The resource calendar should reflect the actual hours of the day the
resource works. If your guy works from 8am to 12 noon on Mon, Wed, and Fri
and 1pm to 5pm on Tue and Thur, then that's what the resource calendar
should show. A 100% assigment then means he's working those hours on the
task he's assigned to. The 24 hour calendar won't do it.
4 hours a day is 16% (1/6) of a 24 hour calendar, 50% of an 8 hour calendar,
100% of a 4 hour calendar. You might think they're equivalent but there's a
big difference in what happens when you assign resources...
I have a task input as estimated to be 2 days duration and it starts Mon at
8am. With the standard out-of-the box 8-hour calendar as the project
calendar it shows ending Tuesday 5pm before we assign resources.
I assign Joe Partime to it and I have represented Joe's working 4 hours a
day as his having a maximum of 50% availability on the standard 8-hour
workday calendar. When I assign him to that task it shows in the schedule
starting Monday 8am and finishing Tuesday at 5pm at a cost of 8 man-hours of
work.
Instead I assign Bob Partime whose calendar shows his 4 hours a day is
achieved by working 16% of a 24 hour calendar! After assigning him the task
shows beginning Mon 8am and finishing Monday night at midnight at a cost of
2.57 man-hours of work!
This time I assign Jill Partimer, whose calendar is set up the way I suggest
in the first paragraph, @ 100%. The task will now start Mon at 8am, finish
Thursday at 5pm at a cost of 16 man-hours work. VERY big difference! I
suggest this last alternative is the correct way.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
