Project Plans and Enterprise Resources

[Karrybelle]

My PMs don't like to use resource leveling and enterprise resources because
the enterprise resources are always "over allocated" and when the PMs add
them to their project plans it causes the plan to push out dates for the
tasks and changes the end date. So then my PMs end up creating local
resources or end up changing the resources avalible units to a lot more than
just 100% and we lose the ability to use Resource Center or analyze resources
in the Portfolio Analyzer.
Is there any way to allow a enterprise resource to be over allocated without
having to adjust the units avalible or adding a secondary resource so the end
dates do not change? We don't have always have another resource avalible
because some of the resources are our only SMEs.

Hopefully I explained my question well enough and if not I can reword it if
requested.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Do you want Project to show a consistent view? When you assign a resource to
5 tasks in parallel, and you explicitly stick to 100% max units, what else
can leveling do but put the tasks in sequence... thus alerting you that with
this level of resource availablity you will NOT make the end date?
If you think you CAN make the end date with teh resources on hand that
proves your estimates are overdone.
You can't put 2 litres of water in a glass 1 litre bottle.. something's
gotta give.

Hope this helps,
--
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]

Sounds like your PMs are used to doctoring schedules so they show dates as
they want them to be rather than trying to accurately discover the timeline
it is physically possible to achieve given what has to be done and the
limited assets with which they have to do it.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Karrybelle,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

It sounds as though your PMs are MPs - they are not project managers, they Managing Project to fiddle the answer they want irrespective of physical, monetary or time realities. They have wasted the purchase price of Project when they could have used Excel instead.

Seriously though, I'm afraid the answer is no . You're really up against it with these attitudes. Here's Project telling them what is feasible, and they're ignoring the physical realities to get an impractical end date. I'm afraid I can only sympathize with you unfortunate position.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials



My PMs don't like to use resource leveling and enterprise resources because
the enterprise resources are always "over allocated" and when the PMs add
them to their project plans it causes the plan to push out dates for the
tasks and changes the end date. So then my PMs end up creating local
resources or end up changing the resources avalible units to a lot more than
just 100% and we lose the ability to use Resource Center or analyze resources
in the Portfolio Analyzer.
Is there any way to allow a enterprise resource to be over allocated without
having to adjust the units avalible or adding a secondary resource so the end
dates do not change? We don't have always have another resource avalible
because some of the resources are our only SMEs.

Hopefully I explained my question well enough and if not I can reword it if
requested.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Karrybelle]

I guess what I should say is that a lot of our resource will end up working
overtime if need be. So rather than making all resources have 12 hour days
and 1000% units available, is there an easier, quicker, more efficient way
than having to manipulate the individual resource’s calendar? We also work
24/7 (we are a casino) and while MOST resources would end up having the
holidays off there will be some resources who end up working. Plus, some of
the resources still have regular services and break fixes to take care of and
the time they need to dedicate to that can fluctuate too. So what we really
need is a way to make scheduling resources very flexible and very user
friendly for our functional manager’s and PMs to use. Any suggestions? And
please remember the PMs REFUSE to use leveling.