Leveling resources in Project

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    • #5105
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      Has anyone out there actually used Project to level resources? I have two books on Project, both I think good, neither of which deal with this well. One (by Microsoft no less) tells you to use the “Level Resources” feature. (I choose not to because I want to fully understand what is going on). But the book does not go into doing it day-by-day. So in playing around with this, what I’ve done so far is this: Go to Resource Usage and see my overallocated resources there. If I see a day where a resource is working, say, 16 hours, I decide to remove one task from his plate. So I go to that day and delete one 8-hour bucket. Since I split the screen so I can also see the Gantt, I instantly see the impact on the task. And it seems that Project interprets my dropping 8 hours from this guy’s day to mean that the task is one day shorter. Not my intention, but ok. I then look at this resource’s days further out and find a day where he has no work. And I put the 8 hours there. This increases the duration back to what it was and pushes the finish date out. This seems to work but it sure is tedious. Am I on the right track here? Any better suggestions for accomplishing this?

    • #6751
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      Instead of deleting” the hours, try typing in a zero, and see.

      Reg, other options, There are several  for resource leveling in project 2010:

      1. You could use the Resource Usage View or Resource Allocation View

      2. You could use the TEAM PLANNER view

      3. You could use the “reschedule to nect available date” option

      4. You could use the MS Project-driven Resource Leveling feature.

       

    • #6753
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      Jim,

      I use Microsoft’s leveling feature on most projects and it is a powerful tool.  I actually don’t know what I would do without it.  The problem most people have is that they press the button, find out that it didn’t do what they wanted it to do, and then claim that it doesn’t work.  View this recorded webinar I did for MPUG a while ago and it should give you what you need: mpug.com/Docs/Lists/WebNLearn/DispForm.aspx?ID=40&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Empug%2Ecom%2FDocs%2FLists%2FWebNLearn%2FAllItems%2Easpx"”>https://www.mpug.com/Docs/Lists/WebNLearn/DispForm.aspx?ID=40&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Empug%2Ecom%2FDocs%2FLists%2FWebNLearn%2FAllItems%2Easpx Hope that helps…

    • #6758
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      I suspect you will have to ask MPUG what you need to do to view these webinars.  You can send a message to events@mpug.com

      MPUG provides a lot of stuff for the general public but some things are reserved for MPUG members only.  If you want to make Microsoft Project work for you than this user group is well worth joining.

    • #10540
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      I found using resource leveling a bit difficult to manage, but tried setting priorities for the project and using leveling based on projects instead. You may want to try a few samples to see if you like the results for the competing resources before you commit to this process.

    • #10541
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      Jim,

      Thank you for the webinar, I have tried to view this session but I keep on getting this error “The requested recording could not be viewed. The recording ID or key may be incorrect”

      1. Is this the recording code? HCB7ZP

      2. Maybe I have missed something, I used to be able to click the view recording button and it would give me an option to download a windows media file, which is what I would like to do.

      Best Regards

      Cameron

    • #10542
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      I use levelling feature for  construction projects extensively (2003 version). I have customised the productivity norms for various tasks as  company standards in custom fields using the outline code,value list. This facilitates calculation of  gangdays in a customised field based on the quantities in another custom field. Depending on the availablity of work front and site conditions I assign the gangs to various tasks. Since there are many same type of gangs required in different work areas of the project , levelling enables me to know the max number of gangs required simultaneously during the entire project  duration. I  reduce this max number first by levelling within available slack and it is successful at times. If it is not possible,I level it further and see how far the project extended and watch those tasks extending it.

      Indeed the whole purpose of using MS project is  for this very important feature of MS Project. I have used Primavera P6 but I feel the levelling in MS Project is much more logical,simple and practical.

    • #10543
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      Hi Larry, as I wrote, I am a MPUG member already (since about a year now), but still couldn’t download your webinar. In the meantime I have contacted Kirk Vantine and he answered that the recording was somehow removed from the server. I assume he will put it back sometime. In the meantime one could download the webinar from 11/19/2009 (The Top Five MS-Project Pain Points…), which also deals with resource leveling issues.

      You are right, MPUG offers a lot of valuable information regarding MS-Project. I did learn a lot just by joining those webinars frequently. The archived webinars are a great source of information, too.

      Thomas

    • #10544
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      Jim:

       

      Couple of hints for leveling.  You were wise to go to the Resource Usage view.  Of course, it you only have a few hours over the standard work day here and there, ignore the overallocation.  You can’t plan work to be precisely 8 hours anyway so a 9 hour day of work can probably be accomplished in the standard work day.  If the work is more than 6 weeks in the future and there is only minor overallocatioin (a few days with 12 to 16 hours here and there) – ignore it.  When you get to that point in time tasks will have ebbed and flowed and the overallocation probably won’t exist.  You will want to look at your possible overallocation every time you do a schedule update.  Save your file before leveling – sometimes you will go out to 2049 and the undo may not get you back to where you were.  If you use the Level Resources feature, use it one resource at a time.  Go to the Resource Sheet and highlight the resource to level.  I also suggest week by week leveling.  If you have 16  hours one day and zero hours the next, of course you’ll split the work beteen the 2 days.  Anyway, if you have highlighted one resource and go to Level Resources, the tool will ask if you want to level all resources are the selected ones.  Choose selected ones and do the leveling.  Then go back to the Resource Usage sheet and look again for overallocations.  Level a second resource if necessary.

      The problem with leveling all resources is that if there is one hour overallocated for any resource, the tool will rearrange tasks for that one hour.  By looking at the resource usage, you can catch those cases yourself.  You can also set the tool to level only if the task exceeds 9 hours (or 10).  That way you and ignore days where (2) 4 hour tasks and a one hour tasks imply the work cannot get done that day – it usually can.

    • #10545
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      Based on the information here regarding the video being down, I did not attempt to watch it, but also have a question regarding leveling.  I recently leveled a project, which took care of most of my overallocation issues, however it still left some of my key resources overallocated.  Did I do something wrong, or is there another place to look for information regarding leveling?  I am tracking to a very tight schedule and if there is a problem I want to know now, not when a fire breaks out.

      Thanks!

      Elise Baker
      IT Infrastructure PM

    • #10546
      Karl Ozaeta
      Keymaster

      Elise,

      It’s hard to troubleshoot leveling without looking at the plan.  If you send me the plan I’ll certainly take a look at it and let you know what I find out larry.christofaro@yahoo.com.

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