How to force ms-project to reschedule when all resources are available?

Question

I'm currently trying to setup a meeting in ms-project with 2 resources: Alice and Bob

Alice's calendar is based on the standard calendar (working every weekday): And Bob's calendar is based on the based calendar (working every weekday except on Tuesdays):

By default, ms-project sets the tasks to "Fixed Units".

• When I assign the task to Alice only, the meeting is scheduled for Tuesday -> ok
• When I assign the task to Bob only, the meeting is scheduled for Wednesday -> ok

• When I assign the task to the both of them, the duration changes to 2 days, the work remains at 16 Hrs but the task expands over Tuesday and Wednesday -> Not OK

• When I change the task to a fixed duration, ms-project complains that Alice is allocated at 200% and Bob at 0%...

How can I set project up to:

• keep the duration to 1d?
• keep the work to 16 hrs?
• have ms-project reschedule the task to the first common available day (i.e. Wednesday) automatically?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Answer 1

MS-Project does not support this functionality natively, but you can force the effect as follows:

1. Set up a dummy preliminary task with duration of 1 minute.
2. Assign both resources to it.
3. Level the task, so it splits between both days depending on the resource availability.
4. Make that task a predecessor of your actual task- It will then be scheduled to after the preliminary task