Max Units over 100%

[tdemelle]

I'm seeing some unexpected behavior when assigning max units over 100%

For example, I'd like to assign max units of 350% to a resource and
have Project allocate that unit to 28 hrs a day.

What I'm finding is that project seems to interpret 350% max units as
300% and only allocates to 24 hrs a day.

Oddly, assigning max units in increments less than 100% does seem to
work as I would expect. For example setting max units to 50% allocates
4 hrs of work a day.

Is there a way to tell Project recognize units in increments less than
100 when max units is set over 100%?

 

[Jim Aksel]

When you go to the resource sheet and assign max units to 350% you are
telling project there are 3.5 heads available. That is, there are 3.5*8= 28
manhours available in a day. The number might vary if your settings indicate
more than 8 hours of work per day.

So, if you create a task of duration 2 days (16 business clock hours) and
assign Fred to the task at 350% you will see the duration is 2 days and the
work is 56 hours.

Unfortunately, I am unable to reproduce your error of 24 hours (instead of
28) using P2007 SP2. I am not at a machine where I can check P2003 or P2010
at the moment.
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Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[JulieS]

Hello tdemelle,

How many hours are working time in the resource's calendar? What is
your definition of "day" in Tools > Options, Schedule tab. A
resource assigned at 350% to a task with an 8 hour duration is 28
hours of work.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[tdemelle]

Moving responses to this thread.

When you go to the resource sheet and assign max units to 350% you are
telling project there are 3.5 heads available. That is, there are
3.5*8= 28
manhours available in a day. The number might vary if your settings
indicate
more than 8 hours of work per day.

So, if you create a task of duration 2 days (16 business clock hours)
and
assign Fred to the task at 350% you will see the duration is 2 days and
the
work is 56 hours.

Unfortunately, I am unable to reproduce your error of 24 hours (instead
of
28) using P2007 SP2. I am not at a machine where I can check P2003 or
P2010
at the moment.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

Hello tdemelle,

How many hours are working time in the resource's calendar? What is
your definition of "day" in Tools > Options, Schedule tab. A
resource assigned at 350% to a task with an 8 hour duration is 28
hours of work.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

First, I want to say thank you so much for providing your knowledge
here. It's great to have a responsive resource like this!

I am using Project 2007 sp 2 and after playing around a bit, I am still
experiencing the problem. I suspect maybe I don't understand the
behavior I should be expecting or perhaps I may have toggled something
somewhere at some point that is throwing things off. A Project learning
opportunity.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, to better illustrate what I'm
going for, here's a jpg that shows a clean test project with the
resource set to 350%, but with the resource sheet showing the result of
leveling to be 24 hrs of work per day. What I want to do is have the
resource be providing 28 hours of work a day...

http://picasaweb.google.com/TDeMelle/RandomJunk#5390669767286622530

 

[JulieS]

Moving responses to this thread.




First, I want to say thank you so much for providing your
knowledge
here. It's great to have a responsive resource like this!

I am using Project 2007 sp 2 and after playing around a bit, I am
still
experiencing the problem. I suspect maybe I don't understand the
behavior I should be expecting or perhaps I may have toggled
something
somewhere at some point that is throwing things off. A Project
learning
opportunity.

As a picture is worth a thousand words, to better illustrate what
I'm
going for, here's a jpg that shows a clean test project with the
resource set to 350%, but with the resource sheet showing the
result of
leveling to be 24 hrs of work per day. What I want to do is have
the
resource be providing 28 hours of work a day...

http://picasaweb.google.com/TDeMelle/RandomJunk#5390669767286622530


--
tdemelle
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It appears as though you've assigned the resource at 100% to each of
the tasks. If you do not specify assignment units, project will
assign at 100%. If you've set the resource max. units at 350% when
you assign you must specifically **assign** at 350%. Also, resource
leveling will NEVER change assignment units. You've assign Group 1
to Task 1 at 100%.

I hope this helps.
Julie

 

[tdemelle]

It appears as though you've assigned the resource at 100% to each of
the tasks. If you do not specify assignment units, project will
assign at 100%. If you've set the resource max. units at 350% when
you assign you must specifically **assign** at 350%. Also, resource
leveling will NEVER change assignment units. You've assign Group 1
to Task 1 at 100%.

I hope this helps.
Julie

Responses to my threads all appear to me in my "double posted in error
thread. I'm bringing the dialogue back here in case anyone is searchin
and/or following...

My understanding of the moving parts of Project is getting better, bu
I definitely still have a way to go!

What I'm trying to do is make a plan involving a large number of task
over an extended period of time being undertaken by a group o
interchangeable people.

So to use a concrete example, I have 1000 tasks, 6 months and 3 worker
that I know will be taking time off at some point in that productio
cycle leaving their working time at about 80%.

I've attempted to model the three workers by creating a resource wit
max units of 300%. I've attempted to model the expected time off acros
the team by shaving 20% off that number leaving 240%.

What I'd like to have happen at that point is for Project to spit out
plan that shows 240% work daily against the pile of 1000 tasks.
Instead, the way I have it set up, it's only showing 200% work daily.

I'm fairly certain at this point there must be a more flexible an
straightforward way of modeling this scenario in Project, but am no
quite sure exactly what it is..

 

[JulieS]

Responses to my threads all appear to me in my "double posted in
error"
thread. I'm bringing the dialogue back here in case anyone is
searching
and/or following...

My understanding of the moving parts of Project is getting better,
but
I definitely still have a way to go!

What I'm trying to do is make a plan involving a large number of
tasks
over an extended period of time being undertaken by a group of
interchangeable people.

So to use a concrete example, I have 1000 tasks, 6 months and 3
workers
that I know will be taking time off at some point in that
production
cycle leaving their working time at about 80%.

I've attempted to model the three workers by creating a resource
with
max units of 300%. I've attempted to model the expected time off
across
the team by shaving 20% off that number leaving 240%.

What I'd like to have happen at that point is for Project to spit
out a
plan that shows 240% work daily against the pile of 1000 tasks.
Instead, the way I have it set up, it's only showing 200% work
daily.

I'm fairly certain at this point there must be a more flexible and
straightforward way of modeling this scenario in Project, but am
not
quite sure exactly what it is...


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tdemelle
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Have you assigned the resources at 240%? Split the screen (Window >
Split) -- select a task -- what does the assignment unit say?

Project will **never** automatically adjust assignment units through
resource leveling. Project will adjust assignment units if on a
fixed duration task, you alter work or on a fixed work task you
alter duration.

Julie

 

[Steve House]

I think you're not looking at the project in enough detailed granularity.
You need to be looking at the individual tasks, not just the mass. Even if
each task will require the same number of resources or could be done by any
of them, they're not identical. "Design Widgets" is likely to require quite
a different amount of work than "Machine Left Squidgy Link." Likewise, 3
resources each taking 20% of the time off sometime within 60 months is not
an undifferentiated lump to be scheduled at an average level. It's having e
people each available 100% with one of them taking off the 2nd week and
another taking off the 4th week, etc. You're not assigning 1 resource 240%,
you're assigning either 1 person or 2 people or 3 people. The idea is that
you end up with a shedule that lefts you tell Joe Plumber that he needs to
show up at 123 Main St on Tuesday at 10am with the tools and parts to
install a bathtub and since he should be done by the end of the day, Fred
Painter can plan on starting the walls on Wednesday.

 

[tdemelle]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I can see how using assignment units per task instead of max units per
resource I may be able to accomplish what I'm trying to do. Essentially
I may be able to set up a single resource set at 100% max units to
represent each dept and then use assignment units for each of that
dept's tasks to designate available bandwidth for my forecast.

A couple questions arise from trying to implement this. First, for
some reason when I add an "assignment units" column to my data table, it
shows nothing in any of the cells. Is this expected behavior? I would
think it would show what my assignment units are and therefore allow
easy bulk editing.

In follow up to that, if that is expected behavior, is there a way to
easily bulk edit assignment units?

Steve, in response to your post, I understand I'm deviating a bit from
the intended very specific nature of Project. I've got such a complex
schedule that I'm trying to avoid any unnecessary constraints. Is there
a way to have Project assign resources automatically based on their
skills? I'd love to work that way, but if it's manual assignment of
individual team members, that would be infeasible for me to manage.
I've got thousands of tasks in complex dependency chains that change and
shift frequently that are assigned across 30-50 resources. I need to be
able to build a forecast six months out, but don't really know week to
week who will actually be doing specific work within a dept. I also
don't know when people will take their time off or be booked in meetings
over the next six months; only that it will likely reduce their working
time by about 20%. If there's a best practice for modeling that into a
longterm forecast, I'd love to know it.

Thanks again for the input. I do really appreciate it!!

 

[JulieS]

Hi tdemelle,

My comments are inline below.

Julie

Thanks for the responses guys.

[Julie] - You're welcome.

I can see how using assignment units per task instead of max units
per
resource I may be able to accomplish what I'm trying to do.
Essentially
I may be able to set up a single resource set at 100% max units to
represent each dept and then use assignment units for each of that
dept's tasks to designate available bandwidth for my forecast.

[Julie] You can set the max. units to above 100% -- you can set it
to 350%. The issue is you need to **assign** the resource at 350%.
If you create your resources with a max. units of 100% and assign at
values above 100%, you will be creating overallocations. Max. units
above 100% does not change the default assignment units -- which are
100%. You need to specifically assign at the units you need.

A couple questions arise from trying to implement this. First,
for
some reason when I add an "assignment units" column to my data
table, it
shows nothing in any of the cells. Is this expected behavior? I
would
think it would show what my assignment units are and therefore
allow
easy bulk editing.

[Julie] The assignment units field will only show data in one of
the two Usage views -- Task Usage or Resource Usage. Add the field
to either one of those views and you should be all set.

In follow up to that, if that is expected behavior, is there a way
to
easily bulk edit assignment units?

Steve, in response to your post, I understand I'm deviating a bit
from
the intended very specific nature of Project. I've got such a
complex
schedule that I'm trying to avoid any unnecessary constraints. Is
there
a way to have Project assign resources automatically based on
their
skills?

[Julie] No. Project will never automatically assign resources --
that's the Project Manager's job.

 

[Steve House]

Project never automatically assigns resources on its own, that's your job.
There's nothing worng with using generic resources though, ie, carpenter.
painter, engineer, etc. If you had 3 engineers you would create resource
Engineer with a maximum availability of 300%. Then if you need 2 of them to
work on the Design Widget task, you can assign Engineer 200% to that task.
You may not know if the Engineering department head is going to assign Bill,
Joe, or Sue but you can go to him and tell him you need 2 engineers work on
the widget design during the second week of November.

Why is it infeasible to manage hundreds of tasks and the assignments of
30-50 resources? That's what project managers do - its implicit in the
nature of the job. The manager doesn't just passively report and try to
predict what the resources will decide to do - he organizes and directs
their assignments so the tasks happen when they need to happen in order to
bring the project in on time and within budget. Likewise why don't you know
when they're taking vacation time - as a member of the project team, at the
very least they need to keep you informed on vacation time, etc. In many
cases, in an organization where project managment is part of the line of
business, they don't take the time off unless the project manager allows
them to take the time off. Or if their department head is deciding who
among his employees is working on what project task, then it's up to him to
insure the people are there when they need to be.