Chapter - Assigning Resources to Tasks Introduction The Three Pillars of Task Scheduling: Work, Duration, and Resources How Microsoft Project Schedules a Task The Link Between the Task and Its Predecessor The Duration You Enter for the Task The Resource's Working and Nonworking Time The Resource Units You Assign to a Task Assign One or More Resources to a Task Control When a Resource Starts Working on a Task Remove a Resource from a Task Replace a Resource in One Step Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of Introduction A project plan that contains only tasks can adequately support the scope of your project You need only make sure that your plan includes all the tasks required to accomplish your goals But if you want to exercise fine control of your project both at the project level and at the task level, you should assign resources to tasks At the project level, you can add or remove resources to bring them into balance with scope and time at any phase of your project For example, if you add a new feature to your product, thus increasing the project scope, you can add more resources Or, if your deadline is delayed by several months, you can compensate for downtime by removing resources from your project and adding resources to a more urgent one At the task level, you can fine-tune the trio of work, duration, and resources to schedule each task at the right time, make each task as short as possible, and use resources efficiently For example, if a task duration pushes the project end date beyond your deadline, you can either assign more resources to the task or lengthen the work hours of assigned resources Or, if one person has too much work and another too little, you can assign one person to spend less time on tasks and the other person more time If your project has only a few tasks requiring few resources, and you don’t need to track costs in detail, you might not need to assign resources to tasks If you don’t assign resources, you can still track task progress and some costs, but Microsoft Project won’t be able to calculate resource costs as the project progresses You’d have to enter any updated resource costs yourself When you assign resources to tasks, you gain several benefits: • Your schedule mirrors your actual circumstances more accurately • You can assign responsibility for tasks • You can monitor workload and make adjustments to avoid overloading resources • You can track resource costs, often the largest portion of total project costs Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of The way Microsoft Project uses work, duration, and resources to schedule tasks is a process called effort- driven scheduling, which is the default scheduling method With effort-driven scheduling, you can see immediately the effect of assigning a resource to or removing a resource from a task You can manage your resources by controlling when a resource starts working on a task and by removing resources that are no longer needed The Three Pillars of Task Scheduling: Work, Duration, and Resources When you assign resources to a task, Microsoft Project calculates the task’s schedule by using the work, duration, and resources associated with the task Typically, you enter values for two of these, and Microsoft Project calculates the third Work is the amount of effort, measured in time units (like hours or days), put into a task by a resource The total work for a task is the sum of all those time units, no matter how many resources are assigned to the task For example, if two people each work hours to complete a task, the total work for that task is 16 hours Duration is the amount of time between the start and finish of a task Microsoft Project calculates a task’s duration based on the number of resources and the amount of work assigned to it For a typical task, the more resources you assign to it, the shorter its duration will be Resources are the people, equipment, office space, and so on that — or facilitate — the work on a task Using resources gives you further control over your schedule For instance, if you want a task or the project as a whole to decrease in duration, you can add more resources How Microsoft Project Schedules a Task Microsoft Project schedules a task based on information that you enter into your project plan (such as the task duration), the type of link you assign to the task, resource assignments, and constraints When you vary any one of these factors, you can affect the task’s schedule To have Microsoft Project schedule a task exactly the way you want it, you need to know how these factors that The following factors are used to calculate a task’s schedule The Link Between the Task and Its Predecessor The start date that Microsoft Project calculates for a task depends on the type of link you have assigned it For example, if it’s a finish-to-start (FS) link, the task begins as soon as its predecessor finishes With a start-to- start (SS) link, the task begins when its predecessor begins The Duration You Enter for the Task Microsoft Project uses the task’s duration to calculate the start date or finish date A good rule of thumb is to have a specific number of resources in mind when you enter a duration For example, if you know that a task usually takes three people hours to complete, enter the duration as hours When you assign resources to the task, remember to assign three of them all at once, or else change the duration accordingly The Resource’s Working and Nonworking Time Defined in a resource calendar, a resource’s working and nonworking days and hours let Microsoft Project know which days and how many hours per day a resource is available to work The Resource Units You Assign to a Task When you assign a resource to a task, you can specify the percentage of the resource’s total daily working hours that the resource will work on the task That percentage is known as resource units If you don’t specify resource Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of units, Microsoft Project assumes you want the resource to work full-time (100 percent) on the task (unless it’s a part-time resource) Assigning a resource at 100 percent units means you want the resource to give all available working hours to the task If one resource is scheduled to work a total of hours per day, then 100 percent units is equal to hours For a resource scheduled to work an 8-hour day, 100 percent units is equal to hours (and 25 percent units = hours, 125 percent units = 10 hours, and so on) With effort-driven scheduling, the more resources you assign to a task, the shorter the duration becomes In the Gantt Chart view, the Gantt bars decrease in length If you want to see how these different factors — link type, duration, resource calendars, and resource units — affect the schedule of a task in your project, you can vary each factor in Microsoft Project until the task is scheduled exactly the way you want it Assign One or More Resources to a Task Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of Keeping track of which resource performs a particular task, how much work a resource has in a certain time period, and how much your resources have cost since the project began can be difficult and time-consuming But there’s one thing you can that enables Microsoft Project to take care of these responsibilities for you: assign resources to tasks When you assign a resource to a task, you create an assignment You can assign any resource to any task and change assignments at any time You can assign more than one resource to a task and specify whether a resource works full-time or part-time on the task by using resource units Resource units indicate the percentage of the resource’s time allocated to the task By default, Microsoft Project assigns 100 percent units to each resource (unless a resource is a part-time resource) If the resource represents a single entity, 100 percent units means the resource is working full-time on the task If you assign a resource group — for example, a group of three painters — at 100 percent, it means only one of the painters is assigned to the task If you assign all three painters, it would be 300 percent If the work assigned to a resource exceeds the daily full-time allotment indicated in the resource’s working times calendar, Microsoft Project displays the name of the overallocated resource in red in resource views Double-click a resource in the To assign a resource to a task Resource Assign-ment dialog box to display the Resource Information dialog box On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart In the Task Name field, select the task to which you want to assign a resource Click Assign Resources In the Name field, select the resource you want to assign to the task If necessary, type the name of a new resource in a blank Name field Click Assign A check mark to the left of the Name field indicates that the resource is assigned to the selected task Control When a Resource Starts Working on a Task When you assign resources to a task, Microsoft Project assumes by default that each resource begins working on the task on that task’s start date But that scenario might not match reality One resource might begin work on the start date, but another might not be available until several hours or days later With Microsoft Project, you can specify exactly when a resource begins working on a task For example, you can stagger the times that multiple resources begin working on the same task by delaying the starting time of one or more of the resources This is true even if you have only one resource assigned to a task When you delay the start of a resource assignment, Microsoft Project recalculates the start date and time for the resource’s work on the task To control when a resource works on a task On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart On the Window menu, click Split In the Task Name field, select the task for which you want the resource’s work to be delayed Click the Task Form view in the bottom pane On the Format menu, point to Details, and then click Resource Schedule If there is no work for the resource in the Work field, enter the work in the field, and then press ENTER In the Delay field for the resource, enter the duration by which you want to delay the start of the resource’s work For example, type 2h for a delay of hours; type 2d for a delay of days Click OK On the Window menu, click Remove Split Remove a Resource from a Task Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of Just as a task can change during a project — for example, its duration can increase or decrease — so can a resource If one of your resources falls ill or becomes too busy to work on a task, you might need to remove that resource Whenever necessary, it’s easy to remove the assigned resource To remove a resource from a task On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart In the Task Name field, select a task from which you want to remove a resource Click Assign Resources In the Name field, select the resource you want to remove, and then click Remove Replace a Resource in One Step You can replace a resource with someone on your resource list in one step For example, you might find a more qualified person to perform a task you already assigned to someone else Or, perhaps a piece of equipment you’ve assigned to a task breaks down Rather than removing the assigned resource and then assigning another resource in a separate action, you can simply replace one resource with another To replace a resource with another resource On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart In the Task Name field, select a task with a resource you want to replace Click Assign Resources In the Name field, select the resource you want to replace, and then click Replace In the Name field, select one or more resources to assign to the task, and then click OK Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of