How to do resource allocation between overlapping tasks in MS Project?

Question

I am building a capacity planning model in Project 2016. My goal is to illustrate that in real life no one does a single task 100% of the time. I want to show that 10% of the resources' time is dedicated to administrative functions (one task, each resourced allocated at 10% for the duration of the time period in the plan). For the project work in the same plan, my example is:

Project 1 has 6 phases (each phase is one task). Design is 4 days. Development is 5 days. Development can begin halfway through Design. Resource allocation for the Developer is:

90% for the first two days of Design (accounting for the 10% admin time). 45% for the last two days of Design. 45% for the first two days of Development. 90% for the last three days of Development.

Project assumes 100% availability for the resource so he appears over-allocated during the days where Design and Development overlap. What is the most effective way to tell Project that there are varying degrees of availability during a phase (again, one task per phase)? I know that I can break the phase into multiple tasks but this is just a capacity planning model, not a real project, and I want to keep it as simple as possible. The project doesn't have to be tied to specific calendar days but the duration needs to be fixed. Thanks!

Answer 1

You can contour a resource's max units over time using the Resource Information dialog - however, the fine tune to 2 and 3 days is just not feasible for a big project.

The only way to achieve what you want is to manually contour the hours in the Task Usage or Resource Usage view. Assign the resource to the tasks and then change the 8 to 7.2 for the 90% days and 3.6 hours per day for the 45% days.