MS Project Resource Hours Allocation

Question

Hi,

I am building a project for my team at the moment and the PM wants to track based more on hours/ how many men are allocated to the task vs work complete.

For example - I have allocated two resources to a task that will take 8 hours/1 day. I have allocated 2x resources to this task, working an 8 hour day so that = 16 hours. Is there a way for me to change work duration to 16 hours, however still have the start & finish date as one 8 hour day.

Hope this makes sense!

Answer 1

Certainly,

but why do you have to change anything?

make the task, give it duration 1 day (or 8h if you prefer), then in the resource sheet make the two resources, A and B.

Then back to the Gantt chart, select the task, then resource, assign resources (button), select each one and assign to the task.

It's done. They each have 8 hours of work.

Assign A and B at the same time. If you assign A and then later assign B, that may change the duration, depending on the task type and effort driven settings in task information, advanced. The default is fixed units and effort driven off (what are yours?), and in that case the duration will not change, but if someone has changed them, the duration may change. If it does, just type it back in.

And if you want to see who does what when, go to the task usage view or resource usage view.

Answer 2

great thank you, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Could I also ask, with the resources/calendar - how do I factor in fortnightly RDO's (is this a calendar rule) and weekly trade school day for apprentices (is this done per individual resource)?

Answer 3

Every resource starts off with a base calendar, and the default will be whatever the project calendar is when the resource is created.

From there, the resource can be assigned some other calendar as the base calendar.

Usually a base calendar will be common to several resources, as in your case.

Further refinement of each resource's individual calendar can be made by opening the resource information and click change working time.

There is a hierachy of calendars

Here is an example.

Make a copy of the standard calendar, name the copy "my project calendar", and assign that as the project calendar in project information.

Edit the copy (not the original standard calendar) to put in the exceptions (like public holidays) and work weeks (for start and finish times on each day).

Make two resources A, B. These are the apprentices. They get the project calendar as their base calendar.

Make another copy of "my project calendar", name it "apprentices' calendar", edit the exceptions for the RDO days, assign that as the base calendar for A and B.

Now all apprentices have the same calendar, and each of their individual calendars can be edited, if necessary, with change working time in resource information, for such as personal holidays, medical appointments etc.