Automatic levelling is not working as I expected

[Arjan]

Hi,

I noticed that when I change for example the maximum units from a resource,
I have to enter the Resource Leveling window and press 'Level Now' although
it shows it should level automatically according to the first radio button.

I have also an occassion that a task got split up and the only way to get it
sheduled really 'As soon as possible' was to remove the resource and assign
it again. (although duration said 4 days, work 8 hours and the resource was
assigned 25% units innitially the task was spread over several weeks)

I hope this is just something I don't master yet and someone can tell me how
it really works.

Thanks. Arjan.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Arjan,

Well, indeed leveling doesn't (always) work the way many people expect.
One should realize that the only thing leveling does to resolve
overallocations is to POSTPONE WORK.
It will never ever, never, change assignment units.
If you say you need 20% of a guy to run a task, it will respect that.
If a second task planned at the same toime nees the same guy @100% one of
the two tasks will be postponed as a whole; leveling will not change the
100% to 80% or something like that.

This being said, it is always dangerous when using a simulation tool, toi do
half of the work manually one way and then expect the softwre to reolve the
other half in an other way.

By that I mean that when you allocate a guy 25% to a task you are already
trying to level his workload and since Project's leveling works differently
you may get surprising results.
Leveling works best when all resources are always assigned to their full
capacily (Max Units), then it will sequence them properly and when there is
(more than) work enough, yield a nice even load picture.

About tasks that are split. Even when you leave the option ON on the
leveling window you can insert a column in a task view ("Leveling can
split") and put it to No for certain tasks. Salme goes for handling several
resoruces independently (here the column is called Level Assignments)

And BTW, I don't use automatic leveling - I relevel when necessary.

Hope this helps,

 

[Robert Lindner]

I have had exactly the same problem - When I enter a task it sometimes
changes the resource from 100% to something less. Perhaps leveling is not
the culprit, but something is.