Allow Project to set Units

[Shaun]

Using Project 2000. What I need is for Project to
tell me how many resources I need to complete a series of
tasks by a certain date. Here is my scenario. The
project starts. From the start milestone there are 15
task lines. Each of these tasks has 8 to 10 tasks
associated with it. These are "Preliminary Design"
tasks. After all 15 are complete there is a review. The
review must happen on a certain date.
I have loaded all of the resource units at 100% and
have entered the hours. Now what I want to do is set the
date for the review and have have project calculate how
many people we need to complete all of these task on
time. I do not want to schedule from the Project finish
date.
Below is a basic example of how my tasks are laid
out. Each line is a different product. After these
preliminary tasks we do the exact same thing again but
but as a detailed design, then again as a final design,
having a review after each phase.


Design - Clean-up - Test - Document
Design - Clean-up - Test - Document
Start Design - Clean-up - Test - Document Review
Design - Clean-up - Test - Documnet
Design - Clean-up - Test - Document

Is it possible for Project to tell me how many people I
need to complete the tasks in time for the review?

Thanks - Shaun

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Hi,
Out of the box Project will not do that.
You can program it in VBA if you have all the specs right, but I have some
doubts. Can/should resources be adapted for each task? By the same factor?
Don't you have to ever worry about maximum availability?
HTH

 

[Shaun]

Hi Jan,
I was affraid of that. As far as Maximum
Availability, that is the reason I was hoping Project
would do this. We have a large base of Engineers that we
are working with and the Program Manager wants to know if
he needs to put in a request to have X number of them
transfered off their current projects to fulfil the need
or do we need to hire additional engineers, and how
many. I think, as you questioned below, I am going to
have to take it one task at a time and adjust how many
are working on each task to manipulate the date.
I can look at my Resource Sheet and see my "Peak"
units. If I adjust my Max units to equal my peak units
and then level, all it does is say that no-one is over
allocated, it does not adjust my date. If I add more
units than my peak and then level, it just says that we
have people under utilized. I guess I will have to do it
by hand.

Thanks for your input.

Shaun

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Shaun,

I would have thought the Resource graph would have given you the info you
need. If you zoom in or out to an appropriate timescale, it gives you the
peak requirement for each of the periods of time you have selected for each
resource. If you want to lump resources together, see FAQ Item: 38.
Combined Resource Graph.

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
Project MVP

 

[Guest]

Hi Mike,
I did find in both the resource graph and the
resource usage sheet the peak units by time period.
However all that tells me is which resource is over
allocated for the period. If I put the peak number of
resources to the tasks, all it tells me after I level, is
that the resources are no longer over allocated. It does
not pull in my date. I actually need more than the peak
units number of resources to complete the tasks earlier.
The example I tried to diagram in my original message
actually has about 75 tasks between the start and the
review using approximately 10 different resource groups.
Each resource group is basically a number of engineers.
What I was hoping for was to be able to set a firm date
for the review and have Project tell me how many
engineers in each group I would need to complete all 75
tasks in order to make the review date.
What I think I am going to have to do is find out the
actual number of engineers the manager is planning on
putting on to each task and the date he/she is planning
on starting each task line, level the project, and see
where we end up. After that I will have to tweak each
individual task to get the dates to pull in to where we
need them to complete in order to finish in time for the
review.

Thanks for the info. I will keep you all informed.

Shaun

 

[Guest]

James,
I will try that. You are pretty close to what I am
trying to achieve. Basically I have already done the
first two steps you listed when I set up the project. My
resources are actually groups of engineers. The Managers
for each of these groups has given me the projected
number of hours for each task. So when I orginally set
up my project I just let project calculate out the
duration based on the hours and 100% unit (1 engineer)
per task. By setting a firm date for the review I was
hoping that project would tell me how many engineers in
each group, by task, I would need to complete all of the
tasks by the review date. The example I tried to diagram
in my original message actually has about 75 tasks
between the start and the review using approximately 10
different resource groups. I do not know the exact
number of engineers in each group. We can add or
subtract engineers based on need. It is the need, by
task, I was hoping Project would calculate out for me. I
will try the Analyze Timescale tool on Monday and let you
know how it worked.

Thank for the idea,

Shaun

-----Original Message-----
Shaun,

MSP 2000 can do what you are asking...unless I've

completely misunderstood what you are trying to achieve.
However, you will have to input the durations and hours
on a task-by-task basis.

Essentially, the steps are:
- Apply the estimated duration for each task,

initially using a FIXED DURATION task type.

- Apply a resource name to each task, and directly

type in the hours. This sets the timephased profile of
each resources hours.

- Perform an ANALYSE TIMESCALE DATA IN EXCEL,

selecting the option for WORK and doing it on a timescale
of days or weeks.

- In the tabulated data section of the excel

spreadsheet, convert the total daily or weekly hours into
equivalent men. Voila, you have your total basic staff
requirement.

You can spearate out the individual resource names if

you so desire, and perform the same operations.

The challenge is when you want to begin manipulating the

tasks. However, bear in mind that the quantity of WORK
will always remain the same, so amend all the task-types
to that of FIXED WORK. The only thing that you should
change is the duration or the units. I only use Peak
Units to determine if there a problem somewhere...and not
for fine-tuning. At the end of the day, if your hours and
durations are about right, then you will have to accept
the Units as also being about right....therefore
accepting the resultant programme end-date.

I do find that the automatic "resource levelling" can be

a messy business and rarely yields a result that is
better my original schedule.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Shaun,

No - it tells you how many resources you need per time period to complete
the project. Yes, the red shows the overallocation, but if you have 2
resources assigned and it shows a peak of 5 (ie an overallocation of 3) then
you need to increase the maximum units of the resource to 500% - ie you need
5 resources.

Alternatively, if you level, first check the box saying "Level only within
available slack", then Project will try to level to the date determined by
the critical path. If it cannot resolve overallocations, these will show up
red in the Resource Graph. So, the peak units show you how many resources
you need to meet the critical path end date. However, it won't alter the
critical path - only you can feed in extra resources where you want them to
shorten the critical path - how could Project know? A way of doing this is
to clear levelling, look at the end date, then increase the number of
resources on critical tasks until the end dated becomes acceptable. Then
level to see the peak resource requirement.


Mike Glen
Project MVP