Leveling - to use or not?

[andrewbettany]

Hi,

I am getting confused with leveling

i want to schedule a weekly meeting for 2 hours with my team.

However this then causes problems with their (our) other assignments

When I manually reduce the assignment work to 6 hours so that the total is
8hrs, the resource is still over allocated (red). (if I reduce to 0 or
reallocate that work to someone else all is fine, but I need them still to
work 6hrs - ie the remainder of the day on the task)

Even if I add back the 2 hours to the end of the task to compensate the
resource is still in red.

what can I do ?

I am wary to level the project since my step-step book tells me to be wary
of this since it can get confused and upset stuff.

Kind regards



Andrew in Sheffield (UK)

 

[JulieS]

Hi Andrew,

See FAQ # 28 Resource Leveling Does not Remove Overallocation" and FAQ #34
Overallocation Occurring in Less that One Day" at:

http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[andrewbettany]

hi Julie,

thanks for the FAQ - I did read these but stopped when they did not have the
2003 designation - I see now that most of them are still applicable!

In essence, I need to level at an hourly rate, or change the assignment to
be at a different day.

I am still not overly happy with the disprutive nature of MSP levelling, it
does not protect the other good work we have got, and I am still looking for
a easy way to manually level over allocation problems....

Any other thoughts?

Regards



Andrew

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

When you level you can designate a range of dates to level or you can
designate a range of resources. If you don't want leveling to change work
other than a specific problem, restrict it to just the problem areas.

What's disruptive about it? A resource is overallocated essentially when
you have assigned him to be in two places at once. I can't do 8 man-hours
of widget waxing and also 8 man-hours of fid polishing on the same day if I
only work an 8-hour shift. So resource leveling moves the lower priority of
those two tasks to the first day when I would be available to do it. All
it's doing is resolving a confict that would be impossible to work as
originally planned so that the schedule accurately reflects what is
physically possible to achieve. What's disruptive about that?

 

[andrewbettany]

Cheers Steve

that is the great thing about these NG - having another persons point of
view can make a world of difference!

I understand the concept of levelling so much more, now that you have
challenged my thinking and offered another point of view.

Thanks again, I shall continue to experiement!

Andrew