Resources Usage table - overallocation

[jackie]

Hello
I wonder if you can help
I am in the Resource Usage Table and a specific Resource is flagged
over-allocated for today even if hours of work allocated for today are
5.6hrs
Task A - 8 hrs in total, spread over for 5 days (units 20%) from today for
next few days - 1.6hrs allocated to today
Task B - 2 hrs, duration 1 day, date today, (units 25%)
Task C - 2 hrs, duration 0.25 day, date today (units 100%)

The total of work is 5.6hrs, which means the resource has got scope for more
work. However, it shows overallocated. I would be interested in
understanding more about the logic of flagging the resource overallocated. I
changed the duration of task C to 1 day duration and the resource was no
longer overallocated. Is it to do with the relationship with the units of
allocation in thevday? Please can you explain further? Many thanks. J

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Jackie --

A resource overallocation occurs when you assign a resource to more work in
any time period than the resource is capable of doing. This means assigning
a resource to any of the following:

- 32 hours of work in one day
- 160 hours of work in one week
- 2 hours of work in a 1-hour time period
- 30 minutes of work in a 15-minute time period

Of the four scenarios I list above, the last two are probably not worth the
bother of leveling. To determine why your resource is overallocated, do the
following:

1. Apply the Resource Usage view.
2. Right-click in the timephased grid (yellow/white timesheet grid) and
select Detail Styles on the shortcut menu.
3. In the Detail Styles dialog, add the Peak Units field to the list on the
right and then click the OK button.

Scroll to the time period in the timephased grid where the Work is formatted
in red. You will see that the Peak Units value is greater than the Max.
Units value specified for the resource. This usually means that the Peak
Units value is greater than 100% during that time period.

If you want to see the specifics, you can zoom in during that time period,
down to as little as 15-minute time increments to see the precise reason for
the overallocation. Hope this helps.

 

[DavidC]

Hi,

I have also noted that if the total slack is less than 0 then the resource
allocated to that task also shows as being overallocated even though the
hours of work for that resource are not over their allocation.

That seems logical since if the task is behind and cannot be done in the
time required then there is an overallocation of resource.

Yes I do get negative slack until I get an overall review by the relevant
parties for their workstream, or the deadline no longer is valid since a
particular workstream missed it by so much it is not worth tracking anymore.
Just a quirk of the project.