for individuals should not
exceed:
1) 150% of their regular availability within any wekk, and
2) 120% for periods longer than a week

I can't wrap my head around this. Could someone come up with an
example?
Thanks.

 

[Dave]

I read somewhere recently that some measure of overallocation is acceptable.
The rule of thumb was that the workload for individuals should not exceed:
1) 150% of their regular availability within any wekk, and
2) 120% for periods longer than a week

I can't wrap my head around this. Could someone come up with an example?
Thanks.

I never allow significant amounts of overallocation within plans.

If you plan to use overtime, you have already given up one of the most
powerful mitigations to the risk that your plan will work late and you
will certainly not be able to bring it back in should it run late as you
have already used up any overtime you could have thrown at it.

If fact, 150% overtime is an enormous amount, even within a week - it's
4 hours a day if you don't work weekends.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

And I might note, 150% overallocation does not actually imply overtime.
150% assignment says that during 8 hours of working time the resource is
physically present, somehow you're magically getting 12 man-hours of work
produced. Assigning actual overtime, 12 hours of work made up of 8 hours of
regular work and 4 hours of overtime work, will result in a task duration of
8 hours and a resource assignment of 100%, not 150. So costs work out
correctly for exempt resources, I recommend setting the overtime rate for
people who do not get an overtime premium at the same as their standard
rate, based on the idea that an hour of an exempt resource's time is worth
the same opportunity cost to the firm between, say, 9 and 10 in the evening
as is an hour between during the regular workday such as 2 to 3 in the
afternoon. Those 4 hours of overtime of an exempt resource are not a cash
expenditure such as a non-exempt worker's overtime cheque would be but they
are a real cost to the firm all the same. Yet another reason not to attempt
to use Project for cash accounting.