peak units

[vdz]

Hello all,

Can anybody please explain to me how peak units in resource usage get
calculated? The idea is to use resource usage view for planning and
monitoring hours resources have spent already (actual work) and are likely
to spend (work) in the future and compare it with the original planning
(baseline work). I thought 40 hours a week is taken as 100 % peak units.
Therefore 32 hours would be 80% of peak units and so on..However, I seem to
experience strange and unexplainable behaviour. For example, if
planned/baselined work was 40 hours a week for a resource but he worked less
hours, peak units for the coming weeks became 92% in first 3 weeks and then
106% in the week after. Or if somebody did not work for a month because of
holiday, then the peak units in the coming four weeks became 127% and after
that peak units are 112% without any obvious reason.

I truly hope somebody out there can help.

Many thanks,

Vera

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

From what you describe I think you have put task type as fixed duration.
In that case when work is les sthan planned in a period, since the duration
does not change, the remainder Work is spread out over the remaining time
period and units go up.
I've seen more than 5000% once..

I duration ever fixed?

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Dave]

Hello all,

Can anybody please explain to me how peak units in resource usage get
calculated? The idea is to use resource usage view for planning and
monitoring hours resources have spent already (actual work) and are likely
to spend (work) in the future and compare it with the original planning
(baseline work). I thought 40 hours a week is taken as 100 % peak units.
Therefore 32 hours would be 80% of peak units and so on..However, I seem to
experience strange and unexplainable behaviour. For example, if
planned/baselined work was 40 hours a week for a resource but he worked less
hours, peak units for the coming weeks became 92% in first 3 weeks and then
106% in the week after. Or if somebody did not work for a month because of
holiday, then the peak units in the coming four weeks became 127% and after
that peak units are 112% without any obvious reason.

I truly hope somebody out there can help.

Many thanks,

Vera

Peak Units is not calculated, it's entered. It's the max no. of units of
the resource available at any given time. I.e. if I have 4 capenders
available to my project, peak units is 4. Can be expressed as units (4 in
this case) or percentage (400% in this case)

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Sorry Dave, what you refer to is Max.Units
Peak units is the highest assignment unit during a certain period.
HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Steve House]

Peak units are an instantaneous measure. If a resource is assigned to 2
tasks at 100% each and those tasks overlap each other by even 1 minute, the
resource's peak units is 200%. In that 1 minute of time, he is expected to
produce 2 minutes worth of work. OR viewed another way, for 1 minute he is
expected to be in two places at once. The resource units only represent the
percentage of his calendar when viewed at a very superficial level. What
the percentage really means is the rate at which the resource is able to
convert time into work. An assignment of 100% means that for each hour of
time spent, 1 man-hour of work is achieved. An assignment of 50% means that
for each hour of time spent on the task, only 1/2 hour's worth of full-time
equivalent work is realized.