Resource Units

[Marni]

I am working on a Project plan that contains fixed work tasks. I entered the
tasks and then entered the work hours for all of the tasks. Now I am going
through and assigning resources to the tasks.

(All of my resources are full time employees, but have only part of their
week to devote to this project, so I have set them up in the resource table
with less than 100% unit availability.)

Most of the tasks on my project have more than one resource working on them,
many with varying amounts of work on each task. For example -- a 100 hour
task with 2 resources - one working 80 hours, the other working 20. Whenever
I add resources to my tasks, the % units that appears in the Task Entry sheet
(and beside their name on the gannt chart) is not always the % units that
they have available for the project. Sometimes it is 267% or 1667% and the
finish date of the task doesn't change, as I would expect it to with
effort-driven scheduling. Shouldn't Project list their available units and
adjust the finish dates when I add resources to a task?

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

A couple of things. First of all, the question comes up as to where you are
entering the fact that this is a 100 hour task? Have you entered that in
the Work field or have you entered it in the Duration field? They are
different.

The resource table designation of Maximum Units is just that - a maximum
that they can be used before being red-flagged as overallocated. But it's
still up to you to determine what portion of the maximum is going to be used
on *this* specific task. Joe might be a maximum of 80% but because I need
him on something else at the same time I choose only to use him 40% on this
particular task.

While units can be thought of as the percentage of the workday the resource
is available for project work, strictly speaking that's not what it means.
What 50% units means is that when I assign Bill to a 1 day long task, he
produces the same amount of work that he would have working 4 hours giving
it his full attention. If I assign him 50% to a 1 hour long task, he
produces 1/2 hour of full time work output on it, and so forth.

Project will change finish dates etc when you add resources BUT you have to
insure it understands what you mean when you make the entries. So the first
step in understanding your issue is to ask exactly how you've entered the
duration and/or work entries and how you assigned the resources?

 

[Marni]

I have entered the hours in the Work column.
When I assign resources to tasks, I'm trying to do it in one of two ways:

1. Using the Assign Resources button (when only one resource is assigned, or
when all resources are performing equal amounts of work on a task) -- I
highlight the resource and click the Assign button. This is the point at
which Project calculates the unexpectedly large units value without changing
the finish date of the task.
2. I have also tried adding them with the Task Entry view on the bottom
split of my screen. Again, I choose the resource name, enter the work for
each resource, then click OK. This is when the calculation is performed and I
get those strangely large values.

Should I be using the Assign Resources window and defining the units before
I click on the Assign button? I guess I was hoping that MSP would simply pull
that value from the Resource table for me, and then calculate the duration
based on the work for the task and the units that I've already indicated.

Does that make sense?

Thank you,
Marni Gasser
Project Manager

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Is it possible you have the tasks set to fixed duration instead of fixed
work?


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

 

[Marni]

On the Tools - Options - schedule, I have Fixed work as the default. I even
added a column to my project so i could view all of the task types, and they
are all fixed work (except for the summary tasks -- and I don't assign
resources to my summary tasks.)

Marni

 

[Marni]

Is it possible that I'm running a version of MSP that has a bug in it? I'm in
MSP 2000, version 9.0.2000.0224.

Marni

 

[Marni]

I've been struggling through my assignments today, and have been using the
assign resources window to do so, and have noticed that the large % numbers
are appearing when I add the first resource to a task, but when i add
subsequent resources, it does the "right thing" and pulls their resource
units from my resource sheet.

Also, if I assign one resource to a task, the % units are too high (not
what's in the Resource sheet), remove them from the task, then assign them
again, it does pull the correct resource units.

Does this make any sense?

Marni

 

[JulieS]

Hi Marni,

PMFJI, but no, this isn't a bug in Project 2000. I can easily reproduce the
the scenario you describe in both Project 2003 and 2002. You entered work in
a fixed work task type without assigning resources, and when you actually
assign the resources to the task you are forcing project to calculate the
Unit % to try to fit the amount of work you specified into the duration of
the task.

With fixed work tasks you should not enter Work into the Work column until
you have your resources assigned. Assign your resources to the task
specifying work in the Task Form and let Project calculate the duration of
the task. By default, it will use the maximum units for the resource
(assuming max. of 100% or less). If you then change the total work on the
task (by changing the Work field in a Task View) Project will just adjust the
duration accordingly.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[Marni]

Julie,

Thank you so much!!

That is exactly what I was looking for.

Marni

 

[JulieS]

Hi Marni,

Glad to have helped and thanks for the feedback.

Your scenario was the exact same scenario that I assisted a client with
several years ago, so as soon as I read your post, I knew the difficulty you
were encountering. So, I guess it is good to know from your standpoint, that
you are not alone. ;-)

Julie

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Julie is correct in her discussion. The normal sequence of events is to
estimate duration, assign the resource(s) at the units you intend them to
work on that particular task and let Project calculate the work estimate for
the task. When you reverse it and enter a work value before you enter the
resources, it can get confused.

 

[SusanB]

Related question: If I set up my project the same way Marni did, but I should
have done it the way you describe, in order to 'fix' my project and get MSP
to eliminate the 1600% resource allocations, do I re-enter the tasks the
'right' way?

 

[SusanB]

Also, when you say "specifying work in the Task form" you mean "selecting
Fixed Work from the Task Type drop-down on the Advanced tab of the Task
Information dialog box" right? Because in my version of MSP 2003 --
(11.3.2007.1529.15) SP3 -- there is no "Work" field in this dialog box, only
a "Duration" field.
Thanks!

 

[JulieS]

Hello SusanB,

No I'm talking about the Task Form which you can show in the
lower pane underneath the Gantt chart. From the Gantt Chart
view, choose Window > Split to show the Task Form. By using the
task form, you can view and enter work, duration, or assignment
units. You may also easily change task type and select
effort-driven or non-effort driven as needed.

If you have wildly overallocated resources in the Task Form enter
the max. units for the resource (usually 100%) in the units
field. If the task is fixed work or fixed units, the duration of
the task will change.

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

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
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