Automatic planning

[CBnation]

Hello,

I'm just starting out with MS project 2007 and I have something I can'
get right.

I have already

- Created my resources and stated how many % they are available fo
the project, e.g. 40% (2 days per week)
- Listed all my tasks
- Added an estimate of how many hours a task would take in the wor
column (I didn't touch the duration, start or finish columns)
- Assigned resources to the task
- Set priorities for all the tasks


The start date of my project is in the future and the resources are no
assigned to any other resource. The only reason I set their availabilit
to e.g. 40% is because they also still have their dayly job to do.

Now I want MS Project to propose me a planning and to schedule th
tasks in time based on priority, and availability of resources. When
use Tools > Level resources, it doesn't do exactly what I want it t
do.


- It complains about overallocation for some resources, but that i
just what I want the tool to resolve. If person A is at 200% in m
resource graph, I want MS project to reshuffle the tasks to resolv
that, but it gives an error that it cannot do that.
- The tasks with highest priority are not always done first.
- Some tasks gest split up in a very strange way, like a part today
a little in two weeks, and finishing the rest in 7 weeks, even is
uncheck the checkbox that it can split tasks.


Basically, I want to know what is the earliest we can finish th
project giving the resources we have. Am I doing it the right way? An
suggestions?

Thanks

Cedri

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi CB,

You are on the right track.
Some help on your questions.
1. Leveling can only delay tasks, it cannot change the assignment units.
So with Max Units=40% and assignment units on ONE task say 100% leveling can
do nothing.
No assignment should have units over the Max Units

2. Priority is only one of the factors. Constraints may change the picture.
Still, in the level resoruces window have you set leveling order to
Priority, standard?

3. When in the Level Resources window "leveling can split" is off as far as
I know leveling will not split tasks.
HTH
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availabliy check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[CBnation]

Hi Jan,

your point 1 was my biggest problem. Although I first set up m
resources at 40% before I assigned them to any task, some of the task
still assumed that they were 100% available. I guess that if I chos
only one person from the dropdown in the gantt chart, it sets it to 40%
But when I open the task information window to do the same, it sets i
to 100%. I did it in the second way every time I had to assign more tha
one person to it.

For point 2, yes I use priority, standard.

For the third, the first time I ran it the check box was stil
selected. Afterwards, it was always off but the tasks that were alread
splitted didn't rejoin again. I guess that is what is happening.

Cedri

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Point 3 is indeed a weakness of Clear Leveling... it doesn't remove all the
splits.
As for point 2: difficulkt toabnswer from here.
If you send me the file with an indication of the perceived anomalies I can
find an explanation.

JandemesATprom-ade.be

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availabliy check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Steve House]

Another point ... an availability of 40% DOES NOT mean they're available 2
days a week. It means that if they're assigned to a task that WOULD take
them 2 days to do if they had noithing else on their plates, ie, requires 2
man-days of work effort, it will really take them a week to finish because
they can't put their full effort into it. There's 2 days of work to do but
because of distractions, it's going to take them a week to actually do it.