Under utilisd resources

[DavidC]

Hi,

Have a situation where in a project there are times when a resource is not
being fully utilised and I want them to be allocated to a general task of say
cleaning. Can Project assign resources to that task automatically during
times when they are not allocated to other tasks?

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

No. Unless you want to cost the cleaning task, I wouldn't worry about it.
Just assume that unassigned hours are spent on support tasks such as
cleaning.

 

[DavidC]

Thanks for that confirmation. Where this arose was a situation where a
client is using a project plan to monitor a contractor's resources on site
and effectively 'nit pick' where a resource is not shown as being 100%
utilised on any particular day.

Personally I find that sad that even today clients are being so penny
pinching but we have to learn to live with it and find ways around it. Hence
the reason why the people I was dealing with wanted to identify on the plan
that where a resource was not being used for a part or whole of a day then
they were still being used in a constructive manner.

Thanks again though for your comments.

regards

DavidC

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Just commenting FYI others reading the thread. Project doesn't monitor or
identify under-usage at all. The reason is that the project's universe is
circumscribed and by no means the totality of the activities of the firm.
If Joe works 8 hours on Monday yet you have chosen only to assign him in the
project for 4, Project assumes you had a reason for that decision and he is
already committed for the other hours to some undefined something outside
the universe that is known by MS Project. Otherwise you'd have assigned him
100% from the start, right, since the over-riding objective is get the
project done asap? Staffing decisions should always made by people, never
the software (which is why the out-of-the-box task type is fixed units,
btw). If you want to insure the resources are always fully utilized, never
assign them at anything except 100%.

I'm curious why your client wants to monitor the contractor's resources to
make sure they're utilized properly. Isn't that part of the contractor's
business organization that doesn't really affect your client at all. The
contractor has agreed to deliver X product by Y date for Z cost. How he
goes about it is up to him - how he organizes his workers to get the job
done is essentially a black box as far as the client who hired him is
concerned, as long as the contractor delivers on-time.

 

[DavidC]

I fully agree with your sentiments. I made the same observations at the time
to our client, and have made the same point regarding contractual
relationships for many years. However in the past ten plus years there has
been a shift from using in house resources where the company can dictate
utilisation, to outsourcing. However what has happened is that the managers
have not caught up with the fact that they have little 'control' over
resource allocations unless there is something written into the contract.
There is one other area though where the client can have a say in
utilisation, and that is where the contract is not fixed price lunmp sum, but
cost reimbursable. The bootom line is though that you have confirmed my own
toughs on the matter and I thank you for this.

Regards

DavidC