Jeff --
I you are wanting to set up the planned percentage for resource assignments
to tasks, I don't believe the Resource Usage view is for you, as you are not
allowed to manually change the value called Percent Allocation in the
timephased grid. Instead, have you considered the following approach:
1. Plan your task list in the Gantt Chart view, leaving the Duration of
each task at the default value of 1 day
2. Set all task dependencies and constraints for the project
3. When you are ready to begin resource allocation, click Window - Split to
open a combination view with the Gantt Chart in the top pane and the Task
Form in the lower pane
4. Select the first task in the project
5. In the Task Form, select one or more resources who will be assigned to
the task
6. For each resource, specify a Units value (this value represents the
percentage of an average working day that the resource will commit to this
task; for example, 50% Units represents an average of 4 hours per day of
work on the task)
7. For each resource, set a Work value which represents the number of hours
of "burned work" the resource will commit to the task
8. Click the OK button to create the assignment and to cause MS Project to
calculate the Duration for the task
9. Click the Next button to move to the next task in the project and repeat
this process
The calculated Duration in step 8 represents the earliest that the task can
possibly finish, based on the assignment Units and the Work hours estimated
for the task. For example, if a single resource is assigned to a task at
50% Units and 40 hours of work, MS Project will calculate the Duration at 10
days, assuming that 8 hours per day is your standard work day.
I believe that this approach might be a better way for you to specify the
percentage of time on each task, assuming that the Units value is what you
mean by percentage of time. If this isn't what you are looking for, I ask
your forgiveness in advance. Hope this helps.
