Resource Plan calculations

[Marlene52]

Does anyone know how a resources calculation is done via the Resource Plan?
If I mark a resource 50% for the month and that month has 176 hours, I would
expect to see 88 hours, instead I see something like 134 hours.
anyone have any suggestions??
Thanks and we are on MSP 2007 and have everything but the April CU installed
Marlene

 

[Ben Howard]

Hi Marlene,
You'll certainly get issues with resource plans unless you have robust
procedures for them (ie don't stray outside of certain parameters and use!)

1st, make sure that they are always set in the future. If I set 1 FTE
resource for June, it will apply the working hours from today onwards.

You can check how FTE relates to the hours by changing the work units and
clicking apply.

Type the FTE values by using decimals, eg 1, .5 instead of 100% or 50%.

The resource plan work day might have an effect, this setting is in
additional server settings.

Also, if you are displaying month columns, make sure your date ranges start
and finish at the beginning and end of a month, similar for weeks - otherwise
correct "but seemingly strange" things happen.

It is possible to get the resource plans to calc the correct values, but it
does take some time and juggling!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Marlene52 --

You will need to get your Project Server administrator involved with this
problem. I believe he/she has made a setting in Project Server 2007 that is
causing the odd calculation. Ask him/her to do the following:

1. Log into PWA with administrator permissions.
2. Click Server Settings - Additional Server Settings (in the Operational
Policies section).
3. Examine the option specified in the Resource Plan Work Day section.

My guess is that he/she selected the "Hours per day" option and entered a
value such as 8, 9, or even 10 in the field. I believe that using the
"Hours per day" option is not very useful because it seems to count
Saturdays and Sundays in its calculations. In that section of the page, I
believe the better option is to select the default option, which is the
"Resource base calendars" option. If he/she changes the option, my guess is
that your Resource Plan hours will straighten themselves out. Hope this
helps.

 

[Marlene52]

Ben, first thanks for your insight. So here is what I found worked for me
(after I recieved a bit of guidance from you and Dale)
I planned work for a fiscal year (Aug 1, 2009- July 31st, 2010) I then put
intervals to "Year" When I entered in the percentages for the resources they
correctly displayed, irregardless of how the Server Settings for Resource
plan were set (ie we use an 8 hour day and it works this way as well.
Thanks so much for taking me down the path of believing that it would
actually calculate correctly, because as of late last week, I would never
have beleived that.
Marlene

 

[Marlene52]

Dale, first thanks for your response. I followed up on the server settings
and ours are set to 8 hours per day. However, when i kept at it, this
setting had no bearing on my final succesful endeavor. Here is what I
finally did and it appears to calculate and work "as designed" (very much
tongue in cheek)
I created a resource plan, selected my date range (Aug 1, 2009- July 31,
2010) and then set the interval to "year". I then entered the FTE part as a
percentage (.5, .8 etc.) and that seems to work and give me the calculations
I expected. Very weird, but I agree that the weekend dates impact the
calculations, I just wanted a way around them without major overhauls to our
current system or practice. Knowing that folks have actually gotten this to
work, was a great benefit, as i was pretty much done with trying.
Thanks for your help and if you would have any questions for me, i would be
happy to respond.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Marlene52 --

I am thankful you got it working, by hook or by crook!