Seemingly simple question about scheduling resources

[Doug]

Hello all,

I am trying to do what seems VERY simple, however, Project makes this next
to impossible, unless I'm just missing something. All I want to do is enter
in a start date for a task and an end date for a task. Then I want to assign
people to that task. I can do all this just fine, but now I've been reading
that the percentage units really have nothing to do with how much time of
their day they spend on the project. When I go to resource graph, I want to
see how much time eveybody is allocated overall. However, this doesn't seem
to be happening. For instance, I have somebody allocated at 80% (which took
me about an hour of fiddling to get it off of the 100% that it kept reverting
to), but on the graph, it shows them at 20%. Why?

Is there not just a simple way I can enter project start, finish, and
resource percentage and show that graph?? That's ALL I want to do, and for
whatever reason, I haven't been able to.

Thanks.

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

Hello all,

I am trying to do what seems VERY simple, however, Project makes this next
to impossible, unless I'm just missing something. All I want to do is
enter
in a start date for a task and an end date for a task. Then I want to
assign
people to that task. I can do all this just fine, but now I've been
reading
that the percentage units really have nothing to do with how much time of
their day they spend on the project. When I go to resource graph, I want
to
see how much time eveybody is allocated overall. However, this doesn't
seem
to be happening. For instance, I have somebody allocated at 80% (which
took
me about an hour of fiddling to get it off of the 100% that it kept
reverting
to), but on the graph, it shows them at 20%. Why?

Is there not just a simple way I can enter project start, finish, and
resource percentage and show that graph?? That's ALL I want to do, and for
whatever reason, I haven't been able to.

Thanks.

is it possible that the graph is showing you remaining availablity?

 

[Doug]

No, I don't think that is the case either. Some of the resources appear to
be correct. Additionally, I can change that 80% to any number, and it still
stays right around 20%. I don't think they are the inverse, so to speak.
Other ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

No, I don't think that is the case either. Some of the resources appear to
be correct. Additionally, I can change that 80% to any number, and it
still
stays right around 20%. I don't think they are the inverse, so to speak.
Other ideas?

Is this a short task but your Gantt chart zoom is zoomed way out so that
the bar is representing a much larger period of time?

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

No, I don't think that is the case either. Some of the resources appear to
be correct. Additionally, I can change that 80% to any number, and it
still
stays right around 20%. I don't think they are the inverse, so to speak.
Other ideas?

Oh and the graph is set to show Percent allocation instead of Peak Units.

 

[Doug]

No, I'm not talking about the Gantt chart; I'm talking about the resource
graph. The one with the smokestacks (vertical bar graphs) that represent
each person with time on the x-axis and percent on the y-axis. And yeah, it
is set to percent allocation instead of peak units.

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

No, I'm not talking about the Gantt chart; I'm talking about the resource
graph. The one with the smokestacks (vertical bar graphs) that represent
each person with time on the x-axis and percent on the y-axis. And yeah,
it
is set to percent allocation instead of peak units.

Same goes. Is the timescale set to show a long time period per 'smoke
stack"? If so then this is the issue. It is measureing the percentage of
the timeslice shown. An 80% alocation for a one day task would show as 27
if the bar was displaying a month. See what I mean?

 

[Doug]

Yeah, I see what you're saying, but without the program in front of me, I
can't check. I will check first thing in the morning. Thanks for the input,
and I'll keep you posted.

Doug

 

[Doug]

So I figured out part of it, although it's not completely correct yet. Each
task has a start date and finish date, however each person assigned to that
task has a DIFFERENT start and finish date, which explains why their
percentage wasn't showing up on the calendar where I thought it should. I
still am having some unexplained behavoir, but I've gotten it close enough
and have basically just given up. It's not worth my time. Thanks for the
help.