Having difficulty discovering why MS Project says a resource is overallocated

[JWHo]

Hi. I am very much a MS Project noob and I have two questions about this simple project (attached) which are really bugging me:
1. why does it say my resource is over allocated (when it isn't - look at task ID 23, working 1 hour on a workday)
2. I put together steps of an outlined project (starting at ID 20) which has a duration of 235 hours, but "Work" is totaling 300 hours -- why the gap?

Additionally, from an expert eye, is there anything I'm majorly screwing up about this file? The project is basically my work week over the past two weeks plus a coming project.

 

[JulieInMaine]

You have Wes assigned to the summary task 20 - Q3 PVM.

You should not assign resources to summary tasks and subtasks - it will always create overallocations.

I'm not sure why you have assigned the Web_80 calendar to the tasks when it is also the Project calendar and the resource calendar.

Also work does not necessarily equal duration. You may have a 5-day duration task but a resource is only working 10 hours during that 5 day duration.

I hope this helps.

 

[JWHo]

Got it. I removed the assignment at the summary task level and that seems to have fixed my problem. I also removed the manually-assigned Web_80 calendars and it is still working fine since both the resource and project calendars are using the same default.

I still have a question about the duration vs work though. Though generally, duration is not equal to work, the way I have set this up, all task durations are being fully worked (this project is a detailed work schedule for one person) and the same person is fully assigned to each task (with 100% Max units). The individual tasks match on both duration and work. This would lead me to think the duration and work subtotals (outlined task groups) should match (in just this file). I'm not sure what I'm missing conceptually.

 

[JulieInMaine]

The duration for summary tasks is not the sum of the durations of the subtasks - it is the span (in working time) from the start of the earliest subtask to the finish of the latest. For example, you have two one hour tasks (tasks 22 & 23). Because of constraints task 23 doesn't start when task 22 finishes - it is 4 days later. If you were to insert a summary task above those two tasks - the duration is 25 hours not 2 hours.

Look at the start and finish dates for task 20 - it starts on Sept 10 (start of task 21) and finishes on Nov 4 (finish of task 58). You have many 1 hour duration tasks - but you've spread them out with constraints - I'm guessing because you typed in the start dates.

It may help to show duration in days (the default) and work in hours.

 

[JWHo]

Thanks, got it. It makes sense to me now.

 

[JulieInMaine]

You're welcome.