Scheduling recurring tasks vs one-time tasks

[John Townsend]

I'm not completely new to Project but haven't used it in awhile.

I have a resource, let's call her Sally, who works Monday-Friday
(default work schedule). Every Wed and Thursday Sally has a repeating
task. The rest of the week, Sally has non repeating tasks (can be
single day or multiple day tasks).

I've figured out how to make a task repeat (I believe MS Project uses
the term recurring task). However, for example, if I assign Sally a 4
day task, starting on Monday, Project overlaps the 4 day task with
repeating task. I'd like to configure Project to never schedule a one
time task during the days of the repeating task.

I suppose I could create two separate resources, "Sally Monday,
Tuesday, Friday" and "Sally Wednesday and Thursday". But that doesn't
seem like how I'm supposed to handle this situation.

If you have any suggestions, please email me as well as posting.

Thanks

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

John --

In a scenario like yours, you have unintentionally overallocated Sally
between the the Wed/Thurs recurring task and the other regular tasks
occuring on the same days. There is no way to configure Microsoft Project
to avoid this situation, so your best bet would be to make your resource
assignments in the project plan and then to level Sally's overallocations.
Here's one way to do it:

1. Apply the Resource Usage view
2. Select Sally's name (it should appear in red because she is
overallocated)
3. Click Tools - Level Resources
4. Select the "Day by Day" option in the Leveling calculations section
5. Make sure the "Leveling can create splits in remaining work" option in
selected in the Resolving Overallocations section
6. Click the Level Now button
7. In the Level Now dialog, select the "Selected resources" option
8. Click OK

Following these steps will only resolve Sally's overallocations. If her
name is still formatted in red, you may need to repeat the above steps, but
in step #4 you may need to select the "Hour by Hour" option. Hope this
helps.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultant
Denver, Colorado
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
"We wrote the book on Project Server"