Levelling Leaves Gaps

[David F-H]

We are using MS Project Server 2007 / MS Project Professional 2007. one of
our users has been trying to level one of their project plans, but finds that
when he tries to level it, large gaps in time are left for some tasks for a
resource.

Levelling Options are:
- Manual
- Minute by Minute
- Clear Values before levelling
- Level entire project
- Levelling can adjust individual assignments on a task.

It is an enterprise resource, levelling is set on for the resource, and I
have also checked the "can level" field in the Resource Sheet in Project
Prof. There is nothing in the calendars to stop the resource being scheduled
earlier.
I have tried levelling the plan and find the same as our user. I also did a
test whereby I saved the plan as an .mpp file and tried to level - in this
case levelling worked correctly.

Is there an explanation for this, or is it a known bug ??

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

David F-H --

By chance, are the overallocated resources in this project overallocated in
other projects as well? If so, then what your PM is seeing is the default,
albeit odd, behavior of Microsoft Project 2007 when used with Project
Server. I believe what the software is doing is considering resource
overallocations in other projects, even though the other projects are not
open. If the PM needs to level across all of the projects containing
overallocated resources, he/she must open all of the projects first, and
then level. Otherwise, if the PM wants to level only in the current
project, then he/she should do the following before leveling:

1. In Project Professional 2007, click Tools - Enterprise Options -
Microsoft Office Project Server Accounts.
2. In the Project Server Accounts dialog, select the "Manually control
connection state" option.
3. Click the OK button.
4. Exit Project Professional 2007 and then relaunch the software.
5. In the Login dialog, deselect the "Load summary resource assignments
option" and then click the OK button.

By doing the above steps, the system will now allow the PM to level the
overallocated resources without considering any overallocations that may
exist in other enterprise projects to which the overallocated resources are
assigned. Let us know if this helps.

 

[David F-H]

Thanks for that Dale, I believe this probably addresses most of the issues
with leveling that we have. I haven't read this anywhere (including MS
Project Server Bible), yet it seems to me to be a fundamental aspect of
leveling with MS Project Server 2007.