Assign work resources to tasks

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    • #413320

      Hi,

      An experienced Scheduler once told me to assign ONE work resource to each task – His explanation was that it would make leveling easier for MS Project.

      What are your recommendations and attention points assigning several work resources to a task?

      Thanks

      Br Kennet

    • #413321
      Jigs Gaton
      Member

      Hi Kennet, that advice just does not seem logical to me, in the sense that who works in such isolation?!? Unless the experienced scheduler was recommending a very very detailed WBS that drills down to individual actions? I would never do that. There is one rule I mostly follow with multiple people working on a task; I never let MS project use the %s under Units, instead I enter in work per day per person manually under View / Details / Task Form, as appropriate, and I use fixed durations or fixed work tasks. I also don’t use automatic resource leveling on complex projects where I can’t easily see exactly what was leveled where (for simple projects it’s okay – I just don’t trust it, call me old fashioned). Hope that helps, and have fun scheduling!

    • #413322
      Larry Christofaro
      Participant

      Jigs has some good advise. I’ll add to his recommendations as I use Microsoft’s leveling feature a lot.

      I get very frustrated when anyone says that you should “always” or “never” do something in Project (like one resource per task). That’s never the case…pun intended. There are just too many ways to manage a project to state something is a must. I would agree that assigning one research (or as few as reasonable) will work better when using Microsoft’s leveling feature, but that’s true with any scheduling technique where you want to level resources, automatic or manual. Large schedules with several resources on most tasks cannot be successfully leveled accurately. I’ve managed large, even multi-schedule programs using Microsoft’s leveling feature, and wouldn’t know how else to level it. The key is to keep it simple. Lots of tips and tricks but as an example…instead of assigning a development lead on every task, assign him/her to a single task called something like “Development support”. This can help whether you are using Microsoft’s leveling feature or leveling manually. KISS…

      MPUG has several videos on Microsoft leveling, including a 3-part series that I produced. Sorry for the rant, probably more than you were looking for. Good luck…

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