MS Project resource Specific Over Allocation

[James]

Hi,

I’ve got a situation where I’m planning a job running two crews on a 10 on, 4 off roster (days). This means that over a two week period, there are three days where I have both crews working. I am trying to utilise them as a single resource to allow for leveling as either crew can perform the task. If I operate them as separate resources with different calendars, tasks are put off till the resource comes back (even though the other crew can do it).

Is there a way I can allow over allocation of a resource for a three day period (reoccurring over the life of the project)? If possible, is there a way to ensure that allowing over allocation to be for concurrent tasks? putting both crews on a single task would not yield any increase in efficiency.

I’m assuming this can be done and my skills are not up to the task so if anyone can walk me through it, that would be great.

[Larry Christofaro]

James, good question. You might want to try using the calendar to schedule 16 hours/day during those three day periods, and then assign that resource accordingly (you might need to change the calendar of the resource as well. Go to Project / Chang Working Time and select the Standard Calendar. Create an exception that starts on the first day of the overlap overlap and ends well into the future, then select the Details. Set the working day to be 16 hours and recurrence to be every 14 days. You will need to create three of them for each of the three day overlaps. You now have a calendar that has three 16 hour days every 14 day period.

Actually, I’m not sure I calculate three days of overlap but I’m assuming it is my misunderstanding of the question. Either way, you should be able to set it up. Not sure how you are leveling but give it a try and see if that will work for you. Hope that helps…

[Daryl Deffler]

Just a thought with a caveat that I’ve read up on these, but not used them.

Have you considered using the Team Task (I hope I referenced that correct) concept for the work tasks. It sounds like a core component of the problem is that any of the tasks can be done by either team, but it also sounds like you are trying to pre-assign the work.
With a team task, all resources in the team have access to team tasks and can assign themselves. Once taken though, the task can’t be taken by another team resource. So basically, it appears to be dynamically assigning tasks from a pool of open work tasks.

Using the Team Task concept may simplify the solution in the following manner:
* You simply establish two team calendars following each team’s 10 day on and 4 day off cycle. No need to try to figure out overlaps.
* You don’t need to worry about pre-assigning tasks to the teams, they do this dynamically. So on any day, each team sees the list of unassigned tasks and they grab tasks from that list each day or as new work is needed.

Potential downside; I’m not sure how this would impact your ability to schedule target dates other than using an agile-like iteration approach to estimate the number of cycles to get all the work done. It may also require Project Server if dynamic assignment is done thru a PWA window such as the MyTasks window. I’m also not sure how much central control is needed, but maybe that can be overcome by a daily work assignment meeting where you and the teams assign the days work.

Again, not having implemented this, it may be an alternative to look into.

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