please help with partial utilization

[chrisli]

Hi I am a project newbie. I ran into a situation below and wondering
if anyone can help. Here is the situation.

task1 part time supporting QA 20 days resourceX[30%]
task2 something else 5 days resourceX
task3 something else 4 days resourceX
task4 something else 2 days resourceX

the start and end date of task1 is dependant on some other tasks so
they may change. So what I want to do is for project to level so that
while resourceX is spending partial time on task1 I want project to get
resourceX to use the rest of the time on task2, 3, or 4.

The problem is Project doesn't overlap the tasks unless I explicitly
set resourceX [70%] for task2,3, or 4. So if I know when task1 is
going to start/end, then I can calculate which of the rest of the tasks
should be [70%]. But there is got to be a way for Project to
automatically utilize the other 70% of the time on task1 without me
explicitly specifying the percentage utilization for the rest of the
tasks. My real project is huge and start/end dates of task1
constantly changes. So I can't constantly recalculating which task
needs to have [70%] in order to overlap the tasks and fully utilize the
time.

I hope this makes sense and someone can help me. Thanks.

 

[JulieS]

Hi chrisli,

Sorry, the resource leveling command is not a resource optimization tool.
It will *never* alter resource assignment units. If you assign resource X
at 30% to task 1 and assign resource X at 100% to task 2, project will delay
the start of task 2 until task 1 is complete, leaving the resource assigned
at 30%.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[chrisli]

JulieS,

Thanks. So how do I handle this situation where the resource is
partially on support and I want the project plan to reflect that he's
working on something else while on support. Since the duration he's on
support may vary, I want to know if project has a functionality of
optimize the utilization without having me to manually edit everything.

Thanks.

 

[JulieS]

Hi chrisli,

You could go ahead and assign your resource at 30% to the support tasks and
then assign to others at 100%. Use resource leveling which will delay tasks
where the overallocation occurs. Use the leveling Gantt to view which tasks
have been delayed. Assign the resource at 70% to those tasks and re-level.
Sorry, but the short answer is that you will need to manually edit the
tasks.

Hope this helps.
Julie

 

[chrisli]

Oh, shoot....I see. THanks Julie.