Overtime

[Andrea Racca]

Hi, I have this problem in Project 2003. One of my task will be finish after
deadline that i want to respect.
I can't add other resources to that task, then I want to to add work to
resource that already work to the task.
From Help, I understand how can I add new field "Overtime" to add hours to
the resource; but how can I specified the hours only for a specific day?
Project redistribute hours for days until the end of task..
There are other ways?
Grazie

Andrea

 

[Joe]

You can use the "Task Usage" view and add any amount of hours to any specific
day. If fact, you can even add more than 8 hours of work instead of using
overtime if you want. Just make sure you add the hours to the correct field.

 

[Andrea Racca]

Ok, thank's but, I tried it and add more than 8 hours in a day, but duration
remain the same, not became minor...
andrea

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Does it really matter what day the OT shows up on? Why not go to the
resource and say "Task X next week is supposed to take all week finishing
Friday but we behind schedule and really need to get it done by Thursday.
Think you could work 8 hours of overtime early in the week so we get it done
earlier than originally planned?" and leave it up to the resource himself to
decide how much extra time to put in what day in order to get it done? All
that really counts from a scheduling and even budget standpoint is that
we're doing what it takes to finish when we need it finished. How we get
there is far less important and we really don't need to micromanage most
people. Does it really matter if Joe does 4 hours OT Monday, 2 on Tuesday
and 2 on Wednesday or instead does 2 on Mon, 4 on Tues, and 2 on Wed? It
still finishes a day earlier and the cost is the same regardless. Let him
decide how he wants to do it.

 

[Andrea Racca]

Ok. I'm agree, but how I can do? What field I have to use? thank's

Andrea

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

The easiest way is to select the task in question and split the screen, In
the bottom window right mouse click and format it to show the Resource Work
screen. Enter the number of hours out of the total work hours that you want
to have worked in overtime on the Overtime Work column. Assuming the
fefault calendar, if the task was 5 days duration it would show there was 40
hours of work. IF you entered 8 hours in the OT column, the Work would
remain at 40 hours but the duration would decrease to 4 days, indicting that
out of the 40 hours, 32 would be in regular time and thus count for duration
but 8 hours would be overtime, work done outside the calendar, and so not
count towards the duration.

 

[Andrea Racca]

Thank's Steve. It's good.
I have one more problem.. If the task was doing by 3 resources, the duration
decrease only if I put overtime for every resources... whay? It's the
correct behaviour?
thank's
Andrea

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

The duration is from when work starts until it finishes- If the 3 resources
start together, the duration is the time until the last finishing resource
finishes his part of the work. If you have 3 resources full time on a task
that runs from Mon 8am to Fri 5pm, each resource works 40 hours. If you
assign 8 hours OT to one of them, he'll work MTWT and finish his 40 Thursday
evening. But the other two will still work MTWTF, finishing Fri at 5pm. So
the task duration is still 5 days. Give 8 hours OT to the second resource
and he too will finish Thurs but the 3rd will still work Friday. The task
duration is STILL 5 days. Only when all three finish Thursday will the
duration decrease. Just another example of how hours of duration and
man-hours of work are totally different measures. Regardless of how much
work is done over the course of the task or how it is distributed, duration
is the number of minutes in the working time calendar between when work
begins and when it ends, whether its steady or sporadic or done by 1
resource or a bunch, working together or seperately. A demonstration I give
to my class is a task with 2 resources, one resource working just 8 hours on
Monday, the other resource working just 8 hours on Friday, results in 2 days
of work and 5 days of duration. (In reality you'd probably make that two
tasks but it serves to demonstrate how work and duration can relate to each
other in interesting ways.)
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs