Microsoft Project Resource availability after an event.

Question

I'm wondering how to depict a scenario in MS Project that is difficult to illustrate or visualize the impact without mapping it. i don't know how to map this out.

scenario

in an unusual twist a project has many independent tasks, many of which are without dependencies, we also have multiple available resources who could all join the project to assist with these tasks, which would bring the end date forward significantly.

what we don't have, however, is enough workstations and terminals to utilize all these resources. these are on order, the estimated delivery dates are unknown and keep changing.

problem

I would like to illustrate the real world impact of delays in the delivery, mostly to help manage expectations. the arrival of this equipment will literally triple my effective resource capacity, (there are no other resource constraints given the priority of the project) but I'd like to be able to demonstrate the effect.

I've put a task in the sheet for "equipment delivery" - there are other pieces of equipment in the same order, so this is a dependency for a few steps in the work, and I can reflect the impact of these by changing the finish time for this delivery. - in an ideal world I'd like to tie the availability of Resource X, Y and Z to that same event, so that, if I change the single date as it becomes clearer, or we get firmer commitments i can change the date and all other timelines self correct. - this has the effect of visualizing the bottleneck i currently have, showing it to stakeholders but also meaning i can do the grunt work of planning everything and then suddenly it all slots into place.

Answer 1

Mickeydee135_228,

Unless I'm missing something, it should be a simple matter of using a milestone as the defining event for arrival of the equipment. You indicate you have multiple resources available, so resource availability is apparently not a factor.

Once you have the equipment arrival milestones in place, create task lines for the activities that will be done using that equipment and resources. Those activities will have a normal finish-to-start (FS) dependency on the arrival milestone. Assign resources to the tasks as appropriate using fixed work, effort driven.

When you manually move the arrival milestone, the dependent tasks will automatically adjust. As you increase or decrease the assignment level, the task finish date will move accordingly.

In a simple scenario, it might look like this:

Hope this helps.

John