Resource leveling - Having issues with the date blowing way out

[Bud]

Have a rather large schedule with 150 resources and resource leveling
overallocations are an issue.


Is the best approach

1. Making sure units are the same
2. Pred/succ are correct
3. Use level by resource...Go to Resource usage...select each resource use
level now

What options in level now can be used so that it doesn't blow the dates so
far out?

Thanks

 

[Dave]

When it "blows the dates out", what does it actually tell you about
individual resources workloads? If there are gaps in individual
resources workloads, then you will have to adjust task durations in
order to try and fit tasks into the gaps.

I don't think a schedule of 150 tasks is particularly large and I would
probably adopt another approach. I would level from the Gantt view and
decide which tasks were most important to be completed first and assign
them a high priority (if you haven't used this before, you will need to
insert the priority column). I would then level the whole schedule (or
maybe the next two months). Once I was happy with that, I would fix the
tasks I was happy with by setting their priority to 1000 and then apply
the same process to the remainder of them.

I find that an iterative approach to levelling is needed because you may
have to modify task durations in order to make the best use of your
resources time.

 

[Bud]

Dave

Please read this again. It is 150 resources not 150 tasks. There are
thousands of tasks with multiple resources on each task. This is the issue.

Right now the tasks are set up as Fixed work but I would like to chnage that
to fixed units for something like this. MS Project doesn't have a variance
field for fixed units but I can tell when my work is off through work
variance.

Anyway, that is one thing. There are so many resources it is extremely
difficult to manage overallocations.

I wanted to know what is the best step be step way to handle resource
leveling for a project like this. ...and what is important to help prevent
those overallocations in the first place.

I can't split the schedule up. The client will not allow that.

 

[Dave]

Apologies for the misreading, although I don't think that changes
anything fundamentally.

There was no suggestion that the project be split up - rather just
levelled in stages to break the problem up into smaller ones. Ideally,
introduce stages of about 3 months so that you can concentrate on
scheduling manageable chunks of work.

It is still not clear why the dates in the future are incorrect - do
resources have lots of time when they are under-allocated, thereby
implying that the schedule could be shortened.

 

[Bud]

Thanks

Would you agree that these are the steps for setting up to and than managing
this big schedule?

1. Set the task type to Fixed units...or does it matter if it is fixed work?
I was using this because than I would automatically know what my assignments
units were without having to really look.
2. Make sure the Pred/succ are very accurate
3. Make sure people don't have to many concurrent tasks. Otherwise increases
complexity of managing and delivering.
4. Resource level the overallocations using the tool. I see where most
people in these discussion groups recommended leveling by resource.
You have already recommended and iterative approach

Is it your thinking that leveling on teh Gantt chart and doing it by range
of dates is better?


When I use the tool for the whole schedule it blows the dates out to 2049

 

[Bud]

Dave

Also is their some special filters or views that can help me when dealing
with recognizing where the overallocations are in particular if I use the
Gantt view?

Guess what I am asking is if there are step by step ways of recognizing the
issues and than fixing them quickly

Thanks

 

[JulieS]

Hi Bud,

To offer some additional thoughts/comments.

Unlike Dave, I do not like leveling from a task view, like the Gantt
chart. I much prefer to level using the Resource Allocation view
with a specific resource selected. In my opinion, it's easier to
figure out what is happening to both the tasks and resources. The
Resource Allocation view is available as the first button on the
Resource Management toolbar. I also use the Resource Allocation
view in conjunction with the "Go to Next Overallocation" button on
the Resource Management toolbar to help discover what specifically
is causing the overallocations. The bottom part of the Resource
Allocation view is the Leveling Gantt which is particularly helpful
to view which tasks have been delayed. You can also apply the
Leveling Gantt view full screen to view all tasks which have been
leveled.

When you see tasks slide to 2049, it's an indication that there is
something amiss in the file. It can be a number of things -- check
for:

Resource's who have no availability after a specific date -- usually
entered in on the Resource Information dialog box under Resource
Availability.

Resources assigned to summary tasks -- although Project will
normally warn about that specific issue when you try to level.


I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Bud]

Thanks Julie

I was choosing leveling month by month and than selected both
Leveling can adjust individual assignments on a task and also Leveling can
create splits in remaining work

Is that what you choose? It seems to work pretty well

How do you tell what is causing the problems if there are many tasks in the
week that are overallocated.

Any kind-of routine you use?

 

[Dave]

I would use fixed work for most tasks as that accurately models most
task types. Unless your resources rigorously stick to the assignment
level you enter, then you won't be able to see that at a glance from the
Gantt chart because as soon as you enter actuals, the number displayed
will be the highest ever utilisation percentage.

 

[Dave]

I actually use both views. I tend to open the Project in two windows -
one of which is the Gantt chart where I perform the levelling and can
observe the effects on deliverables and the other is the Resource
Utilisation view where I examine any problems in more detail.

I choose week-by-week myself but it depends on what degree of
granularity you want to control the resources. I tend not to allow
splits in remaining work because that can come up with silly results
(also it means the schedule can become "packed" by which I mean that you
can get results like a resource works two minutes on one task then three
minutes on another and so on which is unrealistic).

Whether or not you want to adjust individual assignments on a task
depends on the nature of the work. If they don't need to work as a
team, then by all means allow it.

If there are many activities in a week causing overallocations, then
they are all potentially problematic and you will have to choose which
ones you want to complete first.

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome Bud. It looks like Dave has answered some of your
questions below. To your question about what is causing the problem
if there are many tasks that are overallocated -- it really isn't
tasks that are overallocated, it's resources and their assignments.
Unless you have a resource assigned to a single task above his/her
max. units, the problem is caused by the overlap of the tasks and
the sum of the assignment units (Peak Units) during the overlap.
Whether you choose to solve the overallocation is definitely a
judgment call. Project will say there is an overallocation if a
resource is assigned at max. units to two tasks that overlap for as
little as a minute. As Dave mentioned, using the Resource Leveling
command set to Look for Overallocations on a "Week by Week" basis
works for many folks. The resource's name will still stay red, but
the flag next to the resource's name will only show if that resource
is overallocated at greater than a week by week basis.

Julie