Allocation using a resource pool

B

bfkesq

I have set up a resource pool and am currently using it across five different
projects. One of the big problems I have is that Project automatically
(re)-schedules tasks based on resource calendars (i.e. it pushes task dates
out multiple years rather than simply showing that a resource has been
assigned a bunch of tasks on one day) so that projects get pushed out when
they shouldnt, especially when there are a lot of projects involved that use
the same resources.

Now I realize that this is what project is supposed to do and is a fairly
accurate representation of what actually happens; but management wants more
flexibility in determining project/task priority and as such would like to be
able to overallocate resources during the set/up and modification of Project
files. I realize this is not a best practice use of Project but this is
what our management has requested and so I need to know how I can
overallocate resources in a resource pool over multiple projects.

I think part of the problem is that we do not have a valid means of
displaying tasks that require only a limited number of work hours but will be
done over a week (i.e. you give an employee a week's timeframe to accomplish
a task that takes 2-hours). How would I go about doing that? This would
help better reflect actual work loads rather than saying that they are doing
40 hours of work during that week.

Thanks in advance for any help you could offer!
 
S

Steve House

bfkesq said:
I...>
I think part of the problem is that we do not have a valid means of
displaying tasks that require only a limited number of work hours but will
be
done over a week (i.e. you give an employee a week's timeframe to
accomplish
a task that takes 2-hours). How would I go about doing that? This would
help better reflect actual work loads rather than saying that they are
doing
40 hours of work during that week.

Thanks in advance for any help you could offer!

The assignment percentage describes the actual amount of work that will be
done during the tasks duration, that is, the rate at which the passage of
time is converted to work. If the resource will draw out 2 hours of
full-time equivalent effort over a 1 week period of time, he is committed at
2/40 or 5%. Of the week he is spending on doing the task, he is converting
5% of the time into useful work. But be a bit cautious with what you're
actually looking at here. Imagine the task in question that requires 2
hours of full-time effort to accomplish is able to start Monday at 8am. Is
it that the resource is required to deliver it no later than the end of the
day on Friday but whenever he decides to start work on it during the week,
he will devote his full attention to it and delivering it whenever during
the week he gets it done, or is it that he will start Monday at 8 and work
on it gradually so that i actuall will take until Friday for him to complete
it? The 5% assignment assumes he WILL start Monday at 8am and WILL not
finish until Friday at 5, gradually working on it for the entire week - that
task's actual duration from the moment work is first done until the moment
it is finished is 40 hours and the work achieved is 2 man-hours. OTOH, if
it is able to start Monday and needs to be done no later than Friday but
needs to command his full attention for two hours while he's working on it,
it's a 2, not 40, hour duration task with an early start of Mon 8am, a
DEADLINE of Friday 5pm. and he's assigned to it 100%. Duration is from the
moment work on the task is first physically performed until the moment the
task is physically completed, it describes a period of observable physical
activity. This is distinctly different from the task's "window of
opportunity" of the time period between when we would would be able to start
the task until the deadline by which we need to have it completed.
 

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