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flag a scheduling conflict

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itasueb

MIS
Mar 11, 2005
29
US
Can I set up project to flag a resource scheduling conflict? i.e. I want it to notify me if I have a resource scheduled for concurrent tasks
 
Having a resource working on multiple tasks concurrently is not an error -- in fact, this is something that almost always happens in real life.

View > Resource Usage

First, check to see the "Max Units" entry for each resource. 100% is generally unrealistic (there are always meetings, emails, support phone calls, etc., etc., that need to be considered).

All resources in bold red have at least one overallocation.

Note that because of the way project schedules tasks, it is possible to have, for example, a resource assigned to 2 4-hour tasks on the same day and Project -- under specific circumstances -- will show that resource as overallocated.

Note that looking for day-by-day overallocations is a waste of time. At best, look for overallocations on a month-by-month basis.

View > Resource Usage
Format > Timescale and set middle tier to Years with a count of 1 and set the bottom tier to Months with a count of 1.

Finally, overallocations are based on Work assigned to that resource. If your estimates are wrong then your perceived overallocations will be wrong.
 
All of my tasks are jobs at different locations throughout the country. This leads me to believe that resource usage should be at 100% since a guy cannot be on 2 jobs at one time. Your tip seems to be just what I needed, but please correct me if I am wrong about usage percentages. Thank you for the direction
 
Assume you have a task that has 5 days of work.

At 100% allocation you would expect that resource to do that work in 1 week without stopping to do anything else.

If you allow time for, say, a single 1-hour progress review meeting then you have to do one of two things:

1. Extend the duration by 1 hour (into the next week) because the estimate of 5 days of work was exactly correct.

2. Keep the duration at 5 days but recognize that the Work estimate was high.

So, if you are confident that the Work estimate is accurate and you know that there will be no other tasks that the resource will be doing during that time then you are correct: you can assign the resource at 100% and make the Work = Duration.
 
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