Resource Availability

[neostar77]

I'm having lots of problems assigning a 100% resource and reduce him to 75%
per day. The total number of hours for the task is 25hours.

What are the steps to allocate the resource to 75% per day and "not" change
the duration of the task i.e. 25 hours?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Jim Aksel]

You may be confusing terms.

Duration = the amount of time assigned as work hours between two dates.
Normally this is 40 hours/week over 5 days.

Work = The number of hours it takes to complete a task at an assumed
"production rate". I can work 6 hours on a task during an 8 hour day (I work
at 75% units)

Units% = the percentage of time a resource will donate to the task as a
percentage of their total availability on the resource sheet.

If Resource sheet availability is 100%, this is normally 40 hours/week. If
I assign this resource in the task at 75% the resource will work 30 hours on
the task.

Work = Units% x Duration.

This equation holds at all times. Assuming you have a work=25 hours task...

25 = 75% x Duration
Duration = 25/0.75 = 33.33333 work hours. This is 4.17 work days. There is
no way around this math.

MS Project allows you to specify which one to hold constant while the others
vary. This is the task type: Fixed Work, Fixed Duration, Fixed Units. The
default is fixed units.

If you want the task to be 25 hours over a fixed number of days, change the
task type to fixed duration, key 5 days for duration. Then assign the work
as 25 hours and let the Units% fall where it may.

Window/Split....
The bottom pane will allow you to assign resources, work, units%, task type,
etc.

--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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

 

[neostar77]

Jim,

I'll try this.

Thank you so much for such a clear and detailed explanation on how to
allocate resources based on the concept of work, units and duration of tasks.

You're amazing!

 

[neostar77]

Jim,

I think I did just about a similar way, if not the same that you mentioned.

What I did was:

Entered a task and then double-clicked on the task and entered the rest of
the information:

25h as the duration of the work.
Entered the Resource Name and then pressed "Ok".

And after that, I cliked on "Assign Resources" while on that task and
changed the Resources units from "100%" (set at default) to "75%".

It then worked perfectly with what you said: An extended duration of time
for the task to complete BUT the same number of hours the Resource will spend
on that task, and that is, 25 hours (when seeing the Resource Usage view).

What do you think Jim? Does that sound good to you also? It worked for me.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Please, you really need to clarify your meaning. When you say a task is "25
hours" do you mean it is 25 DURATION hours or 25 WORK hours (actually
man-hours)? They measure two different things, even though they both use
the units "hours" and they are not interchangeable. A task that start
Monday at 8am and finishes Friday at 5pm, default standard calendar, has 40
hours duration. If the resource works on it 100% it is also 40 hours of
work. BUT if the resource only puts in a total of 1 hour per day actually
doing the task, it is STILL 40 hours duration but it is only 5 hours of
(full-time equivalent) work (and the resource is working at 12.5%). So when
you say your task is "25 hours" which kind of hours are you talking about?

 

[neostar77]

Hi Steve,

I mean work hours.

Please, you really need to clarify your meaning. When you say a task is "25
hours" do you mean it is 25 DURATION hours or 25 WORK hours (actually
man-hours)? They measure two different things, even though they both use
the units "hours" and they are not interchangeable. A task that start
Monday at 8am and finishes Friday at 5pm, default standard calendar, has 40
hours duration. If the resource works on it 100% it is also 40 hours of
work. BUT if the resource only puts in a total of 1 hour per day actually
doing the task, it is STILL 40 hours duration but it is only 5 hours of
(full-time equivalent) work (and the resource is working at 12.5%). So when
you say your task is "25 hours" which kind of hours are you talking about?
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I'm having lots of problems assigning a 100% resource and reduce him to
75%
per day. The total number of hours for the task is 25hours.

What are the steps to allocate the resource to 75% per day and "not"
change
the duration of the task i.e. 25 hours?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

First, if your resource is assigned at 100 %, a 25 man-hours WORK task will
have 25 hours DURATION. If the Working Time Calendar for that resource is
the default of 8am-12noon, 1pm-5pm for an 8 hour workday, if the task starts
at 8am on Monday it will end 25 working time hours later, Thursday morning
at 9am (8 hours Mon, 8 hours Tue, 8 hours Wed, 1 hour Thur).

Now we reduce the resource to 75%. One of only two things can occur.
Either we have a Fixed Work task and the duration will increase to 33.3
hours, the 25 man-hours of work now taking from Mon 8am until Fri at 9:20am
to complete, or we have a Fixed Duration task, in which case the time will
still run for 25 hours fom 8am Mon until 9am Thur but the amount of work
done during that time period will drop from 25 man-hours down to 18.75
man-hours. Take your pick.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Hi Steve,

I mean work hours.

Please, you really need to clarify your meaning. When you say a task is
"25
hours" do you mean it is 25 DURATION hours or 25 WORK hours (actually
man-hours)? They measure two different things, even though they both use
the units "hours" and they are not interchangeable. A task that start
Monday at 8am and finishes Friday at 5pm, default standard calendar, has
40
hours duration. If the resource works on it 100% it is also 40 hours of
work. BUT if the resource only puts in a total of 1 hour per day
actually
doing the task, it is STILL 40 hours duration but it is only 5 hours of
(full-time equivalent) work (and the resource is working at 12.5%). So
when
you say your task is "25 hours" which kind of hours are you talking
about?
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I'm having lots of problems assigning a 100% resource and reduce him to
75%
per day. The total number of hours for the task is 25hours.

What are the steps to allocate the resource to 75% per day and "not"
change
the duration of the task i.e. 25 hours?

Thanks in advance for any help!