Re: Help with understanding leveling... MS Project 2003

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Thanks again for continuing to help.

I should start by saying that I, somewhat, figured out my problem. I
realized that even very simple work assignments were not being leveled in my
existing Project file. What was strange was that if I copied the exact same
tasks to a new project then the leveling worked perfectly. I tried comparing
all of the settings on the bad file with the good one, but could not figure
out what was breaking it.


Going forward I'm still not quite sure of the best way to set up my project,
so let me explain a bit more about what I'm hoping to get out of Project.

As I said earlier, I'm using to do track software development work. This
work is broken down into tasks each of which has been priortized and
estimated. The estimate is how much time we think it will take a single
developer to complete.

For now I'm happy to assume 1) only one developer will work on one task and
2) a developer will work on only one task at a time. Both of these might end
up not being true in the future, but I'd like to start with these assumptions
for now for simplicity sake.

One last thing about our tasks is that they all start out unassigned and as
a developer finishes one task they are assigned another.

What I'd like Project to be able to show me is a projection of when all of
the tasks will get done. The way I'm thinking of doing this is, initially,
assigning each task to a dummy resource at reduced max rate that a multiple
of how many developers there are. That is, if I have 4 developers then the
dummy resource would be set to work at 400%. This should allow Project to
show when all of the tasks would get done. After that, I would change the
resource assignment to the actual developer resource as the tasks are
assigned.

The final thing I'm hoping Project can help to show is the change in
initialy estimated work and actual work.

If you could give me a few tips on getting this scenario working I'd
appreciate it.

"Steve House" wrote:

W=D*U, a basic linear equation where one term is a constant (Fixed XXX), a
second term is an independent variable, and the third term is the dependent
variable. Fixed Work means if you change units duration is recalculated and
if you change duration, units are recalculated. Same sort of thing for
Fixed Duration but substitute work for duration in the previous sentence.
That's really all they mean and don't try to read greater signifigance into
them. I like to think of them as a switch you use when editing in order to
insure Project's calculations conform to physical reality as you edit your
resource assignments and without knowing the exact REASON for the edit
there's no way of knowing the appropriate task type.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Isnt there a "Machine" Resource Type???
    ... The tasks in this version of the project are Fixed Units, ... you have assigned a resource to a both a task and its summary ... assignments" checkbox is turned OFF, ...
    (microsoft.public.project)
  • Re: Isnt there a "Machine" Resource Type???
    ... The tasks in this version of the project are Fixed Units, ... you have assigned a resource to a both a task and its summary ... assignments" checkbox is turned OFF, ... Leveling never changes the amount of a resource's work nor the duration ...
    (microsoft.public.project)
  • Re: Isnt there a "Machine" Resource Type???
    ... Tools\Level Resources\Leveling can create splits ... you have assigned a resource to a both a task and its summary ... assignments" checkbox is turned OFF, ...
    (microsoft.public.project)
  • Re: "Schedule Creep"
    ... When there is more than one resource on a task, ... here are two assignments, both living a life of their own. ... 10 day duration and two resources assigned (Tim and Joe). ...
    (microsoft.public.project)
  • Re: Role Based access control
    ... > Project LeaderAssign developer role to a user for a project ... > A bug goes thru stages like: ... note that you have introduced a new entity relevant to assignments: ... instantiation will ensure that whatever Processes are at the end of the ...
    (comp.object)