Best way to account for departmental overhead?

[michael.franke]

Hi

I have a large, complex software project that involves 40+ resources
and spans almost two years. We want to construct a schedule/budget
that takes into account the reality that resources don't ever get 100%
of their time to work on the project. We'd like to allow for about a
day a week in "overhead" (that is not charged to the project).

The project plan I've inherited seems to have approached this from
several angles at once, and I have a strong suspicion that the
estimates have actually been padded the wrong way as a result. The
project contains a schedule, for instance that has 6.4-hour work days,
32-hour work weeks, 16-day work months, and all Fridays as non-working
time. (!).

So. My question, for someone with experience, is: "What's the best
way to account for resources only having about 80% of their time to
dedicate to the project?

(Note: setting all the resource "max units" to 80% seems terribly
cumbersome).

Thanks.

Mike

 

[Jim Aksel]

Hello Michael -
On the resource sheet, set the max available units to 80%.
This way, when Mr. Slate assigns "Fred" to a 5 day task it will show work of
32 hours. The program automatically spreads the hours out, there is no need
to adjust work hours or days on the other calendars or settings unless you
are doing something like a 9/80 which we just round to 9/81.

If Fred needs 40hours to work the task, change the work to 40 and the
duration will increase. You could also add Barney as a helper.


--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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

 

[michael.franke]

Hi Jim.

Thanks for your quick reply. Setting the max units does indeed get
the desired result. However, I'd like to treat 80% availablilty as
"full time" -- for display purposes at least. That is, the bar in the
Gantt chart next to Fred's task will say "Fred[80%]", which is
accurate but cumbersome.

Furthermore, there are some resources who I'd like to schedule at less
than "full time" -- like 50% -- that is, 50% of 80%, which is 40%.
Does that make sense? Essentially, I'd like to treat the 20% overhead
as a buffer, and hide it from the project except for calculations like
"5 days = 32 hours".

Also, if I'm doing things like this, do you suggest entering tasks in
terms of their "Work", or their "Duration"? Seems like it takes a
particular mind set, and being consistent would be key. Not to
mention the fact that if I enter a "Work" number, the "Duration" field
has a question mark (estimated) by default -- which doesn't make
sense, and makes me nervous.

Mike

 

[michael.franke]

BTW... I think I could do what I want to do with a Custom Field and
some editing of my Gantt Bar display. But I can't seem to find the
"Units" as a field anywhere. If I could get "80%" (or 0.80) from a
variable, I could create a custom field that is the actual text I want
to see in the Gantt bar, and not affect anything else in terms of
calculations.

Perhaps I'm making this too complicated?

Mike

 

[Darrell]

Mike,

If your project calendar is already set to 6.4hrs a day (80% of an 8hr day)
and 32hrs a week you have in fact reduced availability by the 20% of overhead
(or one day worth of non-project work) so there should still be 20 days in a
month and Fridays should be work days providing for a 5 day work week. You
can now leave resources as 100% allocated and they will only be scheduled for
6.4hrs a day of work. Now a 32hr task will take a week to complete, and a
40hr task will take 6.25 days.

Darrell

 

[Jim Aksel]

As you can see, Darrell has come up with the "reciprocal solution" Both work
fine. The easy way to avoid Fred [80%] on the Gantt bars is to use the
Darrell Method.

If you want to use my method, place the resource name in the Initials Field
on the Resource Sheet. Then Format/Bar Styles and change the bar to show
Resource Initials rather than Resouce Name. So, you just fake it out.

You can let Barney work 40% of 80% by making his availability 0.8*0.4 =0.32
on the resource sheet
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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

 

[Darrell]

Woo hooo... I have a method!! How do I send a link to this post to my Boss???
<grin>

As you can see, Darrell has come up with the "reciprocal solution" Both work
fine. The easy way to avoid Fred [80%] on the Gantt bars is to use the
Darrell Method.

If you want to use my method, place the resource name in the Initials Field
on the Resource Sheet. Then Format/Bar Styles and change the bar to show
Resource Initials rather than Resouce Name. So, you just fake it out.

You can let Barney work 40% of 80% by making his availability 0.8*0.4 =0.32
on the resource sheet
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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

Hi Jim.

Thanks for your quick reply. Setting the max units does indeed get
the desired result. However, I'd like to treat 80% availablilty as
"full time" -- for display purposes at least. That is, the bar in the
Gantt chart next to Fred's task will say "Fred[80%]", which is
accurate but cumbersome.

Furthermore, there are some resources who I'd like to schedule at less
than "full time" -- like 50% -- that is, 50% of 80%, which is 40%.
Does that make sense? Essentially, I'd like to treat the 20% overhead
as a buffer, and hide it from the project except for calculations like
"5 days = 32 hours".

Also, if I'm doing things like this, do you suggest entering tasks in
terms of their "Work", or their "Duration"? Seems like it takes a
particular mind set, and being consistent would be key. Not to
mention the fact that if I enter a "Work" number, the "Duration" field
has a question mark (estimated) by default -- which doesn't make
sense, and makes me nervous.

Mike

 

[michael.franke]

Oh man, I am so confused.

If I set the calendar to 6.4 hours per day, and I enter a new task
with a duration of two weeks (or ten days), I get a bar that spans 8
days of calendar time, even though my duration field agrees with what
I input. This is just scary, because when I'm entering task
durations, I'm thinking in calendar days -- I'm not compensating for
shortened days or something. I'll end up getting falsely shortened
schedules.

I either have to compensate in my head when I enter task durations, or
enter everything in hours.

Seems to me that, while I'm tempted to use the "Darrel method" because
that's how the project is already set up, I fear living with it for
the next two years.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Michael,

You need to make sure everything is synchronized. You settings in
Tools > Options, Calendar need to match your working calendar set in
Tools > Change Working time. See FAQ # 5 at:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

wrote in message
news:286c4a5e-5edf-4e57-9aa4-3a4906111123@y18g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...

 

[Darrell]

If 1 day is equal to 6.4hrs in the calendar, a 10-day task is equal to 64hrs
of work. Therefore, one resource working 6.4 hrs a day (100%) will complete
the task in 10 days. Two resources working 6.4hrs each (at 100%) will
complete the task in 5 days. One resource working at 125% will complete the
task in 8 days. One Resource working at 150% will complete the task in 6.6
days. Duration = Work / Units

Add the “Work†field and enter a task name, set the duration to 1 day and
assign one resource at 100%. If your calendar is set to a 6.4hrs day, the
work field should auto-fill at 6.4hrs because 1 day equals 6.4hrs x 1
resource (at 100%). If you add another resource it can still be a 1 day
duration with 12.8hrs of work for 2 resources (1 day = 12.8hrs / 2 resources
at 100%). Clear as mud? <grin>.

 

[michael.franke]

Thanks for everyone's help. In the end, I find that I prefer the
method of setting the "Max Units" field to 80%, and leaving the
calendar and non-working times alone. This seems much more intuitive,
and there's less going on that I can't see. Sorry, Darrell.

 

[JPD]

Thanks for everyone's help.  In the end, I find that I prefer the
method of setting the "Max Units" field to 80%, and leaving the
calendar and non-working times alone.  This seems much more intuitive,
and there's less going on that I can't see.  Sorry, Darrell.  

Thanks Michael for referring me to this post ... but I'm still not
sure I have the answer I am looking for.

Ideally I would not have to go through and change every 100% to
80% ..... and I would like to keep my durations "fixed".

It seems using the working time method, adjust my durations on
tasks.....

hmmmmm

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi JPD,

The Max Units are simply changed via the Resource sheet where you can type
in 80% for the first resource and fill down to all the others at once.

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[JPD]

Yes true ....

but this will not change the allocation on all ready resource loaded
task.

For Example:

I have a 5 day task with one person loaded 100% for 40hrs. If I then
change that resources max units to 80% in the Resource sheet, the task
will still show 40hours. Only now the Resource shows as over
allocated.

?????????????????

Its looking like this is going to be a manual process where I have to
find every task with someone 100% allocated and reduce that 80%.

 

[Darrell]

JPD,

You would need to remove the assignents to get the 80% to recalculate
existing work. If you want to reduce all resources availability to 80% for a
schedule that already has assignments I would suggest inserting a number
field and copying your durations into it, and inserting a text field and
copying the resouce names in to that. Now you can remove all assignments and
reduce the units in the resource sheet to 80%. Now you can use the text field
to copy the resource names back into resource field and reassign the work at
80%, and use the number field to verify your durations are the same.

Darrell

 

[JulieS]

Hi JPD,

You're correct. Just changing the max. units in the Resource sheet
will not change assignment units. You can use the Assign Resources
dialog box to speed that process along. Select all tasks in the
project by clicking the Task Name column heading. Click the Assign
Resources button. Select the first resource, click the Replace
button and in the dialog box, select the same resource and key in
the 80% units. Repeat with the next resource until you have
replaced all resource assignments with the 80% max. units. If you
have resources assigned at other than 100% (below 80%) you may find
working in the Task Usage view showing the Assignment units added to
the table works well.

If your tasks are Fixed Units (default) or Fixed Work, the amount of
work will stay the same and duration will increase. If the task
type is Fixed Duration, the amount of work will adjust.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Darrell]

JulieS,

I have to just highlight all the resource names in the column to be able to
replace resources. I tried highlighting from the header but it doesn't let me
use Assign, Replace or Match when highlighting the Tasks or the Resources
using the header. BTW - I just found this way to replace a generic in the
enter schedule the other day and now I have learned another way to use the
Assign Resources dialog, Thx.

Darrell

 

[JulieS]

Hi Darrell,

I assume you are using an Enterprise Resource pool and Project
Server as generic resources are not meaningful in Project without
connection to a project server. I also don't see the "match"
command.

Interesting that you can highlight all resources in the Assign
Resources dialog box and replace them. In Project 2003 (SP3)
attempting to highlight all resources in the assign resources dialog
box and then clicking "Replace" generates a message that project
cannot replace multiple resources and to click one resource and try
again.

Julie

 

[Darrell]

JulieS,

Maybe that didn't come out right. To be able to replace resources I have to
highlight the resource names in the entry table by clicking and dragging over
all of them versus just clicking the column header. Once I do this I can
Assign, Replace or Match but not by clicking the header to highlight the
column.

The other day I wanted to replace a generic resource with an enterprise
resource who already had assignments in the schedule and found I could
replace the generic in the entire project by highlighting all the resource
names and then making the replacement all at once versus locating each task.

Darrell
MSPS 2007

 

[JulieS]

Thanks Darrell,

It sounds as though things are different in when using Project in
conjunction with Project Server.

Julie