How do I force a resource to work on a task until it's done?

[Bill Zvonar]

I've got 2 resources with different start dates working on a task... Project
insists on splitting the amount of work evenly between them, rather than
having them both work until the task is done.

How do I force both resources to work on the task until it's done?

More details...

I've defined a task (fixed work, work = 30wks).



Resource A is available in wk01.



Resource B is available in wk11.



If I assign Resource A, alone, to the task, it'll complete in wk30, as
expected.



If I assign Resource B, alone, to the task, it'll complete in wk40, as
expected.



Now, if I assign both Resource A & B to the task, Project insists on
dividing the Work between them equally. therefore Resource A stops working
on the task after wk15, even though after that, Resource B still works on
the task, alone, until wk25. Resource A doesn't have anything to do after
wk15 (i.e. he's at 0% after wk15).



I would expect that A would continue to work on the task until it's done,
which would mean they'd both work on it until wk20, and it'd be done then.



It seems to me that I'm missing, or misunderstanding, something
basic/obvious here. Any suggestions?



Some more context...



- Resource A & B both work 40h/wk while they're working... no contouring

- I get the same results if I define this as a 'fixed units / effort driven'
task



Thanks.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Bill,

That is how project works.
It splits the work regardless of availability.
You can use the task usage view to change the work split between the two
resources, Project doesn't do that for you.
HTH

 

[Bill Zvonar]

Jan, thanks for the reply... I thought there was an option that I was
missing.

I have to ask though... _why_ doesn't Project do this for me?

Wouldn't it make sense for Project to have an 'optimize resource assignments
to finish task as early as possible' option per task?

Is this a common wish list item, or is there a deeper reason why this
wouldn't be a good thing to have?

Thanks...

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Bill,

Such questions are IMHO way beyond what one may expect of future versions of
Project.

You use the word OPTIMIZE... there is as good as nothing in Project that
even tries to optimize. That is a whole new area. Today Project is a
calculation tool with pretty straightforward calculating rules to calculate
DATES.

Moreover, but for very few cases, Project will always expect YOU to fix
assignments and will calculate dates from there.

Mind you, I like the product very very much... but when I got it I only
expected it to do the calculations for me; I know optimizing is a different
ballgame.

HTH

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

One thing that might help is to see if you can break the task down into
smaller units that can then be parcelled out to your two resources
individually. The general rule in a WBS is to try for a 1-task/1-resource
correspondence, resource in this context being either an individual or a
team that must work together as a unit, like a painter and his assistant,
both of whom must be present for the job to proceed. Another rule of thumb
that can help is the 8/80 Rule - if the tasks are smaller than about 8
man-hours you're trying to excessively micromanage the resources and if
they're longer than about 80 man-hours you are likely to be looking at what
is really a grouping of a number of different activities rather than a
single discrete activity. 1200 man-hours (30 man-weeks) is well over that
threshold. If you can separate out the individual components you may be
able to split the work in such a way that the overall group is done in the
shorted possible time even with the second resource joining late.