Can levelling eventually drive one insane? The real question is...

[kraus]

I have noticed that levelling does not make the best uyse of a resources
time. I have a current project where I have a resource at 70% (3.5 days/wk)
who is not currently on any other project within the company. I have a task
at 5wds (7.14 days duration) that runs from Jan 11 - 21. This equates to
2.68wds during the week of Jan 9 and 2.32 wds during the week of Jan 16;
nothing else is being worked on that week. In fact, the entire month of
January is a mystery. The breakdown is as follows:
Week of Jan 2 - .32wds
Week of Jan 9 - 2.68wds
Week of Jan 16 - 2.32 wds
Week of Jan 23 - .25 wds

I thought levelling/MSP would ensure the resources are used to their full
potential each week and provide the shortest duration. But it doesn't appear
to be working that way.

Can someone please provide some insite on the levelling algorithm?

The tasks that I have outlined above should have been completed within the
first 3 weeks with time to spare.

dave

 

[JackD]

You will feel better once you realize that leveling does NOT adjust
assignments, so if a resource is assigned to 2 one week long tasks at 51%
each, then it will take TWO weeks to do them both. If the resource is
assigned at 50% on both it will take ONE week to do it. This assumes that
the resource availability is 100%.

As for your specific example. I don't have enough information to determine
how it should go so I won't comment.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Seconding Jack's comments. The only thing leveling does is shift work to
resolve overallocations. It never, ever, tries to use resources to their
fullest extent; the only thing is does is resolve situations where you have
overbooked the resource to do more than they are capable of. If I have Joe
booked for 8 hours on Task A Monday and also for 8 hours on Task B, he's
expected to do 16 hours of work in an 8 hour day and that's impossible.
Leveling will move one of those tasks to Tuesday, assuming the resource is
free. Why doesn't it increase or decrease allocations? Because it doesn't
know why you've booked him at less than the max and doesn't know anything
about the priorities of the business or the project. Maybe there's a very
good reason, like work to be done outside the micro-unicverse of the
project, that means on THAT day he's only available a couple of hours for
project related work. You, the PM, know that when you assign him only 25%
on task X Tuesday even though his overall maximum availability is usually
100%. But Project can't know anything about what else might be going on
with the resource and so it respects your management decision.

MS Project is a glorified calculator, not a manager <grin>.

 

[kraus]

Thanks Steve.

Maybe you can clarify something then. Levelling in combination with "start
as soon as possible" should maximize te resource availability. But using my
example below it doesn't do that. I have to drag the task back to start
earlier which inherits a start no earlier than constraint at which point I
can select the task and change ot to start as soon as possible. The task then
stays where I left it.

Does this make any sense?

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

No, leveling never maximizes resource availability. In fact, it doesn't
change resource availability at all or increase the allocations of resources
that are underutilized. If you are scheduling from start date forward, all
leveling does is delay work if necessary to resolve overallocations. If
you're scheduling from finish backwards it moves work earlier in the
schedule for the same reason. That's all it does. In the simplest case,
Joe is assigned to 1-day task A Monday @ 100% and also to 1-day task B also
on Monday and also @ 100%. If he's not otherwise occupied Tuesday, leveling
will move one of the tasks to Tuesday. That's it - it never does anything
else.

 

[kraus]

OK, I think I am getting warmer. One more thing then to make sure I
understand; I'll use an example.

I have Joe who has 3 days worth of work starting Monday; however, another
project already has Joe resourced for 1 day; Tuesday. So when I level, I
would have Joe for the full day Monday and then the task would split over
Tuesday because the other plan already has him resourced and finish the task
on Thursday; Monday + Wednesday + Thursday = 3 days.

Assuming that this is correct then if Joe is removed from the other plan and
I go and level after that the Tuesday will still not be utilized because MSP
does not look for under allocation, only for over allocation. I would then
need to go in the plan and adjust Joe's time so that he can work on Tuesday
instead??

Make sense?

Dave

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Almost. There is a check box to remove leveling before leveling. That
means if the task was split because of a conflict on Tuesday and that
conflict has subsequently been removed, that delay will be removed and the
split task joined up before the new leveling is processed.. Now, your
initial premise is flawed because the fact that he was booked on Tuesday in
another project does not in itself mean this project's task will be split or
that the Tuesday only task has priority. The setting of priority of the
projects also enters the picture and the setting whether the task even CAN
be split also enters. You're booked M, T, W and in a second project Tues.
It might be valid to split the first task so it now goes on Mon, Wed, Thur.
But it might also be valid to shift it completely so it goes Wed, Thur, Fri.
Or maybe the Tue only task gets moved to Thur, if your 3 day task is a
higher priority, leaving the first task on Mon, Tue Wed. Theres nothing
about his being assigned in project 2 to a Tues task before you work on your
M,T,W task in project 1 that gives it priority for his time. The problem
is, we're trying to second guess the algorithm that Project uses and doing
that boils down to reverse engineering a highly proprietary part of
Project's design. The best advice is to make a copy of your files, try it
and see if the results meet your business objectives. If they do, kewl! If
not, go back to the drawing board. Remember, all it is, is a glorified
calculator. The documentartion does not cover exhaustively all the possible
combinations.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[kraus]

Thanks for your guidnace Steve

Almost. There is a check box to remove leveling before leveling. That
means if the task was split because of a conflict on Tuesday and that
conflict has subsequently been removed, that delay will be removed and the
split task joined up before the new leveling is processed.. Now, your
initial premise is flawed because the fact that he was booked on Tuesday in
another project does not in itself mean this project's task will be split or
that the Tuesday only task has priority. The setting of priority of the
projects also enters the picture and the setting whether the task even CAN
be split also enters. You're booked M, T, W and in a second project Tues.
It might be valid to split the first task so it now goes on Mon, Wed, Thur.
But it might also be valid to shift it completely so it goes Wed, Thur, Fri.
Or maybe the Tue only task gets moved to Thur, if your 3 day task is a
higher priority, leaving the first task on Mon, Tue Wed. Theres nothing
about his being assigned in project 2 to a Tues task before you work on your
M,T,W task in project 1 that gives it priority for his time. The problem
is, we're trying to second guess the algorithm that Project uses and doing
that boils down to reverse engineering a highly proprietary part of
Project's design. The best advice is to make a copy of your files, try it
and see if the results meet your business objectives. If they do, kewl! If
not, go back to the drawing board. Remember, all it is, is a glorified
calculator. The documentartion does not cover exhaustively all the possible
combinations.

 

[Hung]

I just want to put a note about my problem in resource levelling:

- My resource's tasks can be driven to unreasonably delay after levelling.
Some tasks were pushed out in a very long delay for nothing in between.

- Reason: I did not apply the Service Pack 2 for my Ms Project Professional
After applying it, the resource levelling seemed to be functioning
correctly.

Hung

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Hung --

The fact that you knew enough to install SP2 proves that you are NOT insane!