Resource Usage View

[Mike]

Why would a name, and certain days, show in a bold red font in the Resource
Usage View if that resource is NOT overallocated?

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

It won't. But remember that overallocation is an instaneous thing - if the
resource is double booked for even one minute they're overallocated. An
example I use in my classes. Mary works an 8 hour day. Her maximum
availability is 100%. On Friday she is booked for two tasks, one lasting 4
hours, the other 2 hours. Yet she shows in red, overallocated. How can
that be - she's booked for 6 hours, she's allowed to work 8? I read that as
a 75% allocation when she's allowed 100% and so shouldn't be overallocated.
The answer lays in the times the tasks are scheduled for. The 4 hour task
is from 8am to 12 noon. The 2 hour task is a staff meeting from 8am to
10am, a two hour overlap. Even though the total hours for the day are
easily within her maximum, between 8am and 10am she's booked a total of 200%
and overallocated. I'll just bet you have a similar situation in your
project.

 

[Mike]

You are spot on. Does that mean that I need to schedule down to the actual
hour? Why can't Project level that out?

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

It can but you have to tell it to. On the Leveling dialog box, at the very
top, is a setting for "Level By..." that instructs Project as to the
smallest degree of overlap it needs to pay attention to. Set it to
"Hour-by-Hour" and you should be fine.

 

[Mike]

I greatly appreciate your help and have gotten that far. Now to take the
ball across the goal line - this does not seem to work with two or more
recurring tasks that occur on the same day. e.g. A weekly 1 hour meeting and
a daily 15 minute meeting - even when I level minute-by-minute. Any thoughts?

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Recurring tasks are a special case. They are marked with a priority of
1000, which means "do not level." When you first enter the recurring task
you need to include the time each one starts as well as the date the series
starts in the Start Date entry and make sure the times of the two tasks that
are giving you trouble don't overlap. You might have the 15 min daily
meeting start 14 Feb at 0900 and goes for X days while the weekly 1 hour
meeting starts 14 Feb at 1000 and goes for Y recurrences.

Recurring tasks are generally things like meetings that won't be scheduled
for our resource's convenience. If we have two of them going on at the same
time, he has to make a choice which one of them to go to. Leveling would
reschedule one of the meetings and that's not usually possible, hence
Project's behavior exempting them being moved by leveling.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[Mike]

You are a savior! I can't thank you enough!!!

Recurring tasks are a special case. They are marked with a priority of
1000, which means "do not level." When you first enter the recurring task
you need to include the time each one starts as well as the date the series
starts in the Start Date entry and make sure the times of the two tasks that
are giving you trouble don't overlap. You might have the 15 min daily
meeting start 14 Feb at 0900 and goes for X days while the weekly 1 hour
meeting starts 14 Feb at 1000 and goes for Y recurrences.

Recurring tasks are generally things like meetings that won't be scheduled
for our resource's convenience. If we have two of them going on at the same
time, he has to make a choice which one of them to go to. Leveling would
reschedule one of the meetings and that's not usually possible, hence
Project's behavior exempting them being moved by leveling.