Forum Discussion
Why Increasing Task Resource Units Project Doesn't Reduce Task Duration
I have a project that I am trying to reduce occurrences of overallocations during parts of the project, and so I increased the assignment units for a task to 150% since I have two personnel each at 75% able to work on the task. Rather than creating two resources, I just kept one resource basically representing the team for that software application. So 150% represents the combined units available for a two person team.
I would have expected the duration of the task to decrease since I changed the task type from fixed duration to fixed units and is effort driven. Changing the assignment units from 75% to 150% for some reason did not reduce task duration and I can't figure out why. Any ideas?
Well, you don't want a "fixed units" task because you are changing the units. What you really want is a fixed work type task that by default is "effort driven". So increasing the assignment units will, by default, reduce the duration.
Regardless of which task type you have, when you make a change to one of the three variables in Project's scheduling equation, duration, work, or units, a small triangle, (yeah, this one you can readily see), will appear in the upper left corner of the field you are changing. Along with the little triangle you should see an option selector immediately to the left of the field which will allow you to better define your intent.
You may also find it very useful to click on the column heading for the Type field and then hit the F1 key. That will bring up the help file for that field.
John
