Using Project as Resource Planner

KDash1228 

Thanks for the info. The first thing I suggest is change all your tasks to auto-scheduled. Manual scheduling may be useful when setting up a rough draft for a plan but once the plan is in place and you're ready to assign resources, all tasks should be auto-scheduled. Only then can you reap the benefits of Project's scheduling engine.


I see you have tasks that are set up as milestones (i.e. zero duration). Keep in mind that milestones are not tasks at all, they are a point in time normally defining the beginning or end of a group of activities. Milestones should not have resources assigned.


I also note that your task durations are all 5 days yet the resource hours do not add up to what is normally a full workweek (i.e. 40h). If your tasks are supposed to be for a fixed time span then I suggest you set the tasks as Fixed Duration and adjust resource hours as desired to occur anytime during that span.


As far as setting up the Task or Resource Usage views for weekly and yearly resource work loads, set the timescale to show weeks for weekly spread and a separate view with the timescale set to show years for yearly hours. Alternately, you can set the timescale to show weeks and then add the Cumulative Work field in the Details. You'll have to do a little math with the cumulative values see the difference year to year, but it will all be in one view.


Hope this helps.
John