Forum Discussion
Units % not updating when multiple resources assigned
Hi - i'm fairly new to MS Project having been a long term P6 user.
I'm trying to get my head round the concepts involved (and diff terminology) for assigning multiple resources. A colleagues and I (also P6 user) just couldn't get to grips with it.
Lets say i have an activity that is going to take about 40 hours of effort over ten days - and i may at some stage want to add a second person to the activity to help share the load.
So, my understanding in MS Project terms is that is effort driven, so I mark the activity as such and change the task type to Fixed Duration. It's 40 hours of effort, over ten days.
I assign Resource D to the activity and MS Project calculates that the resource is used for 50% of their Units and 40hrs of work
I then want to add the second resource A to split the load - and this is where i can't see MS Project calculating it correctly.
It has the correct Work calculated for each at 20 hours - but the Units has remained at 50% (it should be 25% - 20 hours over a 80 hour period is 25%)
I checked the Usage sheet to see if it changed their assigned dates to the first week and second week respectively, but it splits them as i expected - 10 hours each per week.
So why is the % not updating? i can manually change it to 25% and nothing changes, but i feel that's missing the point.
I've not yet seen how this all runs through to the Resource Usage, and how it calculates % - it may all come together correctly there
Any suggestions appreciated
David
David, You're right, it can seem a little strange. And in fact the definition of Assignment Units was changed with the introduction of Project 2010. The field you want to see is the Peak field. That field will show what you are expecting to see (i.e. 50% for the first resource and then 25% when the second resource is added). I suggest you check the Project help file for the Peak field (hover your mouse over the Peak field heading and then hit F1). When the help window pops up, enter Peak. The help file gives some insight as to why the change was made.
An interesting observation is this. Add a third resource. You will see the Peak field show 17% while the Assignment Units field still shows 50% for the first two resources but 25% for the added resource. As you add more resources, the Assignment Units field will "lag" the units value.
Hope this helps.
John
3 Replies
David, You're right, it can seem a little strange. And in fact the definition of Assignment Units was changed with the introduction of Project 2010. The field you want to see is the Peak field. That field will show what you are expecting to see (i.e. 50% for the first resource and then 25% when the second resource is added). I suggest you check the Project help file for the Peak field (hover your mouse over the Peak field heading and then hit F1). When the help window pops up, enter Peak. The help file gives some insight as to why the change was made.
An interesting observation is this. Add a third resource. You will see the Peak field show 17% while the Assignment Units field still shows 50% for the first two resources but 25% for the added resource. As you add more resources, the Assignment Units field will "lag" the units value.
Hope this helps.
John
Thanks John, Peak does show what i'd expect. I'll have a look into the reasons too, that might help me understand how it calculates work/effort.- dc_27,
You're welcome and thanks for the feedback. If I answered your question, please consider marking my response as the answer.
John
