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Chapter 12 - Using Resources Efficiently: Resolving Overallocations Introduction Find Overallocated Resources Task Adjustments That Resolve Overallocations A Delay You Can Use to Unj

Chapter 12 - Using Resources Efficiently:

Resolving Overallocations

Introduction

Find Overallocated Resources

Task Adjustments That Resolve Overallocations

       A Delay You Can Use to Unjam Resources

       Delay a Task Yourself

       Delay Tasks Automatically

       Decrease a Resource's Work on a Task

       Divide a Task into Time-Separated Portions (Split Tasks)

       Portions Are Very Flexible

Assignment Adjustments That Resolve Overallocations

       Shift Resources

       Reassign a Resource to Work Part-Time on a Task

       Reassign Underallocated Resources

Modify a Resource's Working Time

       Schedule Longer Working Hours or Additional Shifts

       Assign a Resource to Variable Work Hours for a Task (Resource Contouring)

Whether you have an abundance of resources or barely enough, you want to make sure that your resources are fully occupied during their normal working hours An underworked resource might take a bigger bite out of your budget than out of the workload An overworked resource can burn out or become a bottleneck Your aim is to distribute the work so that each resource can work at optimal capacity (though some overwork and underwork may be unavoidable)

Often, the biggest challenge you have is that some resources are overallocated When a resource is

overallocated, it is assigned to do more hours of work in a given time period than it has available on its resource calendar Your main task, then, as you fine-tune the resource assignments in your schedule is to identify and resolve resource overallocations

By default, Microsoft Project looks for overallocations on a day-by-day basis For example, if a resource with 8 available hours per day is assigned to work 10 hours on one day, Microsoft Project will indicate that the resource

is overallocated on that day You can choose to look for overallocations within a different time period, such as week-by-week Then, if a resource has 40 available hours per week, Microsoft Project will indicate an

overallocation only if the total number of work hours assigned to the resource in a 1-week period exceeds 40 hours For instance, you can assign the resource to work 6, 12, 8, 4, and 10 hours per day in a work week without tripping the overallocation alarm

Resource overallocations can be resolved with three strategies, which you can use singly or in combination:

 Adjust task properties

 Change assignments

 Modify a resource’s working time

Before you act to resolve a resource overallocation, be aware of possible trade-offs, such as projects taking longer Decreasing the percentage of resource units assigned to a critical task, for example, may

correspondingly increase that task’s duration If this also makes the finish date later than required, you may have to look at other strategies for resolving resource overallocation

This chapter presents methods and solutions to common resource allocation problems

Find Overallocated Resources

Before you can resolve overallocations, you must find out which resources are overallocated, when they are overallocated, and what tasks they are assigned to at those times

While you’re looking for overallocated resources, you can also look for any underallocated resources You might

want to assign them some of the work currently being done by overallocated resources Underallocated

resources are those assigned to work fewer hours than they have available

To find overallocated resources and their task assignments

1 On the View Bar, click More Views

2 In the Views list, click Resource Allocation, and then click Apply

3 On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Resource

Management

4 In the top pane, click the heading of the Resource Name field

5 Click Go To Next Overallocation

The next task under the next overallocated resource is highlighted in the Resource Name field

6 In the top pane, look at the timescale to see when the resource is overallocated

Microsoft Project displays in red the total hours of work assigned to an overallocated resource

7 In the bottom pane, look at the timescale to see the tasks that occur on the overallocated dates

Task Adjustments That Resolve

Overallocations

Perhaps you have the flexibility to reschedule tasks that are contributing to overallocations, but you don’t have extra resources In this case, you can resolve resource overallocations by adjusting tasks

Delay a Task Manually

Delay a task manually if you want to delay one task at a time, see exactly how this delay affects the project schedule, and adjust the delay, if necessary Delay a task manually until a resource has time to work on it

Delay Tasks Automatically

Delay tasks automatically if you want to resolve a number of overallocated resources all at once Delay tasks automatically by leveling the overallocated resources Leveling delays or splits certain tasks in your schedule until the resources assigned to them are no longer overallocated

Cut a Task’s Scope

Cut a task’s scope if you want to avoid rescheduling a task or increasing its duration Decrease the amount of work required for a task by cutting its scope

Split a Task

Split a task if you want to schedule a resource only for the exact time periods that the resource will actually work

on a task Alternatively, you can use this method to assign a different resource to each portion of a task

A Delay You Can Use to Unjam Resources

A resource assigned to tasks that overlap might become overallocated during the overlap period Tasks that have a start-to-start link and tasks with lead time are two kinds of tasks that can have overlap time

If one of the tasks can start later without making your schedule unacceptably long, you’re in luck You can resolve the overallocation by delaying the task

Delay is an extra amount of time you can add between overlapping tasks to ease scheduling constraints for an

overallocated resource When you add enough delay time to make the second task start after the first task finishes, you fix the problem The overallocated resource is no longer scheduled to work on both tasks at the same time

To see a different unit of time in the timescale portion of the Resource Allocation view, click

Zoom In or Zoom Out

Delay has the same effect as lag time, but you use each for different purposes You add lag time between tasks

to show when those tasks will actually be accomplished For example, the exhibit planner might add lag time between painting a wall and hanging clocks on the wall, because the planner knows the paint will take time to dry You add delay between tasks specifically to resolve a resource overallocation

Though you can’t see any difference in the Gantt Chart view between lag time and delay — they both increase the gap between task start dates — Microsoft Project tracks each separately For example, if you add 2 days of lag time between two tasks and then add 1 day of delay, Microsoft Project postpones the start of the second task from 2 days to 3 days, but still shows only 2 days of lag time in the Lag field and 1 day of delay in the Leveling Delay field

Microsoft Project provides two ways to add delay time to a task You can add delay to one task at a time or allow Microsoft Project to add delay times to all tasks with overallocated resources all at once

Delay a Task Yourself

When you add delay time to a task, you delay not only that task but also its successors If you add a delay to a critical task, for instance, you can cause the project finish date to occur later Allowing Microsoft Project to automatically resolve resource overallocations can add delay time to both critical and noncritical tasks that have overallocated resources, with sometimes unpredictable results If you have just a few overallocated resources, you might get better results if you add delay to tasks yourself

When you add delay to a task manually, you can check the effect on the resource’s allocation, and then adjust the delay further if needed So that you don’t affect the finish date of your schedule, first delay tasks that won’t delay the project finish date (those with total slack) Add delay time only up to the amount of slack time for each task It’s useful also to delay noncritical tasks before tasks on the critical path

Experiment with adding delay times to different tasks to see the effect on your schedule Note that delay time is always given in elapsed time and that nonworking time is included in the delay time

To delay a task with an overallocated resource

1 On the View Bar, click More Views

2 In the Views list, click Resource Allocation, and then click Apply

3 On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Resource Management

4 In the top pane, select an overallocated resource in the Resource Name field

5 In the bottom pane, select a task that is assigned to the resource during the time the resource is

overallocated in the Task Name field

6 In the Leveling Delay field, type the duration by which you want to delay the task

To avoid delaying successor tasks and the finish date of the schedule, type a value that is not greater than the total slack for that task You can see the total slack for a task by inserting the Total Slack field into the Leveling Gantt view in the bottom pane

7 Press ENTER

The amounts of delay and slack for a task are indicated by thin lines next to each task

8 If the resource is still overallocated, increase the delay value

Delay Tasks Automatically

When you have many resource overallocations, you can have Microsoft Project add delay times to those tasks automatically You can then check the results and make adjustments if necessary This is often faster than adding delay to one task at a time

In a process called leveling, Microsoft Project delays or splits tasks automatically until the resources assigned to

them are no longer overallocated You can prioritize tasks to specify which tasks should be delayed first and which should not be delayed at all You can decide whether to level all resources or only selected resources And you can level with or without delaying the finish date of the schedule Remember, though, you should apply leveling only after analyzing and refining the schedule yourself

If you’re scheduling from a finish date, you can still level your project Earlier versions of Microsoft Project did not allow leveling for projects scheduled from a finish date Leveling tasks in projects scheduled from a finish date will have negative delay values applied to them This will cause a task or resource assignment’s finish date to occur earlier because the delay will be applied from the finish of the task or assignment

Automatic leveling might not result in the best solution to your problem because Microsoft Project can follow only a limited set of fixed rules It checks predecessor dependencies, slack time, dates, priority, and task

constraints to determine which tasks to delay It can’t get creative and substitute a resource on an overallocated task or change the task’s duration Only you know the subtleties of your schedule

You should always review the changes Microsoft Project has made when it levels resources by delaying tasks You can review these changes on the Leveling Gantt view If you don’t like the changes, you can remove them at any time

To delay tasks automatically to level overallocated resources

1 On the Tools menu, click Resource Leveling

2 Click Manual to level resources only when you click the Level Now button

3 In the Look for overallocations on a basis box, click a time period to determine the sensitivity with

which leveling will recognize overallocations

Leveling will occur only if a resource is scheduled to do more work than it has the capacity for in the specified period

4 Under Leveling range for, select whether you want the entire project leveled or only those tasks falling

within a specific time period

5 In the Leveling order box, click one of the following leveling orders:

o Click ID Only to have Microsoft Project check tasks in the ascending order of their ID numbers

before considering other leveling criteria to determine which tasks to level

o Click Standard to have Microsoft Project check tasks in the order of their predecessor

dependencies, slack, dates, priority, and then task constraints

o Click Priority, Standard to have Microsoft Project check tasks’ priorities to be leveled before

considering predecessor dependencies, slack, dates, and then task constraints

6 To prevent the finish date of your project from being moved out, select the Level only within

available slack check box

7 To have leveling adjust when a resource works on a task independent of other resources working on the

same task, select the Leveling can adjust individual assignments on a task check box

When the task’s priority is set to Do Not Level, Microsoft Project will skip the task

8 To interrupt tasks by creating splits in the remaining work on tasks or resource assignments, select the

Leveling can create splits in remaining work check box

9 Click Level Now

Immediately after leveling your project, you can undo the action if you don’t get the results you want

To immediately undo the effects of leveling

 On the Edit menu, click Undo Leveling

To remove the effects of the last leveling operation

 Click Clear Leveling in the Resource Leveling dialog box

If there are tasks that you prefer not to delay unless absolutely necessary, you can select the order in which Microsoft Project delays tasks with overallocated resources You do this by assigning a higher priority to urgent tasks that should start as early as possible

To prioritize the delay order of tasks with overallocated resources

1 On the View Bar, click More Views

2 In the Views list, click Leveling Gantt, and then click Apply

3 In the Task Name field, select a task that has overallocated resources

4 Click Task Information , and then click the General tab

5 In the Priority box, click a priority for this task based on the order in which you want Microsoft Project to level tasks, and then click OK

Microsoft Project delays tasks with the lowest priority first If you don’t want a task to be leveled, click

Do Not Level

6 Repeat steps 3 through 5 for each task with overallocated resources

7 On the Tools menu, click Resource Leveling

8 In the Leveling order box, click Priority, Standard

9 Click Level Now

Decrease a Resource’s Work on a Task

If a resource is overallocated and you don’t want to reschedule or remove some of the resource’s tasks, and you can’t allow the durations of the tasks to increase, there’s another option You can decrease the scope of one of the resource’s tasks during the period of overallocation, and thus reduce the amount of work required of that resource

When you decrease the total work on a task, Microsoft Project (by default) decreases the duration of the task

To decrease the amount of work assigned to a resource

1 On the View Bar, click Resource Usage

Tasks are listed underneath the resources to which they are assigned Overallocated resources are

highlighted in red and displayed with an icon in the Indicators field

2 In the Work field for the tasks to which the overallocated resource is assigned, type a lesser value until

the overallocation is removed

For each resource, the Resource Usage view shows the total hours the resource is working, the hours the

resource is working on each task, and the hours worked per time period on the timescale You can see a

graphical representation of overallocated resources in the Resource Graph view

You may want the duration of a task to remain the same after you decrease the work assigned to it When you decrease the work assigned to a task that has a fixed duration, Microsoft Project decreases the resource units assigned to the task For example, a resource is assigned to a 2-day task at 100 percent resource units If you decrease the total amount of work for that task to 1 day but still want the work to be completed in 2 days, Microsoft Project automatically reduces the resource’s units on that task to 50 percent That is, the resource is now assigned to work on the task half-time on each of 2 days

To keep the duration of a task constant after you decrease the amount of work assigned to a resource

1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart

2 In the Task Name field, select the task whose duration you want unchanged, and then click Task Information

3 Click the Advanced tab

4 In the Task type box, click Fixed Duration

Divide a Task into Time-Separated Portions (Split Tasks)

When you assign a resource to a task, you probably assume that the resource will work continuously on the task for the entire task duration But in reality a resource may work on a task on and off, stopping and starting several times before completing the task You can accurately represent discontinuous work on a task by splitting the task

When you split a task, you divide it into portions, each portion represented by a separate bar in the Gantt Chart view The beginning of the first portion shows when work starts on the task The beginning of each successive portion shows when work resumes Between each portion is a gap that indicates a period of time when the task isn’t being worked on

Split a task when work on that task will stop for a known amount of time That way, you can get a more accurate picture of how much time a resource will actually spend on the task If the resource is overallocated, you might reduce the amount of the overallocation or even eliminate it altogether You can also split a task for which some work has already been done, to indicate when work will begin again on the remaining portion of the task

Portions Are Very Flexible

You can split, move, recombine, and resplit tasks in several ways:

 You can split a task into any number of portions

 You can remove the split between any two portions and recombine them

 You can move each portion of a split task independently of the other portions That is, you can change one portion’s start and finish dates without affecting the start and finish dates of the other portions

 You can move portions and change their durations in the same way you perform these actions for whole tasks

 When you split a task, you don’t change its duration, regardless of the length of the gaps between portions The duration of a split task changes only when you change the duration of a portion

 You can change the duration of each portion of a split task without affecting the durations of the other portions

 When you split a linked task, the entire task remains linked as a whole task You cannot link portions of the same task or portions from different tasks If you try to link a portion of one task to a portion of another task, Microsoft Project links the whole tasks, not the portions

To split a task

1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart

2 Click Split Task

3 Position the pointer over the task bar you want to split, and then drag the task bar to create the split

4 Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each portion you want to create

If at any time you decide that work on two portions of a split task can occur without a stop period in between, you can recombine them

To combine two portions of a split task

1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart

2 Drag a portion from right to left until it touches the nearest portion

The two portions merge into one task bar

Assignment Adjustments That Resolve

Overallocations

If you have extra resources to assign or resources you can shift from one task to another, you can resolve resource overallocations by changing assignments When you combine adjusting tasks with changing

assignments, you have a very powerful antidote to overallocation

If, however, you can’t adjust tasks, shifting and reassigning resources can resolve most or all of your resource overallocations These are the most effective methods for adjusting assignments Be aware, however, that some

of the methods you use to resolve overallocations may cause task durations, and perhaps the project duration,

to increase

Shift Resources

You can shift resources from noncritical tasks to critical tasks as long as this doesn’t inadvertently change the noncritical tasks into critical ones

Reassign Resources to Work Part-Time

You can reassign resources to work part-time if resources are overallocated and you don’t want to reschedule any of their assigned tasks or remove them from any of the tasks

Reassign Underallocated Resources

You can assign underallocated resources to tasks that are scheduled to be completed by overallocated

resources Use this method if there are resources with available time who are qualified to perform some of the tasks of the overallocated resources

Shift Resources

Shifting a resource from one task to another can cause the project to finish at a later date To avoid introducing these problems into your schedule, you want to shift resources from tasks with total slack to tasks without total slack

There are two kinds of slack Free slack is the amount of time a task can be delayed without delaying any other task Total slack is the amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting the project finish date Noncritical

tasks have total slack time; critical tasks do not Noncritical tasks can finish later than their scheduled dates without delaying the project finish date

By identifying tasks with total slack, you can shift resources from noncritical tasks to critical tasks The amount

of slack in a noncritical task indicates what portion of its assigned resources you can remove before the task becomes critical If you deplete all the total slack on one task, all the tasks that are dependent on this task lose their slack and become critical

To find slack in your schedule

1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart

2 On the View menu, point to Table, and then click Schedule

3 Scroll or drag the divider bar to the right to view the Free Slack and Total Slack fields

In the Total Slack field, zero duration indicates a critical task (by default) Negative values in the Total Slack field indicate that there’s a scheduling conflict (Typically, one task is linked to another task that

can’t move, so Microsoft Project may not honor the link.)

Instead of viewing slack in a column, you might prefer to see it represented graphically

To display total slack graphically

1 On the View Bar, click More Views

2 In the Views list, click Detail Gantt, and then click Apply

The amount of total slack for a task is indicated by a thick dark line that is attached to the bottom-right corner of the task bar

Reassign a Resource to Work Part-Time on a Task

If you don’t want to reschedule any of the tasks to which an overallocated resource is assigned, and yet you want to avoid removing the resource from any of the assigned tasks, there’s another way you can free up some time You can assign the resource to work part-time on each of the tasks that occur during the overallocated period

To reassign a resource to work part-time on a task

1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart

2 In the Task Name field, select a task

3 Click Assign Resources

4 In the Name field, select the resource

5 In the Units field, enter the percentage of time the resource is assigned to work on the task

For example, if you want the resource to work 25 percent of the time on the task, type 25%

6 Click or press ENTER

Reassign Underallocated Resources

While some resources may be overallocated during a certain time period, others may be underallocated If any qualified underallocated resources are available when some tasks have overallocated resources, consider assigning the underallocated resources to those tasks This would reduce the amount of time overallocated resources spend on the tasks and might even out the workload

To reassign work to an underallocated resource

1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart

2 In the Task Name field, select a task

3 Click Assign Resources

4 In the Name field, select the underallocated resource

5 In the Units field, type a new number so the resource is no longer underallocated

6 Click or press ENTER

7 In the Name field, select the overallocated resource

8 In the Units field, enter the new percentage of time the resource is available to work on the task

9 To take the overallocated resource off this task completely, click Remove

Modify a Resource’s Working Time

Perhaps you have adjusted tasks as much as you can and still have overallocated resources If all of your

resources are assigned to work all of their available hours and your budget doesn’t permit you to add more resources, there is still something you can do As a last resort, you can resolve overallocations by increasing the amount of available time resources can work — in short, by changing the working times of resources

You can increase the amount of available working time in two ways

Schedule Longer Working Hours or Additional Shifts

You can schedule longer working hours or additional shifts to increase a resource’s available work hours so that the amount of time the resource is overallocated is reduced or eliminated

Vary the Number of Hours a Resource Works on a Task

You can vary the number of hours a resource works on a task to precisely match the number of hours a resource

is assigned to spend on a task each day with the number of hours the resource actually does spend on the task This will perhaps free up some extra time for the resource

You can use these methods singly, in combination with each other, and with other methods described in this chapter

Schedule Longer Working Hours or Additional Shifts

If you won’t be getting additional resources to assign to tasks with overallocations, you may be able to reduce those overallocations by increasing the number of working hours for the resources already assigned to those tasks You increase the number of hours a resource is available to work by increasing the resource’s working hours on the resource’s calendar

You can leave the Resource Assignment dialog box displayed

as you work

To find underallocated resources, display the Resource Usage view

Typically, you can increase a resource’s working hours only as long as they do not exceed your overtime limit

By keeping the number of hours below the overtime limit, you can continue to pay the resource a standard rate, not an overtime rate

To increase a resource’s working hours

1 On the Tools menu, click Change Working Time

2 In the For box, click the resource whose calendar you want to change

3 On the calendar, select the days you want to change

To change a day of the week for the entire calendar, select the day at the top of the calendar

4 Click Working time

5 In the From and To boxes, type the new working times

Another way to increase the total number of working hours available to the project is to add shifts You can create a night-shift or swing-shift base calendar and assign it to a group of resources or set the working hours for each resource individually

If you have resources working night shifts that span 2 days, such as 11:00 P.M to 7:00 a.m., select the first day

of the work week and type 11:00 pm to 12:00 am, and then select the next day and type 12:00 am to 7:00

am Repeat this process for each work day Notice that the first day of the work week has evening hours only

and the last day has morning hours only

Assign a Resource to Variable Work Hours for a Task (Resource

Contouring)

At times your schedule may show that each overallocated resource is scheduled to work all available work hours How can you use existing resources to resolve overallocations? It’s possible to free up the time of some

resources by assigning them to their tasks only for the number of hours they will actually spend on the task each day Closely matching a resource’s assigned hours on a task to the actual hours spent on the task each day is

called resource contouring

When you assign a resource to a task, Microsoft Project automatically assigns the same number of hours per time period throughout the duration of the task This is known as a flat contour You can change this behavior to more accurately reflect how a resource’s work will be patterned throughout

the duration of a specific task

You can select one of several predefined work contours to apply to a

particular resource working on a particular task You pick the contour that

best matches the way the resource will actually work on the task This allows

you to fine-tune a resource’s allocated hours, possibly freeing up time that

that resource can use on a different task, one with overallocated resources

The Resource Usage and Task Usage views display the work contours

To apply a contour to an assignment

1 On the View Bar, click Task Usage

Resources are grouped under the tasks to which they are assigned

2 In the Task Name field, select a resource for which you want to apply a preset work contour

3 Click Assignment Information , and then click the General tab

4 In the Work contour box, click a contour pattern

5 To change the start and finish dates for the resource assignment, click the new dates in the Start and Finish boxes

When working with work contours, keep the following in mind:

 Once you’ve applied a specific contour to a task, adding new total work values for the task will

automatically reapply the preset work contour pattern for the task and resources Microsoft Project will

If several resources are assigned

to one task, you can contour each resource’s time

independently