Leveling Resources

C

Carlos Zimmermann

Where can I find more information about how project
server does the leveling? Does anybody have a document
about it?

I'm passing trough a lot o problems using this tool.
 
K

Kevin Flanagan

The problem you are experiencing may not lie with the
tool. We are having many issues, but it is because PM's
refuse to communicate and decide as a group how to
utilize resources. They are still in the Project 98
mentality of assigning everyone at 100%. If someone is
only working on a task 1-2 hrs per week then should be
assigned the 2-3% not even 10%.

Kevin
 
M

Mike Glen

Hi Carlos,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :)

I made this response a few days ago which may be relevant for you :

"As a matter of interest, some 20 years ago, I attended the launch of
Computer Associates' Superproject for Windows. At the end of the
presentation I asked if he would tell us the algorithm that they used to
determine the levelling process. He looked me in the eye and said: "That's
propriety information - next question please?" This part of the scheduling
engine that make one product different from another, and thus a jealously
guarded secret! However, one can make some educated guesses - Project
obeys the logic linking and starts at the first minute of the project
looking down the task list to see if there's any overallocation. It will
then look at the slack and delay a non-critical task in favour of a critical
task. If there is more than one non-critical tasks overallocated, it will
delay the one with the most slack first. And so on... And then the trail
stops - what if there are 2 critical tasks, which one gets delayed? My
guess is the one with the highest Task ID as there is an option to level by
ID Only. Now consider there being more that one resource assigned - which
one gets delayed? Again my guess is the resource with the highest Resource
ID. I'm sure you can see how complicated the algorithm can become with
multiple resources assigned! Nevertheless, this knowledge, plus the use of
priorities, give us plenty of scope for tailoring levelling to optimise our
requirements should we so desire."

Please note the new Project newsgroup arrangements repeated in FAQ 24 -
Project Newsgroups.
FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on:)

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
 
N

Nico Oosthuysen

Hi All,

We are having some funny problems with regards to resource leveling in
Project Server 2003. This is a description of the problem from one of our
consultants:

Resource levelling offline is working 100%, but as soon as a client is
connected to the Project server, levelling is not constant.



Does anybody else perhaps have some problems in this regard, and a possible
solution?



Thanks

Nico Oosthuysen
 
E

Evgeniy

Hi. Here are my investigations about leveling

Resource Leveling in Enterprise

1. MS Project Leveling Features and Options.

The following MS Project features should be taken into
account when leveling resources. This chapter describes
only some of them which are not described in Microsoft
Project documentation in details.
" Opened only projects are leveled
" All opened projects are leveled.
" Clear leveling is actual for all opened projects,
if you choose Entire project in the dialog
" Project priorities settings can be used to change
the manner of leveling - choose Project / Project
Information from main menu.
Project priorities settings are actual for opened
projects only.
Project priorities may vary from 1 to 1000. Default
value is 500. The highest priority value of 1000 means
Do not level.
" Assignments in closed projects are taken into account when
leveling, but the tasks in closed projects are not leveled.
In other words, closed projects are considered to be of
highest priority Do not level.
" If the project is opened read-only, it will be leveled as
well, but leveling done won't be saved for it.
" Which tasks are delayed or split first depends on the
leveling order chosen in the Resource Leveling dialog box.
- With the Standard leveling order, Microsoft Project
examines predecessor dependencies, slack time, dates,
constraints, and priorities.
- When leveling by ID Only, Microsoft Project simply goes
down the task list in order by task ID.
- When leveling by Priority and Standard, Microsoft Project
first examines any task, summary task, or a project
priority set, and then examines the standard factors.
" There is an option Leveling can adjust individual assignments
on a task. It's actual for tasks with multiple resource
assignments and means that leveling can move or split
individual assignments for a task. However the option
does not always work as one could expect. That's why
it's recommended not to rely on it.

2. MS Project Leveling Tips and Tricks

Usually Project Manager faces to problems and difficulties
when he wants to level the Enterprise project with Enterprise
resources, which are assigned to tasks in different Enterprise
projects.

2.1 Project Manager wants to level resources in the only one
Enterprise Project without taking into account other ones.
It could be done, using Working Offline option
" Check out the project needed from server.
" Save it offline (File / Save Offline)
" Make sure "Manually control connection state" is chosen
as an option in "Microsoft Project Server Accounts" dialog box
(Tools / Enterprise Options / Microsoft Project Server Accounts)
" Close MS Project desktop
" Open MS Project desktop not being connected to the server
(choose "Work Offline" option after desktop is started)
" Open the project saved offline previously
" Level the project, save and close desktop.
" Open desktop being connected to the server.
" Open the project and save it online

Regards,
Evgeniy.
 
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