MS PRoject allocations - resubmit response was not available for viewing by community

[Dkirkman]

Hi,
I know I'm doing something wrong here. Let me explain my situation. I have set my calendar up to reflect a 6.5hr work day.
I have multiple tasks assigned to a particular resource that start on the same day but have differing durations. One task is 20h of effort, the other task is 60h of effort. I would like for the resource to work for 3 hours/day on the 60hr task and 3.5 hours/day on the 20hr task until the tasks are complete but project insists on scheduling the 20 hr task to 7.5hr/day. when I try to manually allocate the tasks and arrange them the way I want. I get one of the tasks highlighted in red indicating that the units assigned are over 100%.

Why is project allocating 7.5h/day when my workday is only 6.5? what am I doing wrong and why won't it let me manually allocate the tasks to fit the 6.5h workday?

Please help, I'm at my wits end.

 

[William Raymond]

Hello,

It sounds like you might be half-way there. Did you just change the
calendar options under "Tools->Options" or did you also set the calendar
using "Tools->Change Working Time"? You will need to adjust both to get
what you are looking for.

As for the other problem of Project changing the duration to fit Work
effort, this is because you are probably not using the appropriate task
type. Try changing the task to "Fixed Duration". Now, you can set a
duration of "20h" or "2d". To change the work effort, go to "Window->Split"
and adjust the hours required for each resource on the task.

Please let me know if you need additional help,

-Bill

--
Bill Raymond
projectnation at hotmail dot com

Hi,
I know I'm doing something wrong here. Let me explain my situation. I have

set my calendar up to reflect a 6.5hr work day.

I have multiple tasks assigned to a particular resource that start on the

same day but have differing durations. One task is 20h of effort, the other
task is 60h of effort. I would like for the resource to work for 3 hours/day
on the 60hr task and 3.5 hours/day on the 20hr task until the tasks are
complete but project insists on scheduling the 20 hr task to 7.5hr/day. when
I try to manually allocate the tasks and arrange them the way I want. I get
one of the tasks highlighted in red indicating that the units assigned are
over 100%.

Why is project allocating 7.5h/day when my workday is only 6.5? what am I

doing wrong and why won't it let me manually allocate the tasks to fit the
6.5h workday?

 

[DKirkman]

Bill
Thanks so much for getting back to me. I have changed the working day in both places, yet Project still insists on scheduling 7.5h/day on certain tasks. For instance, my day is 6.5 hrs so a 13hr task should take 2 days. That's what shows up for the duration yet when I go to resource usage the task is broken up 5.5h on one day and 7.5 on another. Now what I did under change working time is I went in and made the workday 8-3:30 straight through with no break for lunch. Another thing that I'm noticing is that on both of the tasks I have the resources assigned at 1.0. Could this be my problem? when I try to change the units, then everything gets screwed up because the task is a fixed work task. this is really driving me bananas!!!!

 

[William Raymond]

Hello,

Let's step back a moment and talk less about the settings and more about
what you are trying to accomplish. Outline for me what you want to happen
and I can make a better recommendation. The changes you are seeing to the
schedule could be due to a number of reasons, but I'm not getting enough of
a picture for what you expect Project to do.

As for the resources being at 7.5 hours instead of 6.5 hours, Project is
doing the right thing because 8-3:30 is not 6.5, but 7.5 hours. Please let
me know if I misunderstood though(!)

-Bill

--
Bill Raymond
projectnation at hotmail dot com

Bill,
Thanks so much for getting back to me. I have changed the working day in

both places, yet Project still insists on scheduling 7.5h/day on certain
tasks. For instance, my day is 6.5 hrs so a 13hr task should take 2 days.
That's what shows up for the duration yet when I go to resource usage the
task is broken up 5.5h on one day and 7.5 on another. Now what I did under
change working time is I went in and made the workday 8-3:30 straight
through with no break for lunch. Another thing that I'm noticing is that on
both of the tasks I have the resources assigned at 1.0. Could this be my
problem? when I try to change the units, then everything gets screwed up
because the task is a fixed work task. this is really driving me bananas!!!!

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello everybody,
Look at my answer to your previous post. Tell me if that works ...

Gérard Ducouret

Bill,
Thanks so much for getting back to me. I have changed the working day in

both places, yet Project still insists on scheduling 7.5h/day on certain
tasks. For instance, my day is 6.5 hrs so a 13hr task should take 2 days.
That's what shows up for the duration yet when I go to resource usage the
task is broken up 5.5h on one day and 7.5 on another. Now what I did under
change working time is I went in and made the workday 8-3:30 straight
through with no break for lunch. Another thing that I'm noticing is that on
both of the tasks I have the resources assigned at 1.0. Could this be my
problem? when I try to change the units, then everything gets screwed up
because the task is a fixed work task. this is really driving me bananas!!!!

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi DKirkman,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You might also like to see FAQ Item: 5. Default Working Hours. Remember
that any changes you make in the Tools/Options../Calendar tab only apply to
new data entry - you need to re-enter Durations for old data.

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
Project MVP

 

[Dkirkman]

Thanks Gerard and Bill,
I wish I had come in and checked my email about eight hours ago. I have pulled an all nighter trying to get this right. I do have 3 other projects to level so this will help me get through those much quicker. Thanks to both of you!

 

[Steve House]

First, as William pointed out, 0800-1530 is a 7.5 hour workday, not 6.5.
You need to explicitly include the hour off for lunch in the working
times in your calendar so 6.5 would be 0800-1200 and 1300-1530. Make
sure on the options page you change the "hours per day" to 6.5 as well
so entering a task as having a 2day duration will translate into
13hours. Default Start and End times are something else entirely and do
not affect the calendar at all. When you assign your resources, Project
assumes you had whatever your assignment level is in mind when you made
the duration estimate and so won't change duration. Thus assign at
whatever percentage represents the workload you want.

You say you have a 60 hour task that you want to be worked at 3 hours
per day. First, is that 60 hours DURATION hours or WORK hours? They are
very different measures. You said "effort hours" - that usually
corresponds to work hours so I'll go on that assumption. 3 man-hours
per day for 60 man-hours means the duration is 20 days. The resource
works 6.5 hours so 3 hours per day is 3/6.5 or ~46%. Enter the task as
20 days duration and assign the resource at 46%. Make sure that the
resource is *assigned* at 46% and *not* at 100% with it being
subsequently edited to 46% - you'll get different results if you do the
latter. Follow the same logic for the 20 hour task.

Another way to do it. Set up the calendars, of course. Add the Work
column to the Gantt chart entry table. Enter the task(s) and leave the
duration entry at the default 1 day estimate. Enter the effort hours in
the work column. Assign the resource at 46% to the 60 hour task and 54%
to the 20 hour task. As long as your task type isn't fixed duration,
Project will calculate the duration for you.

A third way <grin>. Set up all the calendars. Enter the tasks. Enter
60 hours and 20 hours in the *duration* column. Assign the resource at
100%. Project calculates the effort hours. Edit the assignment to
reduce the allocation to 46% and 54% respectively. Again, as long as
the task type isn't fixed duration Project will recalculate the duration
accordingly.

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

Hi,
I know I'm doing something wrong here. Let me explain my situation. I

have set my calendar up to reflect a 6.5hr work day.

I have multiple tasks assigned to a particular resource that start on

the same day but have differing durations. One task is 20h of effort,
the other task is 60h of effort. I would like for the resource to work
for 3 hours/day on the 60hr task and 3.5 hours/day on the 20hr task
until the tasks are complete but project insists on scheduling the 20 hr
task to 7.5hr/day. when I try to manually allocate the tasks and arrange
them the way I want. I get one of the tasks highlighted in red
indicating that the units assigned are over 100%.

Why is project allocating 7.5h/day when my workday is only 6.5? what

am I doing wrong and why won't it let me manually allocate the tasks to
fit the 6.5h workday?