How do i assign one resource to two tasks...

[kcrump]

For example, I have a 3 month long task which this individual will only
participate in about 40 hours of. I want to be able to assign him to 6 other
projects during this 3 months. I would rather not assign %'s because I have
to assign him to so many projects. I would like to be able to manually type
8 hours into "View/Resource Usage/" view somehow, is this possible? Thank
you so much in advance, you would save me if you can help!

 

[kcrump]

An addition to the prior post to clarify, lets assume that the three month
project is March, April, May. I want to assign Nate during the 2nd week of
april for 5 days at 8 hours each total of 40 hours. And thats all I want him
to work on that project. I now want to assign him to various other projects
in March, lets say a 5 day 8 hour (40 total hours) project the first week of
March, then a 10 day 8 hour (80 total hours) project the second an third week
of march... etc....

My problem is that after I assign him to that first project the second week
of April, it wont let me assign him to the other projects. I would prefer
not to split his time by percentages, because I will have him working on so
many different projects. Can I manually assign him 8 hours here, 8 hours
there, on the etc...? on the resource usage view?

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

It kinda sounds like you're listing each entire project as a single task
entry. If so, it would be a lot simpler in the long run if you broke those
projects down properly into all of their various component tasks. Projects
are typically made up of a number of different activities leading to the
creation of the end deliverable and each one of those tasks is a
identifiable block of work performed by a resource. Assigning Nate 1 week
in April, 5 consecutive days at 8 hours each certainly sounds to me like
that he is doing one out of a number of discrete tasks within the project,
the one task perhaps that needs his particular skills. In fact, another
tip-off that you need to break it down farther is your statement "I have a
three month long task..." While it's not a hard and fast rule, a practical
rule of thumb is known as the 8/80 Rule - if your tasks are less than 8
hours in duration you're trying to excessively micromanage, while if they're
over 80 hours in duration you're not breaking down the work into sufficient
detail to properly manage it. If you find your tasks violate the 8/80 Rule
you need to take a careful look at the structure to see if you need to
rethink it. If Nate's particular piece of the puzzle is to polish the fids,
make that one of the however many different tasks there are in the three
month long project, let the timing of its predecessors determine the exact
dates, give it an estimated duration of 5 days and assign him to it 100%.
He won't be available that week for the other projects but other than that
one week he will be unencumbered.

Taking shortcuts up front usually creates a whole lot more work for you in
the long run.

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello,
Yes : on the resource usage view ! (Field "Work")

Gérard Ducouret

 

[kcrump]

Steve,
thanks for the response. I have broken this project into many small tasks.
However, this task happens to be one that is 50 different branch audits - all
of them are the audits are the same, so I dont want to type 50 different
audit locations, that would be way too detailed for what I am trying to do.
with that said, is there any way to do what I was asking?

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

I'd just echo Gerards response and enter the hours of work in the resource
usage view on the dates you want him there. But if it were me, I'd bite the
bullet and carry each of those 50 branch audits as a separate task. Each
one of them can be scheduled independently, each one of them can be done by
a different resource if you had enough auditors, and I suspect that each of
them will be done in a separate physical location. That adds up to 50
different tasks, not one elongated task, to my thinking. You know your
project better than I do but I've found that trying to cut corners like that
ends up costing far more aggravation than it saves in the long run. I'd put
in a summary task "Branch Audits" and indent all 50 locations as subtasks
underneath it. And as a side benefit, you can glance at the Gantt chart and
tell the manager of the Main St branch that the auditor will be at his
location on Tuesday April 12.