MS Project Resource Capacity and Auto-levelling

[SenorBabs]

Hi,

I have a query regarding MS Project’s ability to enable auto-resource levelling and in particular, allocation of a resource at over 100% capacity.

To be clear, I am using MS Project 2010 and not MS Project Server.

The background to my issue is:

1. I work on a large IT project and need to quickly illustrate how a change in our in-bound dependency dates will impact overall project delivery and my team’s ability to reach code cut-off.

2. In-bound dependencies are a series of requirement drop dates. These are setup as milestone dates. There are ~50 individual drop dates for requirements – these need to be represented individually and can’t be combined.

3. Each in-bound dependency (i.e.: requirements drop) is linked to the start of a design activity. In turn, each design activity is then linked to a build activity and each build activity is linked to a test activity.

4. Assigned to each of the design, build and test activities are multiple resources. The resource ramp-up is as per the below resource calendar.

For clarity, each TL (Technical Lead) is responsible for a design task, multiple Developers are assigned to the DEV tasks and multiple testers are assigned to each Test task.

Resource uplift required of PMO
Month Month Days TL Developer Tester
Apr-14 12.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
May-14 22.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Jun-14 20.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Jul-14 23.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Aug-14 21.00 3.00 0.00 0.80
Sep-14 22.00 3.00 7.00 1.00
Oct-14 23.00 4.00 8.00 4.00
Nov-14 19.00 4.00 9.00 4.00
Dec-14 21.00 4.00 9.00 6.00
Jan-15 20.00 4.00 11.00 6.00
Feb-15 20.00 4.00 11.00 8.00
Mar-15 21.00 4.00 13.00 9.00
Apr-15 20.00 4.00 14.00 9.00
May-15 21.00 4.00 14.00 9.00
Jun-15 21.00 4.00 14.00 8.00


My issue for resolution is as follows:

1. Given the large number of resources that will be assigned to the project, I do not want to leverage manual levelling. I have tried this thus far and every time an inbound dependency shifts, it can take up to a day to re-align all tasks.

2. The solution that I was hoping to achieve, involves having a single resource to represent each work area (i.e.: Designer, Developer, Tester) and then leverage the resource availability to represent the increase in my work force (e.g.: if I have 3.5 developers available in a given month, then the resource capacity is increased to 350%). Note that in doing this, I have also modified the max. units for the resource to 1000%. Hopefully the attached screen grabs from project further explain how I have setup my resources.

3. Given the above, I would then expect that when I assigned the Developer (L2) resource to a task, it would recognise that for the relevant period, the resource had more than 100% capacity and consequently modify the duration of the task given that more work could be completed.

Note that my tasks are setup as Fixed Work.

4. Instead, MS Project only recognises the resource as having 100% capacity (as shown by the below screen shot). The only way I can alter the resource capacity is on a per task basis which does not consequently work in line with the idea of auto-levelling. This is because the resource capacity of 350% or 450%, etc. is then tied to the task as opposed to be tied exclusively to the resource for the period defined within the resource availability – as shown above.

Questions I’m seeking answers to:

1. Can anyone tell me how I can get MS Project to permit this type of effort driven scheduling ? To be clear, I’m not after suggestions of breaking my one ‘Developer (L2)’ resource into multiple resources as I have tried this already and it becomes incredibly labour intensive as well as prohibiting any ability to employ auto-levelling given that MS Project simply breaks the links between tasks.

Also, please note, that I cannot make the task entries in my project plan any more simple than they already area.

2. If MS Project cannot support what I’m after, I would be grateful if anyone could identify another project management software suite that definitely could provide this level of support.
3. I have attached my project plan for you to manipulate / play around with if you so wish.

I would/will be eternally grateful for any support that could be provide as I have worked on this for weeks and have really hit a brick wall.

Yours in frustration and the joys of planning

Derek

 

[SenorBabs]

Hi

Just realised that the resource table hasn't uploaded correctly.

I've now attached this.

Please see below

Thanks

Derek

 

[JulieInMaine]

Hi Derek,

I thought I had created a response before - but no sign of it.

I'm sorry to say, but if I understand your need completely, Project will not do what you seek.

When you assign resources to tasks Project will:
1. Assigns resources at their maximum unit, assuming a max unit of 100% or less. If you have created resources with max units above 100% you will need to manually key the units you wish to assign. In your scenario above, the 350%.
2. If you assign resource but do not specify the amount of work, Project will calculate the work based upon the assignment unit * task duration. For example: a 5 day duration task with 350% assignment unit = 140 hours of work. A 5 day duration task with 100% resource assignment = 40 hours of work.
3. If after you have assigned the resource you increase the assignment units, unless the task is Fixed Duration, the work will stay the same and the duration will decrease. In the 100% - 5 day duration - 40 hours of work task - if I increase the units from 100% to 350% after creating the assignment, the duration drops to 1.43 days - with work staying at 40 hours.
4. You may assign both work and units and Project will calculate duration. For example: I have a estimate from the tech lead that the work estimate is 280 hours. I assign 200% of a resource and Project calculates duration of 17.5 days. If I am told I need to accomplish the task in 13 days, I change the task type to Fixed Work and decrease duration. Project recalculates units (shown in Peak Units) to 269% to accomplish the 200 hours of work in less time.
5. Regarding Resource Leveling - its sole purpose is to resolve resource overallocation by either delaying or splitting tasks. It will not change assignment units nor will it optimize the resources work load to ensure they are fully utilized each day.

Regarding other alternatives - there are many - but I know of none that will do what you seek.

Good luck.

Julie

 

[SenorBabs]

Julie,

Thanks very much for your thorough response - it is appreciated.

To close this one out I have a further question (which I'm presuming will expose another limitation in MS Project).

To get around what you've previously mentioned with resource over allocation, I'm trying to allocate multiple resources to a single, fixed work task.

Each resource has a different start date (i.e.: Resource 1 - 1 Sep 14; Resource 2 - 1 Oct 14; Resource 3 - 1 Nov 14).

The task has 54 days work, starting 1 Sep 14 and with one resource assigned, would finish on 14 Nov 14.

In this situation, MS Project fails to reduce the duration of the task - in fact it increases it !

I would expect that from 1 Oct to 31 Oct with two resource assigned at 100%, 40 days work would be completed - it's simply not the case.

Again, any clarity anyone could provide as to why Project behaves in this manner would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

Derek

 

[JulieInMaine]

You’re welcome for the help thus far. To your new question: I am assuming you changed the resources’ start date through the Resource Availability settings in Resource Information.

When you set tasks as Fixed Work, they are, by default, effort driven. With effort driven tasks, Project assumes you want to split the work (432 hours) evenly between all resources. When you assign Resource 1, the task starts on Sept 1 and finishes on Nov 14. (I’m guessing you have one non-working day in the calendar somewhere). If you simply assign Resource 2 to the task, the 432 hours of work are split evenly with each resource having 216 hours of work. The duration drops to 27 days, but resource 2 is overallocated. If I level resource 2 – the work does not drop for the resource but it is delayed by 22 days. Resource 1 now finishes on Oct 7 but Resource 2 doesn’t finish until Nov 7.

If Resource 2 should not be doing half of the work, you need to explicitly tell Project that. Resource 1 should have done 176 hours of work before Resource 2 joins the task, and Resource 1 and Resource 2 should be splitting the remaining 256 hours of work. Resource 1 doing 304 hours and Resource 2 doing 128 hours with a 22 day delay. With those settings, the task will finish on Oct 23. If Resource 3 is not available until Nov 1 – no sense in assigning that resource.