Varying resource availability across single task

[R. Drummond]

I was wondering if anyone has experienced this or has a solution for it:
Project resource is available to the project 20% of his time at the start of
the project. As project progresses to development phase, his availability
increases to 75% of his time through the end of development. After
development is over, his availability reduces back to 20%.

For this resource I set the Resource Availability Available From and To
Dates for the applicable time and percentage available values.

I have a task that spans the entire project that this resource is assigned
to. When MSP calculates Estimated Effort Hours, it seems to calculating the
hours for the entire task at the first availability percentage (20%), rather
than calculating the applicable hours based on dates and percentages.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

The solution is not to use percentages but a work calendar for the resource
(1 day a week at 100% instead of 20%, etcetera).
Project will then nicely plan the resource as you want it to.

 

[JulieS]

Hi R.,

Yes, when you assign a resource with variable availability, Project
assigns the resource at his/her max. units at the start of the task and
does not modify the assignment units by the change in availability.

You can certainly manually contour a resource's assignment units.
Display the Resource Usage view, double click on the Assignment row and
select a different contour other than "Flat".

You can also add the Peak Units field to the time scaled portion, zoom
out as you need and change the scheduled work for the resource. You can
use the Peak Units per week or month (depending upon zoom) to gauge
whether you are close to the resource's max. units.

The other option (and the one I would suggest) is to break your tasks
into smaller pieces (development tasks separate from earlier phase
tasks) to allow project to hit the changing availability more
accurately.


I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello,

Actually Project works that way ;-(
I'm afraid you will have to assign this resource manually in the Resource
Usage view...

Gérard Ducouret