Examine resource allocations over time

This topic focuses on resource allocation—how assignments affect the workloads of the work resources (people and equipment).

Recall from Chapter 5, “Set up resources,” that a resource’s capacity to work is measured in units; the maximum capacity of a particular resource is called maximum units (labeled Max. Units in Project). Units are measured either as a percentage (such as 300% units) or as numbers (such as 3 units).

A resource’s capacity to work in a specific time period is determined by that resource’s maximum units and resource calendar. The relationship between a resource’s capacity and that person’s task assignments is called allocation. At any specific time, a work resource might be underallocated, fully allocated, or overallocated:

• Underallocated The resource’s assignments do not fill the resource’s maximum capacity to do work. For example, a full-time resource who has only 25 hours of work assigned in a 40-hour work week is underallocated.

• Fully allocated The resource’s assignments fill the resource’s maximum capacity. For example, a full-time resource who has 40 hours of work assigned in a 40-hour work week is fully allocated.

• Overallocated The resource’s assignments exceed the resource’s maximum capacity to do work. For example, a full-time resource who has 65 hours of work assigned in a 40-hour work week is overallocated.

These states of allocation apply to work resources. Cost and material resources do no work; therefore, their assignments are not subject to allocation issues.

Project includes several views and features that can help you focus on resource allocation. By using these views and features, you can do the following:

• Set the timeframe threshold (such as daily or weekly) at which Project evaluates a resource as overallocated or not. You do so in the Resource Leveling dialog, which is introduced in the “Level overallocated resources” topic, later in this chapter.

• See overallocation indicators next to the names of overallocated resources or the tasks to which overallocated resources are assigned. Point to any overallocation indicator to display more details in a ScreenTip.

• Use the Resource Graph to see allocations for each resource graphed against a timescale.

• Display the Overallocated Resources report to see the work details of overallocated resources.

• For Project Online desktop client or Project Professional users, use the Team Planner view to see assignments per resource in a simpler format. For more information about the Team Planner view, see Chapter 11, “Fine-tune resource and assignment details.”

• Switch to the Resource Usage view. For more information about this view, see Chapter 11 and later in this section.

• Display the Resource Allocation view. This is a combination view that includes the Resource Usage view in the top pane and the Leveling Gantt view in the lower pane. This topic focuses on this view.

In the Resource Allocation combination view shown in Figure 12-1, the details in the lower view are specific to the selected item in the top view (a resource or assignment, in this example). Let’s take a closer look at the parts of this combination view.

On the left side of the Resource Usage view is a table (the Usage table, by default). This table shows assignments grouped per resource, the total work assigned to each resource, and each assignment’s work. This information is organized into an outline that you can expand or collapse.

The right side of the view contains details (work, by default) arranged on a timescale. You can horizontally scroll the timescale to see different time periods. You can also change the tiers on the timescale to display data in units of weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds.

In the lower pane, the Leveling Gantt view shows the Gantt bars and any slack of the tasks to which the selected resource is assigned. Slack is represented as a thin line following the Gantt bar. When a single assignment is selected, the Leveling Gantt view shows the Gantt details of the specific assignment’s task.

Both panes of the Resource Allocation view are synchronized to the same timescale at the top of the view. Because the view shows each resource’s assigned work per time period, you can easily pinpoint when underallocations or overallocations occur. In addition, you can directly edit assignment values in the view to address allocation problems.

Keep a few other points in mind when examining resource allocations in the Resource Usage view:

• A quick way to navigate to resource overallocations in the Resource Usage view is to use the Next Overallocation button in the Level group of the Resources tab. The Next Overallocation button works in a similar way in Gantt Chart, Task Usage, and Calendar views.

• By default, the Resource Usage view displays the Usage table; however, you can display a different table by selecting it from the Table list available on the View tab, in the Data group.

• By default, the Resource Usage view displays work values in the timescaled grid. However, you can display additional assignment values, such as cost and remaining availability, by selecting another value from the Details group on the Resource Usage Format tab.

To find overallocations in the Resource Allocation view

1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, select Other Views, select More Views, select Resource Allocation, and then select Apply to display the Resource Allocation view.

   Tip

   The Resource Allocation view is a split view. To change the bottom pane, choose an option from the Details box on the View tab, in the Split view group. This chapter covers the Resource Graph view in the bottom pane in the “Level overallocated resources” section. To hide the bottom pane, clear the Details checkbox on the View tab. The Resource Usage view remains visible.

2. Select anywhere in the Resource Usage view.

3. On the View tab, in the Data group, in the Filter box, select Overallocated Resources to filter the view to show only overallocated resources.

   Tip

   To clear the filter, select No Filter.

4. If the selected resource’s work values are not visible in the timescaled grid on the right side of the view, then on the Task tab, in the Editing group, select Scroll to Task.

5. To show the assignments of the selected resource, select the expand/collapse arrow next to the resource’s name.

To see allocations for each resource graphed against a timescale

1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, select Other Views and then select Resource Graph.

2. Use the arrow keys or the horizontal scroll bar to switch between resources in this view.

To see work details of overallocated resources in the Overallocated Resources report

• On the Report tab, in the View Reports group, select Resources and then select Overallocated Resources.

Resolve resource overallocations manually

In this topic and the next, we’ll continue to focus on resource allocation—how assignments affect the workloads of the work resources in the plan. This topic focuses on manually editing assignments to resolve resource overallocations. The next topic focuses on automatically resolving resource overallocations.

As Figure 12-2 shows, a great view for editing resource assignment values is the Resource Usage view (either by itself or in the upper pane of the combination view, Resource Allocation, view, described in the previous topic).

In this view, the names of overallocated resources appear bold and red. You can horizontally scroll the view to find overallocations by timeframe that are bold and red. Some might be minor (for example, 42 hours in a 40-hour work week), whereas others might be severe enough to require more attention.

You directly edit the assigned work values per time period in the right side of the view for the assignments you want. As you do so, the resource’s total work per time period is updated.

Instead of editing assignment values, you can delay the start of a task that’s causing a resource overallocation. Because delaying the start of a task is one technique used by automatic leveling (described in the next section), the delay is referred to as a leveling delay.

Editing an assignment or task manually is just one way to resolve a resource overallocation. Other solutions in task-centric views such as a Gantt chart view include the following:

• Replace the overallocated resource with another resource by selecting the Replace button in the Assign Resources dialog (available from the Resource tab).

• Reduce the value in the Units field in the Assignment Information or Assign Resources dialog.

• Assign an additional resource to the task so that both resources share the work.

To edit assignment-level work

1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, select Resource Usage to display the Resource Usage view.

2. Locate the overallocated resource you want to focus on (an overallocated resource’s name is formatted bold and red).

3. In the timescaled grid, locate the resource’s overallocation you want to resolve.

4. If the resource’s assignments are not visible, select the expand/collapse arrow next to the resource’s name to show that resource’s assignments.

   Tip

   You also can expand the outline by pressing Alt+Shift+Plus sign (+).

5. Edit the work values in the timescaled grid to resolve the overallocation.

To manually add leveling delay

This technique delays the start of a task to resolve an overallocation but does not change the amount of work on the assignment.

1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, select Other Views, select More Views, select Resource Allocation, and then select Apply to display the Resource Allocation view.

2. In the upper pane of the view, select an overallocated resource.

3. In the lower pane, identify the overlapping assignments that are causing the overallocation. The overallocated resource indicator appears next to these task names.

4. Enter a delay in the start of one of the tasks in the Leveling Delay field. The time value you enter is an elapsed value, not a working time value. For a refresher on elapsed durations, refer to Chapter 4, “Build a task list.” The task’s start date is adjusted. Note that any other resources assigned to the same task are also delayed, regardless of whether they were overallocated.

Level overallocated resources

The previous topics described resource allocation and how to resolve overallocations manually. This topic introduces the resource leveling feature in Project.

Resource leveling is the process of delaying or splitting a resource’s work on a task to resolve an overallocation. For example, consider the same full-time resource assigned to three tasks. On day 1, the resource is fully allocated at 100%. On day 2, the resource is overallocated at 300%. On day 3, the resource is again overallocated, this time at 200%. See Figure 12-3 for the resource allocation illustrated across the 3 days.

If you perform resource leveling as shown in Figure 12-4, Project delays the start dates of the second and third tasks so that the resource is not overallocated.

In this example, the finish date of the latest scheduled task moved from day 2 to day 8. The 4 elapsed days have been added to the task start date, and the graph shows an additional delay of 2 elapsed days because Jane is not available to work on the weekend. This is common with resource leveling, which often pushes out the plan’s finish date. Before leveling, the total amount of work was 6 days, but 2 of those days overlapped, causing the resource to be overallocated on those days. After leveling, all 6 days of work are still there, but the resource is no longer overallocated.

You can adjust resource leveling options to control how you want Project to resolve resource overallocations. Project applies your settings to resolve overallocations when you choose to level resources. Depending on the options you choose, this might involve delaying the start date of an assignment or task, or splitting the work on the task.

Resource leveling is a powerful tool, but it accomplishes only a few basic actions: It delays tasks, splits tasks, and delays resource assignments. It does this by following a fairly complex set of rules and options that you specify in the Resource Leveling dialog.

Resource leveling is a great fine-tuning tool, but it cannot replace your good judgment about resource availability, task durations, relationships, and constraints. Resource leveling works with all this information as you enter it into your plan, but fully resolving all resource overallocations within the timeframe you want might not be possible unless you change some of the basic task and resource values in the plan. Additional remedies might include reducing the overall scope of work or adding resources.

As mentioned earlier, the Resource Leveling dialog shown in Figure 12-5 is where you tell Project how you want it to resolve resource overallocations.

Project Help describes most of the options in this dialog, but let’s look more closely at a few options that deserve additional explanation.

• The Leveling Calculations group includes some important options:

  • Selecting Automatic sets Project to level resources constantly, without notification. Automatic leveling occurs as soon as a resource becomes overallocated.

  • Selecting Manual sets Project to level resources only when you tell it to do so. This is the default setting.

    Important

    All settings in the Resource Leveling dialog apply to all plans that you work with in Project, not only to the active plan. Using automatic leveling might sound tempting, but it causes frequent adjustments to plans, regardless of whether you want them. For this reason, we recommend that you use the Manual setting.

  • The selection you make in Look for Overallocations on a <Timeframe> Basis determines the timeframe Project uses when evaluating whether a resource is overallocated. If a resource is overallocated, the resource’s name is formatted bold and red, and Project also shows the overallocated indicator next to the resource’s name.

    Tip

    On most projects, leveling in finer detail than day by day can result in unrealistically precise adjustments to assignments. If you prefer not to see overallocation indicators for day-by-day overallocations, select Week By Week in the Look for Overallocations on a <Timeframe> Basis box. Doing so does not level resources, but it does determine when Project displays overallocation indicators next to resource names.

  • Selecting the Clear Leveling Values Before Leveling checkbox removes any existing leveling delays from all tasks and assignments before leveling. This applies regardless of the source of the leveling delays—that is, whether they were entered manually (see the previous topic) or automatically by earlier leveling.

• The Leveling Order settings give you control over the priority Project uses to determine which tasks to delay to resolve a resource conflict:

  • Selecting the ID Only option delays tasks only according to their ID numbers: numerically higher ID numbers are delayed before numerically lower ID numbers (for example, task 10 is delayed before task 5). You might want to use this option when your plan has no task relationships or constraints.

  • Selecting the Standard option delays tasks according to predecessor relationships, start dates, task constraints, slack, priority, and IDs.

  • Selecting the Priority, Standard option tells Project to look at the task priority value before the other standard criteria. (Task priority is a numeric ranking between 0 and 1000 that indicates the task’s appropriateness for leveling. Tasks with the lowest priority are delayed or split first. In the numeric ranking, 1 is low, 500 is medium, and 1000 is high priority. All tasks are set to 500 by default.) The Leveling Order settings include an option to let you control when Project can delay tasks.

  • Selecting Level Only Within Available Slack restricts leveling so that tasks without slack cannot be moved, and tasks with slack can be moved only within their slack threshold. By default, this option is off, which provides the most leveling flexibility.

  Important

  When leveling is not restricted by a slack threshold, any task in the plan can be delayed any amount of time. This might result in significant changes to the plan’s overall finish date. Carefully review the results of delays using the Leveling Gantt view, discussed later in this topic.

After you set the leveling options that you want in the Resource Leveling dialog, you can level the plan immediately or later via the Level All button (on the Resource tab). You don’t need to return to the Resource Leveling dialog unless you want to change leveling options. The on-demand leveling options are located on the Resource tab, in the Level group.

A good view for seeing the plan before and after leveling is the Leveling Gantt view (see Figure 12-6).

In this view, each task has two bars. The top bar represents the pre-leveled task. You can see a task’s pre-leveled start, finish, and duration by pointing to the top bar (light tan). The bottom bar represents the leveled task as it is currently scheduled (light blue).

To set leveling options and level resources

1. On the Resource tab, in the Level group, select Leveling Options to open the Resource Leveling dialog.

2. In the Resource Leveling dialog, select the options you want.

3. Do either of the following:

   • To level resources now by using the options you’ve set, select Level All.

   • To save these options but delay leveling resources until later, select OK.

To level resources by using the current Resource Leveling dialog options

• On the Resource tab, in the Level group, do one of the following:

  • Select Level Selection to level resources assigned to the selected tasks.

  • Select Level Resource to level the selected resource only.

  • Select Level All to level all resources in the plan.

To clear leveling delays

You can remove leveling delays for the entire plan or for selected tasks.

• On the Resource tab, in the Level group, select Clear Leveling and then select the options you want.

To display the Leveling Gantt view

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, select the Gantt Chart arrow and then select More Views.

2. In the More Views dialog, select Leveling Gantt and then select Apply. Project switches to the Leveling Gantt view.

Check the plan’s cost and finish date

Not all plans include cost information, but for those that do, keeping track of project costs might be as important as, or more important than, keeping track of the scheduled finish date. This topic examines both the cost and the finish date of the plan.

Two factors to consider when examining project costs are the specific types of costs you want to see and how you can best see them. First, the types of costs that you might encounter over the life of a project include the following:

• Baseline costs The original planned task, resource, or assignment costs that were saved as part of a baseline plan.

• Current (or scheduled) costs The calculated costs of tasks, resources, and assignments in a plan. As you make adjustments in a plan, such as assigning or removing resources, Project recalculates current costs much like it recalculates task start and finish dates. When you start to incur actual costs (typically by tracking actual work), the current cost equals the actual cost plus the remaining cost per task, resource, or assignment. Current costs are the values you see in the fields labeled Cost or Total Cost.

• Actual costs The costs that have been incurred for tasks, resources, or assignments.

• Remaining costs The difference between the currently scheduled costs and the actual costs for tasks, resources, or assignments.

Second, how you want to see these costs depends on what you’re trying to evaluate. You might need to compare these costs (for example, baseline versus actual) or examine them individually per task, resource, or assignment. Alternatively, you might need to examine cost values for summary tasks or for an entire plan. Some common ways to view these types of costs include the following:

• See the plan’s cost values in the Project Statistics dialog, shown in Figure 12-7.

  

  In the Project Statistics dialog, you can see the plan’s four total cost values: Current, Baseline, Actual, and Remaining.

• See or print reports that include cash flow, budget, cost overruns for both tasks and resources, and earned value. See Figure 12-8 for a Cost Overruns report example.

  

• See task-level, resource-level, or assignment-level cost information by displaying the Cost table as shown in Figure 12-9.

  

  Here you can see many types of cost values for the overall plan (the total cost of the project summary task, which is task 0), project phases (summary tasks), and individual tasks.

• In Figure 12-10 you can see cost details distributed over time in a usage view.

  

In addition to cost, the finish date is a critical (often the most critical) measure of a plan. A plan’s finish date is a function of its duration and its start date. Most projects have a preferred finish date (also called a soft finish date), and many projects have a must-hit finish date (also called a hard finish date). When managing projects such as these, it’s essential that you know the plan’s current or scheduled finish date.

To see cost and finish dates in the Project Statistics dialog

1. On the Project tab, in the Properties group, select Project Information.

2. In the Project Information dialog, select Statistics.

To display the Costs report

• On the Report tab, in the View Reports group, select Costs.

To display the Cost table in the Task Sheet view

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, select Other Views and then select Task Sheet.

2. On the View tab, in the Data group, select Tables, and then select Cost to display the Cost table.

To display cost distributed over time in the Task Usage view

• On the Task Usage Format tab, in the Details group, select Add Details, and then select the cost values you want.

To display cost distributed over time in the Resource Usage view

• On the Resource Usage Format tab, in the Details group, select Add Details, and then select the cost values you want.

Inactivate tasks

You can include tasks in a plan that you might later decide you don’t need, but they may contain details you don’t want to lose by deleting them. For example, you might develop tasks that pose “what if” questions that you can’t begin to answer until other preliminary questions get answered. Alternatively, you might design a plan that describes a likely case scenario for project completion but that also includes more optimistic and pessimistic sets of tasks.

In Project Online desktop client or Project Professional, you can inactivate a single task or multiple tasks, as Figure 12-11 shows. Inactivating tasks is sometimes preferable to deleting tasks because it keeps the task information in the plan but removes the scheduling effect of those tasks. For example, a task that drives the start of a successor task remains visible when inactivated, but it has strikethrough formatting applied in the Gantt Chart and other views; furthermore, its link relationship is broken, and its successor is rescheduled.

If you later want to reactivate inactivated tasks, you can easily do so; Project restores them as active tasks with the same scheduling impact they previously had.

To inactivate tasks

1. Select the name of the task or tasks you want to inactivate. If you inactivate a summary task, all its subtasks are inactivated.

2. On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, select Inactivate. The original task information is still visible, but now it has no impact on the overall plan. Later, if you decide to include these tasks in the plan, you can reactivate them by selecting Inactivate again.

Skills review

In this chapter, you learned how to

• Examine resource allocations over time

• Resolve resource overallocations manually

• Level overallocated resources

• Check the plan’s cost and finish date

• Inactivate tasks

Practice tasks

The FineTunePlan practice file for these tasks is located in the ProjectDesktopSBSCh12 folder. For practice file download instructions, see the introduction to this book.