Leveling How To

[tball]

I have a resource-leveling problem. I have three tasks that need 80 hours of
work performed on each. Each task starts one week after the next. Task1
uses resource 1, Task2 uses resource 1 and 2 and Task3 uses resource 1 and 3.
Task1 levels ok but Task2 uses Res2 during the first week (because Res1 is
being used on Task1) and uses only res1 for the second week. I expected the
task to use Res2 for week one but both Res1 and 2 during the second week and
the duration will. I think the duration should be 7 ½ days and it takes 10?
The same thing happens to task 3. After res1 is finished working on task 2
it should jump to task3 and work with res3 but instead res3 works for the
first week and res1 works alone for the second week

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks
tball

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi tball,

Try leveling will the option "Leveling can split assignments" off
I appreciate you expect this to happen, nbut you have to tell Project which
option you take
Some people interpret two resources on a task to be two different tasks...
HTH

 

[tball]

I tried that but I get the same result. In the first week res2 is used and
in the second week only res1 is used and res2 sits idle? (it could also be
used in week2)
tball

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi tball,

Sorry I did not read your post well enough.
One of the reasons is that it announces an impossiblility (Each task starts
one week after the other, but you see task 2 work in the first week?????)

Now that I read it again, forgetting the "Each task starts one week..." I
have to disappoint you.
Leveling doesn't do any of this.
It only shifts asignments you made, it never ever changes assignments as you
want it to do.

Sorry :-((

HTH

 

[tball]

Jan

Are you telling me that MS project won’t/can’t adjust my resource
assignments on a task (resource leveling)? Is there any way to get MSP to do
this? My example is a simple problem, in reality I have many tasks that can
use many resources and I was hoping to use MSP to assign resources to tasks
and have MSP tell me what level of usage I should aim for to finish the
project the quickest. Do you think MPS may not be the right tool?

Thanks
Tball

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

See my other reply on to you on this topic. From a strictly computational
standpoint, perhaps your problem appears simple. Actually it is not simple
at all. From a business context standpoint it is a highly complex problem
that goes beyond the ability of any software to resolve. That's why humans
are still in the loop. Just because Bill is only being used 50% on task X
and isn't assigned anything else in the project that day and you sure could
stand to have that task done sooner, doesn't automatically mean you can
increase him to 100%. There are many other strategies possible in addition
to simply bumping up his assignment and only a human expert - that's you -
can know which of them is the optimum and which just aren't possible to do
in this specific case. Even finishing the project in the shortest possible
time isn't always the best business strategy. Would you take resources
away from a product rollout intended for this year's Christmas shopping
season in order to shorten the development time on a project creating a
product intended to be introduced for NEXT year's Christmas season and would
be done by next September without the increased resources anyway?