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Resourcing
I manage a programme of road maintenance schemes. I have set up a separate project for each scheme (some 40+ schemes in total). Each scheme is relatively small in size and as such, for the purpose of this programme, only one engineer will be working on each scheme. I have created a master project which will read all the separate individual schemes and put them into one main programme.
I have also created a 'resource pool' which is also fed into the master programme. Typically each engineer will have about 3-4 schemes active at any one time. Any more will be excessive and any less will probably leave them under-resourced. The problem is that when I am in the master project and click on 'View > Resouce Graph' the engineer's time is often at 200, 500, 600% or more. I have tried to level the resources but this only moves the dates out considerably. The engineer might only be spending a hour or two a day at the most on a particular scheme. How can I make the resource alocation more realistic?
RE: Resourcing
Hi Bradley
Thank you for your question. Here's one thing you might like to try.
When you have assigned your resource to a task switch to Resource Usage view. This will show you the planned work that will take place during a task. By default MS Project assumes your resource is working full on the tasks. If this is not the case then adjust the planned work to represent the correct amount. For example a resource following the default calendar assigned to a one day task would have 8 hours work calculated for that day. Use the Usage view to drop this down to 1 hour.
You will see all the tasks assigned to your resource in Resource Usage view, even if they are in other projects so you can balanced the planned work across all their tasks resulting in a more realistic peak units percentage.
Assignment of resources is one of the topics we look at on our 2 day MS Project course. You can find more information online at https://www.stl-training.co.uk/ms-project-training-london-2003-intro-inter.php
I hope this helps - do let us know if you have any further questions.
Kind regards,
Andrew
RE: Resourcing
Hi Andrew
Thanks for your guidance. I was just wondering how in 'Resource Usage' I can change all entires which read 8h with 2h. There are quite a few so I would prefer to find a shortcut rather than go through and change each 8h to 2h individually. I've tried doing it via the 'Edit > Replace' route but it seems a bit complicated!
Please help.
Regards,
Bradley
RE: Resourcing
Hi Bradley
Rather than change all the tasks after the event you could create the tasks with the correct duration and work first. One way to do this is to add the Work column to the Entry table, set the work hours per task and then set Duration. Once you have done that assign your resource to the task. Using this method you can set up a resource working on a one day task which consists of two hours of work.
Be careful about editing the Work value in the Entry table (i.e. in Gantt Chart view) after a resource has been assigned to a task. Depending on your MS Project settings you may find the software changes your task durations.
Making the changes in Resource usage allows you to modify the assigned hours but leaves the duration unchanged.
I hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Andrew
