Fixed duration and resource calendar

D

Demir Ozkaya

I have two questions:

1..Nonworking time is defined for a resource in the resource calendar.
Same resource is assigned to a fixed duration task.
If the task starts at the nonworking time of the resource, no warning
is given, task start time does not change, task duration does not
change, no overallocation is shown. If you are careful enough, you
find out from the work field, the resource does not work in the assigned
task. If you do not control the work field, you will assume that there is
no problem with the project plan.
Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong ?

2..Manual modification of the task baseline values makes it very
unreliable. Is there any way to stop manual modification of baseline
values ?

I will appreciate if someone could help.
Demir
 
D

Dale Howard

Demir --

When you assign any resource to a Fixed Duration task, by default, Microsoft
Project will automatically calculate the Work value for that assignment,
whether you specify a Units value or not. This is a programming bias in the
software, and cannot be changed.

Therefore, when you assigned a resource to that Fixed Duration task, and the
resource had non-working time during the life of the task, Microsoft Project
did the following:

1. Entered a Units value for the assignment equal to the Max. Units value
found on the Resource Sheet for that resource
2. Determined the working periods when the resource is available to work on
the task
3. Calculated the Work value based on the Duration value, Units value, and
working periods available for the resource

Everything you saw is default behavior for the software. In your situation,
if you are using Fixed Duration tasks, I would strongly encourage you to
specify the Work value when making the assignment, which will cause the
software to calculate the Units value for you. Once you do so, you will
immediately see if the calculated Units value exceeds 100%, indicating an
overallocation.

To use this method, you will need to click Window - Split to apply the Task
Entry view, then select a task in the upper viewing pane, and make each
resource assignment in the lower viewing pane (Task Form). Hope this helps.
 
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