Help with assigning different work hours to enterprise resources

Y

Yvonne

I have set up an enterprise resource pool which all projects use at my
company. I have a need to define different work hours for two resource types.
Projects using company resources should be figured on a 6 hr. day;
contractors should be figured at an 8 hr. day. I have created two different
project calendars (one at 6 hrs; one at 8 hrs.) and assigned the appropriate
resource to the appropriate caledar based on their type. This is not working
as MS project is still using the default settings under
tools/options/calendar and changing the duration based on an 8 hr. day. Any
suggestions how I can accomplish this. This is what I would like to see:
Duration: Work Resource
1.25 day 8 hrs. Company Resource
1 day 8 hrs. Contractor Resource
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Yvonne --

The software does not work the way you assume it should work, especially in
regards to the area of calculating Duration. Microsoft Project uses a
simple formula to calculate Duration, which is as follows:

Duration = Work/Units x Hours Per Day

The Hours Per Day option is set for each project by clicking Tools -
Options - Calendar. This option governs how Microsoft Project calculates
the Duration for every task in the project, regardless of the working hours
for any resources assigned to each task. Therefore, as you have noted,
Durations in your project are calculated based on an 8-hour day.

Because of this, I would recommend you use the following methodology for
assigning resources:

1. Open the project in question
2. Click Window - Split to apply the Task Entry view
3. Select a task in the upper pane (Gantt Chart)
4. In the lower pane, select the resource, set the Units and Work values,
and click OK

Microsoft Project will correctly apply the resource's working schedule in
calculating the schedule for the task. You will see the correct Start and
Finish dates for the resource based on the resource's working schedule (6 or
8 hours per day). For resources that work a 6-hour day, the Duration will
simply not match the schedule shown in the Gantt Chart, so you should simply
ignore what seems to be an incorrect Duration. Hope this helps.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultant
Denver, Colorado
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
"We wrote the book on Project Server"
 
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