Allocating resources that determine the project end date.

[walshdj]

Sorry new to project. Forgive me if this is a dumb question.

I’m trying to draft a project plan at the moment. I have all the tasks in and durations etc as well as a number of resources. I want certain resources to work on certain groups of tasks (based on skillsets and location) and Project to automatically work out what they work on when based on their task workload and priorities.

At the moment I dont mind if the project end date is extended but I will be allocating extra resourses to certain tasks at the end to pull back the project finish date.

I have tried to use the leveling function to do this but project keeps giving me errors to say that it cannot resolve resource allocation problems.

Do you know if I am doing something wrong or if there is a better way to achieve what I am trying to achieve. Do I have to set fixed start dates myself?

 

[PDQBach]

You didn't specify what the error messages are.

Possibly you have assigned resources to Summary tasks. This is a very bad idea. Always assign resources to the actual tasks and never to the Summary tasks.

Levelling is used to reduce/eliminate overallocation. It only pushes the tasks out and never pulls back and it never attempts to optimize resource allocation (if a resource is being used at 50% on a task, levelling will not pull the finish date back so that the resource is now being used at 100%).

 

[walshdj]

Error is as follows:

This overallocation cannot be resolved.
"Resource 1" is assigned at more than the resource's maximum units to task "Task 5". Either reduce the resource's assigned units or increased the resource's availability in the resource information dialog box.

I have not assigned resources to summary tasks.I do however have multiple summary tasks broken down hiercially. I am wondering if that is causing issues. It seems to be able to push out tasks within the summary task but acts a bit differently with tasks that are in different summary. I want project to work out which group of tasks can be worked on a what times based on how busy a resourse is and priorities. Outside of that I would prefer that the tasks within each summary are performed together as they are related to each other. Can Project work with that inteligence?

 

[PDQBach]

Sounds to me as if you've applied a "Must Finish On" constraint to Task 5.

Technically, project levels the resource by removing over-allocations (by delaying tasks). It doesn't schedule the tasks but, rather, de-schedules them until the resource is no longer overloaded.

By judiciously assigning different priorities, you can tell project which tasks can be "de-scheduled" before others but if two tasks have the same priority then other factors come into play before project determines which task it will de-schedule most.

(Everybody uses levelling once. Masochists use it more than once. You will find that manually levelling takes longer -- but gives you much better results.)

 

[walshdj]

I dont have any "Must finish on Tasks" anywhere as I have no deadlines too meet at the moment(until I go to get approval for the project!)

Thats the way I presumend it techncally worked but it doesnt seem to be doing what I thought it as going to do. I havent assigned priorities at the moment as I just want to see what the bigger picture looks like first. I had planned on using priorities as you had suggested after the fact.

Thanks for your help. Any other ideas would be welcome

 

[PDQBach]

What constraint type and constraint date do you have on Task 5?

 

[walshdj]

Constraint type is ASAP and Constraint Date is NA. This is the same for all tasks.

 

[PDQBach]

Hmmmm ...

Try this: File | Save As...
Set the file type to "CSV (Comma delimited)"

In the Wizard:
panel1 - click Next
panel2 - click "selected data"; Next
panel3 - click "use existing map"; Next
panel4 - click "Task 'Export Table' map"; Next
panel5 - set the text delimiter to comma; Finish

Open the file and post the contents here.