Levelling

[Teresa Colon]

Do you always have to level when doing updates to the plan?

I work on a large plan with about 3000 lines and the Director always
suggests to level the plan almost daily. The expected end date changes
constantly. It's pushed the end date 4 months more.

Please advise

Teresa

 

[davegb]

Leveling is a process that should only have to be repeated after
changes, probably significant changes, are made to the plan. Adding
tasks or resources, re-assigning resources, things like that. It
shouldn't have to be done routinely, like everytime you chart your
progress.

I hope you have "Leveling removes Delay" turned on, or you've been
adding delay for no reason.

If you're revising your plan that much, there's a problem in your
planning process.

 

[Catfish Hunter]

Leveling is used when you have more work in a time period than resources
(men, equipmwnt...) and at other times you have extra resources. Leveling
smoths out the resources useage.
Leveling daily is an act insanity. Sounds like your director has very little
understanding of scheduling.
You may want to add a finish no later constrant on the final task of your
project. If all your task are linked this tell MSP the limits of time.
You can also set a priority on each task to help with the leveling. Add the
column Priority. Holdyour mouse on the top of the column and a HELP box will
pop up.
Good Luck.

 

[Teresa Colon]

Catfish,

Thanks for the insight.

We did add the priorities and it still does the funky things. I do agree
that this is some form of insanity.

I will add the constraint and let you know.

Thanks!
Teresa

 

[Teresa Colon]

Hi,

I agree that leveling should not be performed daily. I cannot seem to find
"Leveling removes delay" as an option.

Thanks
Teresa

 

[Catfish Hunter]

Also. did you set you max units under View Resource sheet? Did you assign
calendars to you r resources.

 

[Marky]

There's nothing insane about levelling, it's good PM practice to make sure
that the work you have planned can be completed by the resources at your
disposal, in the time you have available. That's what resource levelling is
there to tell you.

For all my plans I always have automatic levelling on, thus whenever I make
a change to the plan that can impact my ability to deliver, I know about it
straight-away and can take corrective action. Such action may involve
additional resources, moving tasks between resources, asking for more time
etc. etc.

It sound like you hardly ever level your plan, which means that the many
weeks of change you have put into the plan, have all come back at once -
hence your schedule has pushed out by 4 months - it's a culmative effect of
taking no corrective action each time a change affected the schedule.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Teresa,

The command I believe you are searching for is the "Clear leveling
values before leveling" checkbox in the Resource Leveling dialog box.

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

Julie

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information about
Microsoft Project.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Leveling isn't that funky when you avoid having parts of people working on
tasks (that is, 30% here, 87% there...). Generally this is an attmpt to
level manually, and manual leveling and Project's leveling don't make a
tasty cocktail.
When you plan all people to work 100% on the tasks they are assigned to,
leveling results are very reasonale.
HTH

 

[Catfish Hunter]

Read the first post. Leveling is done daily. To me this is insane.

 

[Steve House]

Sorry to correct you but leveling does NOT smooth out resources. It delays
work to resolve problems were people are double booked and so overallocated
but does not do anything to compact the schedule when you have extra
resources standing idle and underallocated. It resolves overallocations but
doesn't touch underallocations.

 

[Steve House]

Well, not quite. It's there to tell you given the resources you have
available, the work required, and the amount of work they can do at any one
time, how long will it take. But the time required will be the time
required, regardless of whether you've been allowed that much time or not.
If the time required is less than the time allowed, great! If not, it will
still take the time required and you WILL finish late.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

There's nothing insane about levelling, it's good PM practice to make sure
that the work you have planned can be completed by the resources at your
disposal, in the time you have available. That's what resource levelling
is
there to tell you.

<snip>

 

[davegb]

Sorry to correct you but leveling does NOT smooth out resources. It delays
work to resolve problems were people are double booked and so overallocated
but does not do anything to compact the schedule when you have extra
resources standing idle and underallocated. It resolves overallocations but
doesn't touch underallocations.

I believe the term "Leveling" comes from the idea of smoothing out the
Resource Histogram (Resource Graph in Project).

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Leveling is used when you have more work in a time period than resources
(men, equipmwnt...) and at other times you have extra resources. Leveling
smoths out the resources useage.
Leveling daily is an act insanity. Sounds like your director has very
little
understanding of scheduling.
You may want to add a finish no later constrant on the final task of your
project. If all your task are linked this tell MSP the limits of time.
You can also set a priority on each task to help with the leveling. Add
the
column Priority. Holdyour mouse on the top of the column and a HELP box
will
pop up.
Good Luck.

 

[Steve House]

True - just trying to make sure the poster understaood that it's only a
partial smoothing, attacking the peaks but ignoring the valleys.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Sorry to correct you but leveling does NOT smooth out resources. It
delays
work to resolve problems were people are double booked and so
overallocated
but does not do anything to compact the schedule when you have extra
resources standing idle and underallocated. It resolves overallocations
but
doesn't touch underallocations.

I believe the term "Leveling" comes from the idea of smoothing out the
Resource Histogram (Resource Graph in Project).

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


message

Leveling is used when you have more work in a time period than
resources
(men, equipmwnt...) and at other times you have extra resources.
Leveling
smoths out the resources useage.
Leveling daily is an act insanity. Sounds like your director has very
little
understanding of scheduling.
You may want to add a finish no later constrant on the final task of
your
project. If all your task are linked this tell MSP the limits of time.
You can also set a priority on each task to help with the leveling. Add
the
column Priority. Holdyour mouse on the top of the column and a HELP box
will
pop up.
Good Luck.

:

Do you always have to level when doing updates to the plan?

I work on a large plan with about 3000 lines and the Director always
suggests to level the plan almost daily. The expected end date
changes
constantly. It's pushed the end date 4 months more.

Please advise

Teresa

 

[davegb]

True - just trying to make sure the poster understaood that it's only a
partial smoothing, attacking the peaks but ignoring the valleys.

Actually, if it works right, it should tend to move the work from the
"peak" times to the "valley" times. Of course, depends how big the
peaks are relative to the valleys.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Sorry to correct you but leveling does NOT smooth out resources. It
delays
work to resolve problems were people are double booked and so
overallocated
but does not do anything to compact the schedule when you have extra
resources standing idle and underallocated. It resolves overallocations
but
doesn't touch underallocations.

I believe the term "Leveling" comes from the idea of smoothing out the
Resource Histogram (Resource Graph in Project).

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


message
Leveling is used when you have more work in a time period than
resources
(men, equipmwnt...) and at other times you have extra resources.
Leveling
smoths out the resources useage.
Leveling daily is an act insanity. Sounds like your director has very
little
understanding of scheduling.
You may want to add a finish no later constrant on the final task of
your
project. If all your task are linked this tell MSP the limits of time.
You can also set a priority on each task to help with the leveling. Add
the
column Priority. Holdyour mouse on the top of the column and a HELP box
will
pop up.
Good Luck.

:

Do you always have to level when doing updates to the plan?

I work on a large plan with about 3000 lines and the Director always
suggests to level the plan almost daily. The expected end date
changes
constantly. It's pushed the end date 4 months more.

Please advise

Teresa