Resource leveling woes

[Nan]

New to the newsgroup...but I've read through and found a
couple posts on resources and leveling. Where do I find
FAQs #28 and #34? I'll start there.

Here's what's going on...(using MSP2002 Std) I have a
project with 1000+ tasks and 35 resources. Each time I've
tried to level, I end up with at least 14 resources being
overallocated - so much so that it looks like MSP is not
doing what it's supposed to do. I don't have resource
calendars, but I do have 3 milestones with constraints
because they are a feed from another schedule (we don't
have server); all other tasks are start ASAP checked via
the filter. I saw the post on showing the minutes, but if
I make changes to the time of day, won't I be adding a
constraint? I am using fixed work as the type in case
that's a problem.

Just to give you an idea of my struggles, when I level
with MSP2002, I end up with a finish date of October
2049...I have to use MSP2000 to get it to stay in this
decade (Oct 2004). If it's taking 26 years to complete,
makes sense the resources wouldn't be overallocated,
right?

Any tips, tricks or suggestions would be incredibly
welcome! Thanks, Nan

 

[Dale Howard]

Nan --

Don't get discouraged with resource leveling. It is one of the great
challenges of every Microsoft Project user, and now you have joined the
club!

To answer your first question, reference the following site to see the FAQ's
in question:

http://mvps.org/project/faqs.htm

Here's a few ideas for you about overallocations and resource leveling:

How have you assigned resources to tasks? Specifically, have you assigned
every resource at 100% Units to every task, meaning that every resource is
assigned to work full-time to every task? If you have done so, that could
be your first source of overallocations. I had a client once who had 10
tasks occurring in the same time period. He assigned the same resource at
100% Units to each of the 10 tasks, resulting in a HUGE resource
overallocation on that resource. What he meant to show was that the
resource would be juggling work on all 10 tasks simultaneously. We ended up
adjusting the Duration of each of the 10 tasks to 15 days, which was the
time window during which work needed to be completed on all 10 tasks. Then
we assigned the same resource to each task at only 10% Units. This cleared
up one big resource overallocation WITHOUT having to attempt to level the
tasks. So, first, I would ask you to examine how you have assigned your
resources in this project. If a resource will not be working full-time on
any particular task, you should not assign that resource at 100% Units on
the task.

Secondly, if you must level using Microsoft Project's built-in leveling
tool, then I would recommend the following approach, so that you can take
total control of the process:

1. Before you level, deselect the "Clear leveling values before leveling"
checkbox in the Resource Leveling dialog box (very important!)
2. Level overallocated resources only in the Resource Usage view (DO NOT
level in the Gantt Chart view because you lose control of the process)
3. Level only one overallocated resource at a time, beginning with your key
resources
4. Examine the results of leveling in the Leveling Gantt view
5. Clear leveling from any tasks that are inappropriately leveled
6. Level the overallocated resources on those tasks using a manual method,
such as substituting an available resource for an overallocated resource
7. Go back to the Resource Usage view, and repeat steps #3-7

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to use resource leveling more
effectively.

 

[Guest]

Thanks much Dale!
I did get to the FAQ and try some of what you have
suggested. Hour-by-hour leveling is much more detailed
than we really want to be and ultimately, we've abandoned
this (I've been at it since early Sept believe it or
not). We are backing way down to a high level file with
functional managers managing their own schedules - we
wanted to do a combined schedule because we have an
extremely cross functional project and team. So now, I
have a database with 118 summary tasks to somehow manage
without any dates...not sure how well it will go, but I'm
beyond discouraged and just not caring. Thanks for your
suggestions though - maybe this project just really
needed a very experienced project manager as I recognized
months ago.
Nan
sorry for the rant, thanks for the space

 

[Steve House]

Don't envy you at all! How you can be expected to "manage" the schedule of
summary tasks without any dates, since by very definition a "schedule" is
the association of the work involved with the dates on which that work will
take place, is beyond me. The very best of luck to you!