Reported overuse of resources

[Brad]

In the way we track tasks/resources within my company, we do not care when
during the day a resource completes their assigned tasks, as long as they get
completed. However, it appears as if Microsoft Project cares.

If I have two tasks, from two different projects, scheduled to start on the
same day, and I assign both of those tasks to a single resource, that
resource appears as overused, even if the two tasks add up to less then the #
of hours scheduled for that resource in a day.

Ex: Task 1 belongs to Schedule 1. It's scheduled to start on 2/1, and is
sized for 2hrs of work. Task 2 belongs to Schedule 2. It's scheduled to
start on 2/1, and is sized for 3hrs of work. I assigned Resource 1 to both
tasks, and now that resource appears as overused.

Is there any way for me to setup Project such that it only looks at hours in
a day for a resource to determine overuse, instead of when during the day the
tasks will be worked on?

 

[John]

In the way we track tasks/resources within my company, we do not care when
during the day a resource completes their assigned tasks, as long as they get
completed. However, it appears as if Microsoft Project cares.

If I have two tasks, from two different projects, scheduled to start on the
same day, and I assign both of those tasks to a single resource, that
resource appears as overused, even if the two tasks add up to less then the #
of hours scheduled for that resource in a day.

Ex: Task 1 belongs to Schedule 1. It's scheduled to start on 2/1, and is
sized for 2hrs of work. Task 2 belongs to Schedule 2. It's scheduled to
start on 2/1, and is sized for 3hrs of work. I assigned Resource 1 to both
tasks, and now that resource appears as overused.

Is there any way for me to setup Project such that it only looks at hours in
a day for a resource to determine overuse, instead of when during the day the
tasks will be worked on?

Brad,
That resource must be half time because 2 hours and 3 hours only adds up
to 5 hours per day, and the normal work day has 8 hours.

You could use the leveling feature (Tools/Level Resources) on your
projects with a day-by-day setting. That would shift the work so there
is no overallocation. However, it also depends on how you "sized" your
task's work. Are the tasks fixed duration, fixed work or fixed units?
Normally if you have a task with a duration that is longer than the
expected work content (i.e. a 5 day task with only 20 hours of work
content), that task is set up as a fixed duration task. It doesn't
matter when during the 5 day period that the 20 hours of work are
completed.

To answer your last question, that is exactly what Project is doing. It
is looking a the available hours in a work day for each resource to
determine if a resource is overallocated. Referring back to my first
paragraph, I don't understand why that resource is showing as
overallocated.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

The simple answer is No.
You could read FAQ 34 in http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm to understand
why.
The complete answer is in the resource sheet view, through Format, Text
styles, change the font for overallocated resoruces to black if you don't
like the red.
And control the overallocations through the diamond appearing in the
indicators column - thet one can be touned to by day or by week... by the
setting in the resoruce leveling dialog box.
HTH

 

[Brad]

That helps.

Thanks!

Hi,

The simple answer is No.
You could read FAQ 34 in http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm to understand
why.
The complete answer is in the resource sheet view, through Format, Text
styles, change the font for overallocated resoruces to black if you don't
like the red.
And control the overallocations through the diamond appearing in the
indicators column - thet one can be touned to by day or by week... by the
setting in the resoruce leveling dialog box.
HTH