Assigning resources in Microsoft Project 2003

[Tieku]

All,
I need help figuring out how to handle a business scenario in Microsoft
Project. Here is my dilemma. I have a project that has multiple task and
resources. One of the tasks has duration of 16 hours spread over five years.
There are 3 resources assigned to this task. Currently, Microsoft Project
treats this task as a one day or two day task depending on how many resources
I add to the task. The actual performance for this task is spread over the 5
year window. An hour of work is done in the last year. How can I get
Microsoft Project to correctly distribute the resource time and to show a
start to finish that covers the entire 5 years needed for this task? HELP
PLEASE!!!!

 

[Jim Aksel]

You have multiple tasks. If the work is 16 hours, think hard about what is
done in those 16 hours. Then, schedule the discrete tasks (maybe 1 hour
each?) over the five year period.

If the tasks are regular (say a meeting once a quarter), then use a
recurring task (Insert/Recurring Task...)
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Steve House]

I have to ask, do you really need to track such trivial amounts of activity
over 5 years????? In 5 years time the 3 resources are going to spend more
than 16 total man-hours just waiting for the elevator in your office
building to arrive. You say the last task is 1 measely hour spread over the
entire 5th year for cryin' out loud! You're talking about 16 hours out of
30,000 hours total working time or the 3 resources, or five one-hundredths
of one percent of their total time. Why bother scheduling such minute
activities at all? Are you really going to go to Joe Resource today and
tell him that you need him to plan to spend the 5 minutes between 10:35 and
10:40 am on April 17th 2012 doing such-and-such?