project leveling

[fickasm1]

Resources are showing as overallocated in the project plan. So, we have MSP level the resources. After leveling is complete, the same resources still show as overallocated. Any ideas why?

 

[johnherman]

I have been working with MS Project for years and have NEVER been able to get Resource Leveling to work even remotely close to the way I think I ought to work. I will be watching this thread for ANY nice things anyone says about resource leveling.

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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that noboby appreciates how difficult it was.
- Steven Wright

 

[jancebk]

johnherman - I have to agree with you about NOT letting MS Project do the leveling. There are many factors that need to be set "just right" (such as Priority on the Task, Constraints that have been set, etc). I have rarely seen MS Project come even close to my anticipated results.

ficasm - One thing that will prevent "automatic" leveling from occuring is the type of constraints that are on a task (or multiple tasks). In the Task Usage view, insert a column called "Type". This indicated the Type of Constraints that are on each task. Any tasks that have "Must Finish On" or "Must Start On" as their constraint will not be leveled, so that could be causing your resources to still be overallocated.

hope this helps.
Jan

 

[PDQBach]

ficasm1: click on Tools | Options | View-tab and select a date display that includes the time.

You _should_ see that the resource is assigned work that is less than or equal to the number of working hours in a day and that two (or more) tasks have the same start time or overlap in some other way. Clearing those overlaps should eliminate the overallocation.

There are _many_ possible reasons why levelling does not seem to work the way you want it to but here, in three simple statements, are the rules you have to remember:

1. Project pushes out to reduce working hours by a resource to less then or equal to the number of hours in a day when factored by the resource's max units; it never pulls back to fill in underallocated gaps.

2. Task constraints (must start on, must finish on, etc.) can prevent overallocation levelling. Ditto for resource contours, resource calendars, etc.

3. Some tasks will not be leveled. Tasks with a "Do not level" or 1000 (depending on the release) will not be leveled; this includes recurring tasks which are never leveled.

Actually, there are more rules, but these will be enough for now.