Microsoft Project - scheduling behavior when tasks have low work values?? 1

[jdmwellington]

Hi There,

I thought I was a confident MS Project user, however this week I have been puzzled by some of the scheduling behavior I observed when trying to create a schedule in Project 2010 & was hoping someone here could help me out!

I'll keep the example really simple:

*Scheduling mode: automatic, fixed units
*10 tasks
*Each task has a work value of between 1h - 3h
*All tasks can start in parallel, there are no hard dependencies
*I have a single resource

My process:
1) Assign the single resource to each task, however as soon as 8 hours of work had been assigned the over allocation indicators were appearing (understandable)
2) I then entered SS (start-start) dependencies against each task and tried again, the same issue occured
3) I then tried FS (finish-start) dependencies between the tasks which solved the over-allocation but did not give me an optimal schedule e.g. although two FS start tasks had less then 8 hours work, MS project tells me 2 day duration is required to complete them (due to the FS dependency).

I would have expected MS project deal with the fact I have a single resource and tasks with low work values, then help me create the most optimal schedule?

I also tried turning effort drive on/off which made no difference.

Any help with this would be much appreciated!

 

[JulieInMaine]

Hello jdmwellington,

Project can't "deal with" resource loading issues unless you explicitly ask it to. If all tasks can start in parallel with no dependencies, don't link them. Assign the resource and enter the estimated work - Project will calculation the duration based upon the assignment units and the work.

Unless you tell project differently, it is going to schedule all the work to start on the start date of the project. So, even if you only have the resource assigned to two tasks - if they both start at 8:00 am and require two hours of work -- you have effectively scheduled the resource for four hours of work (2 overlapping tasks with 2 hours of work).

After creating the tasks and assigning the resource, level the resource. (Resource tab). Project will spread the tasks out and schedule them based upon the maximum units and the assignment units. If you would like to "fine tune" the order, add the Priority field to the task sheet, assign task priorities, and then set your leveling options to Priority, Standard.

I hope this helps.

Julie