Steps to resolve resources overallocation

Question

Hello

Please would you let me know what is the most efficient way to resolve resources over-allocation

I flip back and forth from resources usage page (where I spot the overallocation) to the gantt chart where I reduce the hours per resource and look at the impact on the timetable. This is clearly the wrong thing to do, please would you help me with the most efficient steps? I am using MS Project 2010

Many thanks

M

Answer 1

Maria,

The most "efficient" way to deal with resource overallocation is to use Project's resource leveling feature. Personally I like the manual approach you are currently using because it give more control, but it can be slow and tedious.

Resource leveling is based on the Priority field. The default priority is 500. Lower priority tells the leveling algorithm that the task can be moved to avoid the overallocation and higher priority tells the algorithm to either not move the task at all (priority 1000) or only move it after the lower priority tasks have been move and overallocation still exists. Leveling can be applied to a select resources or all resources and can be applied to the whole project or limited to a time period. Also be sure to check out the leveling options found under Resource/Level group/Leveling options.

Hope this helps.

John

Answer 2

As a suggestion, stay in the Resource Usage view, and split your screen to show the Gantt Chart view in the lower pane.

You won't see the full Gantt chart - only the Gantt bars for the resource you have selected in the top part of the view - but this should allow you to easily see the effect on the task of editing the information.

You can split your screen through View ribbon, Details.

I hope this helps.