problems with work contours

[Guy]

Hi,
I'm tracking a number of subprojects and rather than link them all
together, I want to take out the key summary info and enter it manually
into my 'master' project. e.g. a detailed development project may
contain a number of build/unit testing tasks, but from the master level
I just need to know that we need a developer for 2 months. This allows
me to control the master project on a periodic basis and use it for
management reporting, whilst allowing my PM's to control their own
subprojects in their own format.

I want to allocate into the master project based on monthly figures,
e.g. Developer: month 1 = 70hrs, month 2 = 50 hrs etc. I was expecting
to be able to use the contour feature to manually enter the number of
hours per month for this resource.

However, I find that project isnt really doing what I expect. If I
enter in 20 hours for month 1, then 40 hours for month 2 Project is
assigning the resource and not giving me a flat contour over each
month. its basically saying "20 hours? You can have that done by 1/2
way through week 1" and then leaving the resource unallocated for the
remaining 3 1/2 weeks of the month.

I cant understand how/why Project is assigning the resource 100% for a
small period of the month, rather than giving me a flat contour over
the entire month. For month 2, which is 40hours, I want a flat contour
over the entire month, but at a rate that will be twice the rate used
month 1.

Hope that makes sense - I'm thinking of reverting to creating 12 tasks
- one for each month - so I can control each one individually. Not
ideal, but it will get the job done.

Thanks for any help/advice.
Guy

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

You better enter the contour in Tools, Working Time, which influencdes the
schedules immediately.
HTH

 

[Guy]

Changing working time doesnt seem right - I dont want to change the
amount of time a resource is available to work, just their % split
between different tasks on a month by month basis.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

If you want the result, better consider the solution )

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

In the resource usage view you can adjust the number of hours per day a
resource spend on a task. By selecting a line representing a resource/task
combination you can doulbe click or click the information tool button on the
toolbat and display the Assignment Information dialog which includes a Work
Contour adjustment to apply one of several pre-set contours to the work
pattern,