Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Assigning Resources to Tasks

Switch to the Gantt Chart ViewThen click the Assign Resources button on the

Standard toolbar(it looks like two people)

Click task 2 (Document Current Environment)Click your name (or my name) on the Assign

Resources dialog box and click the Assign button on the Standard toolbar

Roll over the column to the left of your name and drag to task 3 (Conduct Needs Analysis) in the Task Entry Table

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Assigning Resources to Tasks

select task 6 (Build RFP)use the Control Key to assign Emily King and yourself to

the task at the same time

you can also apply resource units to a taskwe have five General Labour units availableclick task 13 (Install Software)select General Labour from the Assign Resources dialog

box type 200 in the Units column and Assign ityou have assigned two General Labour units to this task

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Graphing Resources

you can also view resources in a graphselect all the resources in the Assign Resources

dialog box (shift or drag)click Graphs and switch the view to Remaining

Availabilityzoom in and out of the graph

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Assigning a new Cost Rate table

remember that we set up two cost rate tables for General Labour

as it is a specialized task, we want to assign the higher one to the task Install Software

click Task Usage on the View Barclick General Labour assigned to task 13click the Go to Selected Task button to jump to task

13double-click General Labour to view the Assignment

Information Dialog Box and click the General tab change the Cost Rate table to B

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Assigning Resources using a Split Screen

switch to the Gantt Viewclick Task 3 (Conduct needs Analysis)click Window > Split right-click on the lower window and select Resources and

Predecessorsyou can see the Resource Information for this taskswitch to the Resource Work viewselect task 7 (Gather Vendor Bids)click in the Resource Name column and select yourselfclick Okay

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Assigning Resources using a Split Screen

click the Next button to move to Task 8add yourself and Emily King as Resources attached to this

task

click anywhere on the Gantt Chart ViewPrint Preview

click Task Usage on the View BarPrint Previewclick Page Setup and the View tabclick the checkboxes Print Row Totals… and Print Column

Totals to add the totals to your printoutsave and close your file

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Work, Duration and Units

work = duration * unitsunits are Resources

open LAN-4-2save it with your initials as usualclick the Assign Resources buttonchange Your Name to your namenotice how the tasks are updated

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Work, Duration and Units

click task 3 and add the Receptionist to this taskProject assumes that work is evenly distributed

among unitschange the duration task duration to two weeks

instead of one and click okay

click task 2 and add yourself and Emily King as Resources

change Emily King’s work hours to 8notice that the overall task duration does not change

as it is driven by your 32 hours of work

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Work, Duration and Units

click task 11add 200 units of General Labour to this task32 hours of work are createdchange the units to 400 (%)notice that the duration is halvedundo and redo this if you do not see it

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Effort-Driven Scheduling

as seen in the previous examplein effort-driven scheduling, duration usually changes

when resources are added beyond the initial resource allocation

however, in some cases, you will want to turn off effort driven scheduling and assign fixed duration tasks

some tasks, such as meetings and seminars, should have fixed durations

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Fixed Duration Tasks

tasks can be changed to fixed durationclick task 22uncheck the Effort Driven checkbox in the Resource Work

form in the lower windowadd your name as the initial resourceyour initial work calculation is 16 hours type the name Gabriel Mitchell as the second Resource

Assignment and click okaynotice that the duration does not changenow 32 hours of work are assigned to this task type Maureen Hill as the third assignmentagain duration does not change

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Fixed Duration Tasks

go to the Resource Sheet on the View Bargive both Gabriel and Maureen initials, add them to

the Project Management group and standard and overtime rates of $40/hour

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Resource Usage View and Resource Information

open LAN-4-2Bsave it with your initials as usualclick the Resource Usage buttonchange Your Name to your name and initialsnotice that you can expand and collapse Resource

Information as usualclick Install Cabling and click the Go to Selected Task

buttonnow you can see the resources attched to this task

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Resource Usage View and Resource Information

click the Select All button and the Hide Subtasks button (on the left of the Formatting Toolbar)

click Project > Sort> by costnow sort by name

filter your resourcesclick All Resources and choose Overallocated Resourcesclick the Go to Selected Task buttonnotice that the overallocated resources are in redexpand Gabrielle Mitchell and notice where the

overallocations occur

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Resource Usage View and Resource Information

return to All Resourcesgroup resources by Resource Group

Project > Group By: Reosurce Group > Customize Group by

click the Group Assignments, not Resources checkbox

change the field type to Assignmentschange the Cell background to Aqua and click okaysave and close your file

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Leveling Overallocations

we just saw some overallocations where a resource was assigned more work in a given time period than it has working hours

leveling means correcting such overallocations

open LAN-4-3save as usualchange Your Name to your namefilter for Overallocated Resources

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Leveling Overallocations

notice the yellow overallocation markers (!)View > Toolbars > Resource Managementclick the Resource Allocation View on the toolbar

(first button)filter for Overallocated ResourcesProject > Sort > by nameexpand Gabriel Mitchellreduce his tasks Test Software (4h), Test Hardware

(2h) and Test Security (2h)notice the changes

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Leveling Overallocations

switch to the Task Entry View on the Resource Management toolbar

click the go to next task overallocation button several times until you reach task 16

notice that you are scheduled to do other tasks that day too

increase the General Labour hours to 16 and decrease your own to zero

you are no longer overallocated for this task

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4Leveling Overallocations

go to task 26notice that the same resources are assigned to tasks

26 and 27 on overlapping daysdouble click Contract Trainer to open Resource infonotice that 200% units are indicatedthis means that two contact trainers were to be hiredhowever, only one was availablereduce the units to 100%go back to the Resource Allocation View and notice

that the Contract Trainer is now overallocated

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4The Leveling Tool

Project includes a sophisticated leveling tookit levels work resources, though not material

resourcesdoes not adjust task durations, work entries or

resource assignmentslevels by delaying or splitting tasks so that work can

be completed by the assigned resource during available working time

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4The Leveling Tool

splits tasks so that they are interruptedwork starts and stops on the task so that there is a

period of time when no work is being done on the task

introduces delays to a projectdelay is the amount of time between the scheduled

start of a task and the time when work actually begins on the task

usually extends the project’s length as it moves tasks into time periods when a resource is available