Calculation Issues - Assigning Multiple users to the same task

[Blikkies]

I have a task with 10hours work on it and have two resources working on it
the one is allocated 100% and the other is allocated at 25%. MS Project 2003
allocates 5 hours to each resource and then calculates the duration for the
Resource 2 work and sets that as the duration for the task, i.e. 20 hours.
Can I split the hours myself, my problem is that I will have resource 1
sitting around idle for 15hours if I used this calculation.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

One of the many methods available:
Create the task with any duration
Assign both resources in one go (NOT enter the first than add the second)
with the desired units (100 and 25%)
Now go to the task usage view and adapt the work for both assignments.
Hope this helps

 

[Blikkies]

Thanks for the reply it surely helps. This seems very manual, is there no
automated way of doing this?
Thanks

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

'Fraid not - first of all, the percentages in the assignment do not reflect
the distribution of the task's work between the two resources. Project will
always assume it's distributed equally unless you manually direct otherwise.
The percentages are a reflection of the percent of the work time the
resource puts into useful output on the tasks. You 100% resource gets 1
hour output for each hour input and does his 5 hours of work in 5 hours of
duration. Your 25% resource generates 1 hour worth of output for each 4
hours of input so his part will take 20 hours.

From what you've said it's hard to know just exactly what the reality is of
the scenario your trying to model (the same problem Project has to deal
with - too bad it's not mind-reading software <grin>). Are you trying to
have the task last 10 hours with R1 working on it full time and R2 helping
out when he can, a little here and a little there over the course of the 10
hours? Or are R1 and R2 working together for the first part of the task
with R2 leaving when it's 25% done? OR is it really 10 man-hours total work
over 8 hours duration with R1 doing 8 hours and R2 doing 2 hours? OR what -
there can be many possibilites.

Because there are so many variables, this is the type of task where I like
to use the split screen to do the resource assignments. It gives you what I
think of as a "dashboard" that puts all the resource variables right at your
fingertips. In the menu Window Split. Select the task in the top pane.
Right click in the bottom pane and choose any form that includes resource
info - you have immediate control over the resources assigned, their
assignment level, the work they'll do, the task type, effort-driven setting,
and the task duration.

As an example, consider these two scenarios, each easily modeled with the
split screen...

A: Task duration 5 days, Joe 100%, 40 hours, Bill 100%, 5 hours --
meaning Joe is doing the task, Bill is spending part of the first day with
him training him how to do it and then goes away leaving him to continue on
his own.

B: Task duration 5 days, Joe 100%, 40 hours, Bill 12%, 5 hours. --
meaning Joe is doing the task while Bill is supervising, dropping in for
average of an hour a day to see how Joe is getting along.