Automatic Optimal Resource Allocation

[ycchehadeh]

I have 5 tasks w/ various durations and 3 resources - all of whom are
equivalent in skills. Each task requires one resource only (no
sharing). There are depedencies among the tasks. Is it possible for
MS Project to figure out the best task-resource allocation to optimize
for the earliest project finish time w/o me having to assign each task
to a resource manually.

The problem that I have is little more complex but it can be minimized
to the above (i.e., I can solve the above by assigning the resources
manuallly and figuring out the most optimized allocation), but w/ a
large number of tasks/resrouces, automated optimization assignment is
needed (I am looking for something like a allocating a resource from a
group or a pool - but it seems like the concept of "pool" is used for
sharing of resources among project files and not for optimial
allocation problems)

 

[John]

I have 5 tasks w/ various durations and 3 resources - all of whom are
equivalent in skills. Each task requires one resource only (no
sharing). There are depedencies among the tasks. Is it possible for
MS Project to figure out the best task-resource allocation to optimize
for the earliest project finish time w/o me having to assign each task
to a resource manually.

The problem that I have is little more complex but it can be minimized
to the above (i.e., I can solve the above by assigning the resources
manuallly and figuring out the most optimized allocation), but w/ a
large number of tasks/resrouces, automated optimization assignment is
needed (I am looking for something like a allocating a resource from a
group or a pool - but it seems like the concept of "pool" is used for
sharing of resources among project files and not for optimial
allocation problems)

ycchhadeh,
What you probably want to use is a grouped resource. You say that each
of your 3 resources is equal in skill level so you can simply define a
single resource on the Resource Sheet and give that group a Max Unit
level of 3 (decimal) or 300% (percentage). Then assign the group
resource at 100% to each task in your schedule. The same process can be
extrapolated for more resources that are considered equal.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP