1

MS Project seems to take a task and calculate per day work by dividing total work by duration.

In the schedule I am working on, each resource is available for 10 hours per day, but MS Project doesn't take advantage of this.

I would like to level my schedule based on the 10 available hours per day rather than simply spreading my tasks out beyond the predetermined finish date. I can do this manually by moving work around in the Resource Usage tab, but I was wondering if there is a simpler way to do this. Thanks.

Hopefully a useful visual

(Also, this is my first time using Project Management Exchange, so if my etiquette is not up to par please feel free to direct me to any guidelines that would improve my question.)

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

If each resource is available to work 10 hours per day then set up a resource calendar with the 10 hours working times on it. Then apply that resource calendar to each resource as required.

Additionally you can modify the project settings in Change Working Time, to define a working day as 10 hours so that Project calculates the correct amount of work (in hours) when you define a duration in days. Note though that it is not enough to just do this, you must also have allowed the resources to have 10 hours per day, as above, to ensure that each resource is loaded to ten hours and not the default 8.

Improve this answer
6
  • I have a custom calendar for the project that covers all of the resources, they work the same 4d/10h week. My issue is that Project is taking the allocated hours for each task and dividing them evenly between each day. What i want it to do is maximize the available time on a day to day basis. Currently, some days are scheduled under the 10 hour threshold and some are scheduled to as much as 18 hours. I need to level in a way that doesn't change the finish date but rather takes advantage of the available hours on a daily basis. I have a feeling that I am not wording my question correctly.
    – Andy U
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 13:38
  • Do you have tasks where more than one resource is assigned? In which case MS-Project does not adjust or balance the resource allocations to an individual task on a day by day basis. Hence some resources end up underused when by giving more hours to a resource on a task for that day only would reduce the duration and still not break the daily allocation. Them's the breaks.
    – Marv Mills
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 14:14
  • Yes, each task has multiple resources assigned to it. What you are explaining is essentially the opposite of what my issue is, I am having trouble with an individual resource being overallocated because of multiple tasks being assigned at the same time and MS-Project not recognizing the available hours on different days. But your explanation seems to hold true for my issue as well. It looks like this will be an issue that requires manual adjustment. Thanks Marv
    – Andy U
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 14:20
  • You are resource levelling right? If a resource is allocated to a series of uneven tasks, and they are the only resource assigned to those tasks, then the resource usage should be maximised as you require- it's only difficult when multiple assigned resources are applied.
    – Marv Mills
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 14:30
  • Yes, and that is exactly where I run into the issue. A quick calculation shows that the number of hours of work per day multiplied by the duration of the task is greater than the total number of hours assigned to each resource. But since I have multiple resources assigned to each task it seems that the only practical solution is to manually level the hours assigned for each task in the resource usage tab.
    – Andy U
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 15:13
0

You can update the resource table to show greater than 100% utilization. In this case, you would load 125%. This will allow greater than 8 working hours per day.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.