Urgent Deadline Scheduling Problem

[joshroberts]

I'm using Microsoft Project 2000 and trying to schedule a project to end on
the deadline. When I change the rule to end on the deadline date, some of my
resources are overallocated due to this change. I realize this is happening
because the constraints are now finish as late as possible but is there any
way around this? If not, is there any other method by which I could schedule
my project so that it will end on the deadline and start as late as possible?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

You are encountering one of the reasons it is very poor practice to schedule
backwards from the required finish date - it makes all tasks critical - with
zero slack time - and takes away any "wiggle room" you have in the event of
problems during the project's execution (and there are ALWAYS problems!).
Your resources are overallocated so they have been scheduled to be in two
places at once, on parallel tasks. What needs to happen is some of those
tasks need to move earlier in the schedule, But when you resource level you
probably have turned on the "level only within available slack" option.
Since there is no slack, Project is unable to fix it. You may also have put
in some task start or end dates, thus setting "Start No Earlier Than" or
"Finish No Earlier Than" constraints before switching your scheduling method
to "From Finish Date." This too means Project can't shift tasks forward in
the schedule. Remove any constraints and run resource leveling with the
"level only in available slack" option turned off.

 

[joshroberts]

This still did not solve the problem. Any other suggestions?

 

[JulieS]

Hi Joshroberts,

When you view the resource sheet or the resource usage view, is there an
indicator next to the overallocated resource's name? If the resource's name
is still red, but there is no indicator in the indicator column, you need to
change the "Look for overallocations on a: " setting in the Level Resources
command to a finer level(hours or minutes). Try leveling on less than a day
by day basis and see if that helps.
See also FAQ 28 & 34 at www.mvps.org/project

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.
Julie

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

A thought occurs - what are your settings for the "granularity" of the
leveling? Day-by-Day, Hour-by-Hour, etc? If the overallocation is, for
example, due to an overlap of 2 hours and you're leveling with the setting
on Day-by-Day it won't fix it.

If that's not it, ya got me - if you'd care to email the file or a sample
that also shows the problem I'd be happy to take a look at it but I haven't
been able to duplicate your situation.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[joshroberts]

This still didn't solve the problem. Is there an email address I can send it
to for you to look over?

Josh

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Send it to sjhouse at hotmail dot com


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

 

[joshroberts]

Thanks for your help. Your suggestions worked great.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi JulieS,

Your email addreess does not work for me - could you email me please?


Mike Glen
Project MVP