Resource % and fixed hours

[jaime]

Hi,

I'm working with MS Project 2003 and I have the following question.
I have about 50 tasks and they're assigned as follow:

Task1 Takes 20 effort hours.
Task1 is assigned to 2 people - Jim and Peter.
Jim and Peter are assigned to work 70% of their 40 hour week = .7*40 = 28
hours.
Task1 also assigns Peter to work 12 hours and Jim 8.

However, after assigning all the hours I get Peter and Jim's names in RED.
I did the following to the resources.

In the Resource sheet I set "Max Units" for both Peter and Jim at 70%
Then I went and assigned their names to the tasks. Then went to Resource
Usage and applied the number of hours each resource can work on the task.
I still see both names in Red and with a yellow flag. How do I view this
and how can I fix it? Thank you for your help.

 

[JulieS]

Hi jaime,

Seeing a resource's name in red in the Resource Sheet or the
Resource Usage view is an indication that the resource's are
overallocated. Overallocations are usually caused by an overlap in
the schedules of tasks with the same resource assigned and that
overlap and assignments cause the Peak units (sum of assignment
units during the overlap) to be higher than the Max. Units for the
resource. You may also create overallocations by assigning a
resource at above his/her max. units to a single task.

The 70% max units means that in a single day, the resource can only
generate a max. of .7 * 8 hours or 5.6 hour in a single day. Is the
12 hours for Peter and the 8 hours for Jim occurring in a single
day?

Work, duration, and assignment units are all mathematically related
through the formula:
Work = Duration * Units.

In order for Jim to generate 8 hours of work at 70% assignment
units, the task duration needs to be 1.43 days.

To resolve the overallocation, you'll either need to delay tasks to
make sure that during any single minute each resource's max. units
is not above 70% or drop the assignment units so the sum during any
minute is not above max. You can have Project resolve
overallocation using the Resource Leveling command available through
Tools > Level Resources. If you choose to use the resource leveling
command, a couple of suggestions:
1) save your project first
2) you may wish to display the Resource Allocation view (available
from the Resource Management Toolbar)
3) You may wish to review overallocations first using the Go to Next
Overallocation button to help you discover which assignments are
causing the overallocation.
4) If you decide to level from the Resource Allocation view and
level each resource separately. You can then determine which tasks
were delayed.

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

 

[jaime]

JulieS,

Thank you very much for your reply. I was having such a hard time trying to
figure it out that I had almost given up. Your post provide such good
insight and now I have fixed the problem. The solution was that somehow in
the Resource Sheet I had made a mistake by providing a date from and a date
to. These constraints were surpassed by the length of the assignments and
were going beyond their allocated calendar days. Once I changed that it wall
worked.

Thank you so much. Your email gave me more power to continue searching...

-jaime

 

[JulieS]

You're most welcome Jaime. I'm glad to have helped and thanks for
the feedback.
Julie