best way to assign resources

[lynne baker]

Hi all
Project Pro 2002
Server 2002
PWA

I'm sure this is such a basic issue, but some guidance from the
experts would be very much appreciated.
I have almost 300 tasks and about 8 resources.
I would like to allocate tasks to these resources such that the
application calculates what the percentage allocation is.
At the moment we're doing it like this
Create a task
Allocate a resource
Decide what percentage of the resource's time it might take
decide how long it's going to take and enter it into duration
decide how many hours effort is going to be required and enter it into
work.

Something tells me one of those steps is superfluous...

And my resources are all horribly overallocated too!

Ideally, what I'd like to do is keep the work the same, alter the
duration to accommodate the amount of work, and calculate the
percentage allocation automatically.
Again, something tells me I'm asking for the moon!

Many thanks for your help!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Lynne --

It sounds like you need to set the Task Type for all tasks in your project
to Fixed Work. When you do so, you can enter the Work and Duration, and
Microsoft Project will calculate the Units value automatically. If you
later change the Duration of a task, once again Project will recalculate the
Units. Hope this helps.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Lynne --

I forgot to mention a technique that I believe you can use to speed up your
task assignment process. First of all, here's how to set all tasks as Fixed
Work:

1. Click the Select All button in the upper left corner of the table to
select all tasks
2. Click the Task Information button on the Standard toolbar
3. Click the Advanced tab
4. Set the Task Type as Fixed Work and click OK

Here's how to speed up the assignment process:

1. Apply the Gantt Chart view
2. Pull the split bar to the right to expose the Start column
3. Right-click on the Start column and select Insert Column
4. Select the Work column and click OK

The above steps will position the Duration and Work columns side by side.
For each task in the project, enter an estimate for both the Duration
(window of time) and the Work required to complete each task. When you are
ready to assign resources to each task, click the Assign Resources button on
the Standard toolbar. Select a resource and click the Assign button. You
will discover that Microsoft Project automatically calculates the Units
value for you. Hope this helps.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Lynne,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You might also like to have a look at my series of Microsoft Project lessons
in the TechTrax ezine, particularly Lessons 10 & 11 at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc (Perhaps you'd care to rate it before leaving the
site, Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP