Resource moves to part time.

[Bryan]

I have a resource who was shown on the plan as 100% FTE. The reality is that
she works about 25% only evenings and weekends. Of course she's already
overallocated so I'm not certain I'm reading this right. When I change her
Resource Availability in the Resource Information dialog/General Tab to 25%,
I expect to be able to level her and the duration of her tasks quadruple. The
duration isn't changing, leveling is just complainingt she's overallocated.
How do I fix this?

 

[Bryan]

I should add that I'm confused about the task allocation. If I change her to
25% at the resource, what happens to the tasks she's already assigned at
100%. Does Project 'know' that assignment in the task is for a part timer or
do I have to manually change all her tasks.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Bryan,

You will have to re-assign the resource at the new lower maximum units.
Filter the project using the Using Resource... filter to show only the tasks
for the specific resource. Select all of the non-summary tasks for the
resource. Click the Assign Resources button and select the resource already
assigned. Click the replace button. Select the same resource in the
replace dialog box and enter the new lower max. units. This will re-assign
the same resource to the tasks with the new lower unit assignment.

The resource leveling command will not re-assign units.

I noticed in your original post that you said the resource only works nights
and weekends. Have you changed her working calendar to reflect the night
and weekend working time? Instead of setting her max. at 25% if she only
works 10 hours per week during the night and weekend, I would leave her max.
units to 100% and edit her calendar.

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

Julie

 

[Bryan]

Thanks! So if I understand you correctly, I should change the calendar back
to 100%, change her working time in the calendar to reflect her hours, then
leveling will take care of the rest. IOW, I can leave her allocation on each
task at 100%?

Is there an easy way to change the working time for the duration of the
project or do I have to select each month and type in the working time
replacing the 8-5 with 7-8p weekdays and 9-1p on Sat?

 

[JulieS]

Hi Bryan,

You're welcome and sorry for the delay in replying. To answer your
question, if the resource is only available from 7-8 pm Monday through
Friday and 9a-1p Saturday but is available 100% during those hours, I would
change the resource's calendar and leave the maximum units at 100%.

Double click on the resource's name in the Resource Sheet view to show the
Resource Information dialog box.

Click the working time tab to show the resource's calendar.

Click and drag across the column headings for Monday through Friday (M
through F) which will select all Mondays through Fridays for every month.
Change the working time just noting the 7-8pm working hours.

Click the "S" column heading to select all Saturdays. Repeat the edit for
9a to 1pm.

Click OK to close the Resource Information dialog box and you are done.

I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Julie

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

As for your second question (working times for the whole duration) select
all five headers M-F and change.
HTH

 

[Bryan]

Thanks! That took care of that. Now this same person didn't start until about
2 months into the project yet they are being scheduled for stuff that
supposedly happened before they started.

I changed on the "Resource Information General" tab the "Resource
Availability" to show Avail from 11/28/05 to NA 100%. Then leveled the
resource. Looking at the Resource Usage there is still time allocated before
this date. How do I fix this?

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Aren't the old tasks marked as actuals?
Beter is to mark a few months vbefore start date as nonworking time; then
you don't evenneed leveling to make things move.
HTH

 

[Bryan]

OK. I'm sure it's that extra two glasses of wine at dinner, but I'm not
following. Firstly, I'm building this plan after about 3 months of project
has passed. Also, people aren't working as planned so tasks are finished
early and late and unexpected people are working on them so I'm having to add
them in after the fact. SO, all I'm doing is setting a status date at project
meetings and updating %complete. This makes for not the nicest dates provided
by project. Any advice is appreciated.

Now, with that in mind. Old tasks marked as actuals? Well, this part time
person has come on recently. The tasks she's assigned just show up with dates
at the project start date and finish the duration later. But what should
show, since i've added her, is a start date no earlier than her start date,
right?

Re: > Beter is to mark a few months vbefore start date as nonworking time;
then

you don't evenneed leveling to make things move.

I'm not really understanding this. Please elaborate.

Bryan

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Bryan,

There are two ways to tell Project a resource is not available at some
period in time

1. Tools, Change Working time, mark the absence days as nonworking time.
Project will then NOT schedule any work for the resource during that time;
thuis happens automatically and doesn't need any further action such as
leveling.

2. Resource information, General, Resource Availability.
This profiles availability allright but it does NOT DIRECTLY modify the
schedule, it merely will show overallocation for the days the resoruce is
not available. It can only influence the schedule when you activate resource
leveling (tools, level resources). I had the impression you did that and
that it doesn't work, but from your new post I wonder.

Does this help?

 

[Bryan]

thanks. That's a good description.

I have quite a bit of overallocation which I thought would go away with
leveling, but even after leveling sometimes resources end up scheduled for 20
hours per day! soometimes I can figure out why, others not. I thought, that
using #2, which is what I am doing with this part time person, that setting a
start date in the resource availability would make her tasks move to after
that start date once leveled. I've got a bit of work to do now to understand
the results of my actions.

It's not doing this.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

If the file's not too big you can always send it, I can have a look.
Mail address on my website.
HTH

 

[Bryan]

Thanks. I just might take you up on that!

 

[Peters]

Hi,

When changing max units for a resource, I have successfully used the
technique you describe with filtering, selecting and removing and reassigning
a resource. But I encounter problems when a task allready has actual values?
Removing the resource then means removing actual values? Or should I not do
the change on activities that are allready in progress?

Thanks in advance!

Peter

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Peters,

You can through the resource assignment woindow "Replace" the resource buy
an other one; in that way only the work not yet done will be re-assigned.
HTH

 

[JulieS]

Hi Peter,

I think what you are asking is how to drop a resource's assignment units
on the remainder of a task which already has some actuals.

If so, select the task and click the Assign Resources button. Select
the current assigned resource, click the *Replace* (not remove) button,
select the same resource and manually enter the lower assignment units.
This will leave any actual work values alone and simply drop the
assignment units for the remaining work. If the task is Fixed Units or
Fixed Work, the duration will also adjust.

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

 

[Peters]

Dear Jan and Julie,

Your recommendation did the job! Splendid! Thanks for the good advice!

All the best,
Peter

 

[Steve House]

Instead of using the assignment percentage to reflect a part-time worker,
IMHO it is better to use the resource calendar. I have a task that started
last Monday and runs for 10 days, ending next Friday. Joe, who has been
working an 8-hour a day full time calendar was assigned to the task 100%.
Halfway through the task I've learned that Joe will go to a 4 hour per day
part-time schedule effective immediately. He will be working all 4 hours
per day of his new 4 hour a day work schedule for the remainder of the task
and it will obviously take him an extra week to finish all the requred work.
This is NOT a 50% resource assignment, this is a 100% resource assignment of
a 4 hour per day resource! I think one of the most frequently confused
concepts with MS Project is the idea that the resource assignment percentage
represents the percentage of the business day the resource is working on his
tasks - it is NOT that except as an approximation. The assignment
percentage is actually a measure of the RATE at which the resource converts
duration time to work man-hours. 100% means you get an hour of work for
each hour of time. 50% means he has other things going on at the same time
and only able to give you 30 minutes of actual full-time equivalent work on
your task for each hour he puts in on it. You can get the schedule to
reflect his new reality by simply editing his resource calendar from this
point forward, changing his work hours for all dates into the future
starting Monday to show his new, part-time schedule. When you do, you'll
see the elapsed time for all future tasks double including his remaining
time on in-progress tasks (although the duration and work will remain the
same - it takes two elapsed days for a half-time part-timer to work the same
duration as a full-timer works in one day so for a part-timer tasks, 2
calendar days in the task's schedule equals 1 day of duration) yet previous
work will remain the same.

HTH

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Steve,

I know it sounds good, but this idea about percentages not representing a
time part is something not present in the software itself. A 30% units
assignment is translated by Project into 18 seconds of work per minute and
that is it. Project ignores the notion of productivity completely.

And Work is not a measure of result, it is a measure of which time the
resoruce is doing that task.
Greetings,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project MVP
http://users.online.be/prom-ade

Instead of using the assignment percentage to reflect a part-time worker,
IMHO it is better to use the resource calendar. I have a task that
started last Monday and runs for 10 days, ending next Friday. Joe, who
has been working an 8-hour a day full time calendar was assigned to the
task 100%. Halfway through the task I've learned that Joe will go to a 4
hour per day part-time schedule effective immediately. He will be working
all 4 hours per day of his new 4 hour a day work schedule for the
remainder of the task and it will obviously take him an extra week to
finish all the requred work. This is NOT a 50% resource assignment, this
is a 100% resource assignment of a 4 hour per day resource! I think one
of the most frequently confused concepts with MS Project is the idea that
the resource assignment percentage represents the percentage of the
business day the resource is working on his tasks - it is NOT that except
as an approximation. The assignment percentage is actually a measure of
the RATE at which the resource converts duration time to work man-hours.
100% means you get an hour of work for each hour of time. 50% means he
has other things going on at the same time and only able to give you 30
minutes of actual full-time equivalent work on your task for each hour he
puts in on it. You can get the schedule to reflect his new reality by
simply editing his resource calendar from this point forward, changing his
work hours for all dates into the future starting Monday to show his new,
part-time schedule. When you do, you'll see the elapsed time for all
future tasks double including his remaining time on in-progress tasks
(although the duration and work will remain the same - it takes two
elapsed days for a half-time part-timer to work the same duration as a
full-timer works in one day so for a part-timer tasks, 2 calendar days in
the task's schedule equals 1 day of duration) yet previous work will
remain the same.

HTH
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome, Peter and thanks for the feedback.

Julie
Project MVP