Resource allocation given work time in project?

[nrmiller]

Hey all, I'm a relatively new Project user currently building an IMS. I'm currently trying to make my IMS driven by task work hours (i.e. the task takes 80 hours) and a resource's available work time (i.e. 30% of their total time allocated to a project.) I'm trying to figure out if it's possible for start date, resource, and work hours to be used as an output and Project will give me an end date as an output. I've been looking for an answer to this for a while with no luck. Especially since sometimes a resource will do two tasks in tandem which makes it even more difficult to manually calculate. Thanks in advance for your help.

[#2]

@nrmiller 

I assume you meant to say that the start date, resource and work hours are the INPUT and finish date is the output. No problem.

When you say the resource is only available for 30% of the time on the project I assume the other 60% is dedicated to other projects not part of your IMS. So the first thing to do is to set up the resource with a Max Unit value of 30% via the Resource Sheet.

The next thing to do is to set the task type to Fixed Work and set the Work to 80h

Then assign the resource at his/her full level and Project will calculate the duration and finish date.

When you say the resource may work two tasks in tandem do you perhaps really mean in parallel? If indeed you do mean in tandem then simply link the two tasks with a default finish-to-start dependency and assign the resource at 30% to each task. If however, you really mean in parallel, then you can either assign the resource to each parallel task at 15% to avoid overallocation or set the task type to Fixed Duration as noted in my response to your other question as couple of weeks ago.

John

[#3]

Hello, thank you, this is helpful. I'm wondering if I have to enter the percentage time for each task, though, as entering the max units in the overall resource sheet didn't change the dates until I set the percentage for each resource on each task.

[#4]

Further, another question. I initially had two resources on my Resource sheet with 30% time each towards the project. Those resources were replaced with people who had 50% time they could dedicate to the project, but when I switched them in the dates didn't change or recalculate (since the intention was to shorten the time by having two people with more time to work on it.) I again had to manually put in the percentage time for the tasks they're assigned to so perhaps this was the wrong thing to do. Thanks in advance for your help.

[#5]

@nrmiller,

To your first response, yes, you have to set the assignment level of each resource for each task.

On your followup question, many new users, (and some who've used Project for a while), think/hope Project has the ability to optimize resources (e.g. assigning resources with more availability). Project does NOT have that capability. Changing resources without further manual "shuffling" will not automatically give the desired result.

Hope this helps.

John