MS project - need help with resources

[Ziv]

Hello,

I am new to MS Project, I need to allocate a work resource with max-units
calculated per week, e.g. a person which is available for 10 hrs per week. My
problem is that I don't want to limit the resource to an equal distribution
along the week, i.e. it is possible for him to work all his 10 hrs in the
same day of the week, as long as he won't work on any other day at that week.
Currently it seems that when I set Max Unit of this resource to 25% , which
based on the standard calendar of 40 hrs per week, is 10 hrs per week, MS
project automatically distributes these 10 hrs along the week, i.e. 2 hrs per
day, and will warn for over-allocation if this person works more then 2
hours, which is not what I wanted. Can you help me with this?

Thank you!
Ziv

 

[JulieS]

Hello Ziv,

By default, project will spread the work for a resource evenly
across the task duration. You can edit the work distribution by
editing the work on a timephased basis using either the Task Usage
or Resource Usage views.

You can also use the view to zoom out of the timescale to a weekly
basis and check that the resource is not working more than 10 hours
per week.

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

Hello,

I am new to MS Project, I need to allocate a work resource with
max-units

.. calculated per week, e.g. a person which is available for 10 hrs
per week. My

 

[Ziv]

Hi Julie,

first, thank you for the quick response.

I'll try to give an example:

A certain resource is a person - named Ziv.
Ziv can work only 10 hours a week.

A certain task , named A, has a duration of 5 hours, which includes 2
regular workers working on it for the whole 5 hours + Ziv working on it for 3
hours.
The task was set for March 9, 8:00am until March 9, 13:00.

let's say this is the only task Ziv has for this week, hence, it should not
be flaged as an allocation overload for Ziv, since he didn't work more then 5
hours that week.
However. since MS Project, automatically devided those 10 hours per week,
into 2 hours per day, The resource Ziv does show an allocation-overload for
March 9, since he is working 3 hours that day.

I want it to look at the constaint of 25% job for the resource Ziv, as a
weekly constraint, and not a daily one.

Thank you,
Ziv

 

[JulieS]

Hi Ziv,

I understand more clearly what you are searching for now.
Unfortunately, you cannot set Ziv's Max. units to 25% and allow him
to be assigned at above that percentage for even as little as a
minute, without having Project flag him as overallocated -- his name
will turn red. In the scenario you describe he is allocated at 60%
to the 5 hour duration task with 3 hours of work. Because the 60%
is above the 25% max -- he's overallocated.

However, if Ziv was only working that single task that week his
level of overallocation means that on a weekly basis he is not
overallocated. If you go to Tools > Level Resources and set the
option to Look for overallocations on a Week by Week basis and then
click OK, you'll see the yellow flag next to Ziv's name disappear.
That is an indication that he is overallocated for that one day --
but on a weekly basis, he isn't.

Unfortunately there is no direct way (other than the method I
described) to be able to tell project to allow Ziv to work a max. of
10 hours during this 5 day period of time -- regardless of whether
the 10 hours happens spread evenly at 2 hours per day or all in one
chunk.

I hope this helps.

Julie

 

[Ziv]

Thank you very much, it was helpful.

Ziv

Hi Ziv,

I understand more clearly what you are searching for now.
Unfortunately, you cannot set Ziv's Max. units to 25% and allow him
to be assigned at above that percentage for even as little as a
minute, without having Project flag him as overallocated -- his name
will turn red. In the scenario you describe he is allocated at 60%
to the 5 hour duration task with 3 hours of work. Because the 60%
is above the 25% max -- he's overallocated.

However, if Ziv was only working that single task that week his
level of overallocation means that on a weekly basis he is not
overallocated. If you go to Tools > Level Resources and set the
option to Look for overallocations on a Week by Week basis and then
click OK, you'll see the yellow flag next to Ziv's name disappear.
That is an indication that he is overallocated for that one day --
but on a weekly basis, he isn't.

Unfortunately there is no direct way (other than the method I
described) to be able to tell project to allow Ziv to work a max. of
10 hours during this 5 day period of time -- regardless of whether
the 10 hours happens spread evenly at 2 hours per day or all in one
chunk.

I hope this helps.

Julie

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome Ziv. Glad to have helped and thanks for the
feedback.

Julie

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

25% does not mean he is only available for 10 hours out of the 40. It
really means that it will take him 40 hours to do 10 hours worth of
full-time equivalent work. If you can only have him for 10 hours per week
and yet when you have him he can devote his full efforts to the task at
hand, doing getting 4 man-hours worth of work done in 4 hours of working
time, for example, you need to create a resource calendar that shows he
works 10 hours per week and is available a maximum of 100% for those 10
hours.