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Adding part-time worker extends the duration?

7 replies [Last post]
Thu, 2004-04-08 02:58
Forum Guest
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Hi,

I’ve got a problem with MS Project 2000. When I add a resource (part-time) to a task the duration increases (there are other full-time resources working on the task already).

I made the resources part-time like this:
Resource information window, work-time panel. Marked the non-working days in the calendar.

I can’t use the resource availability in general panel, because on some cases the availability changes during the assigned task and I can give only one effort percentage per task. So the calendar would be good way to do this, but it does not work.

It looks as if the whole team that is assigned to that task starts to use the new calendar? Does someone know how to do this correctly?

Sami
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Tue, 2004-04-13 11:30
#1
Will Russell
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Sami,

There are only two ways around it, and I’ve had a go, the first is to INCREASE the resources units so that he works more hours in the day and gets all of the 100h work done in time, or you reduce the amount of work he has to do.

I would strongly advise against adjusting work in the resource usage view as this puts in place all sorts of restrictions.

Will

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Tue, 2004-04-13 10:16
#2
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If I understood you correctly, MS Project divides the work hours of the task to the allocated resources according to the units (percentage). Then it sees how long it takes the individuals to complete the task.

If one individual is not available for certain duration, then no one else (of the allocated resources) is going to do his work during that duration. So the end date moves forward...

If I reduce the allocated units for the problematic resource, then he get’s less hours per day. But he is still not finished before leaving. Do I need to alter the hours in resource usage sheet manually for this guy or is there a way to automate this?

My current solution is to estimate the units for this guy based on the ratio of "at the work"/"on parental leave". But as the plans change, this needs to be done again every time...

Sami
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Tue, 2004-04-13 04:27
#3
Will Russell
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Sami,

it seems to me as if you haven’t given the part time resource enough time to complete the 100 hours before he goes on parental leave, in which case those hours will get added to the task after the resource gets back.

You will either have to increase his working time to allow for this or decrease the amount of work he does.

Hope this helps.

Will
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Tue, 2004-04-13 03:54
#4
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Quote:"
To be quite honest you haven’t given us much to go on - you don’t want the duration to change, but you don’t want to use Fixed Duration and you don’t want to turn off effort driven. What do you think is going to happen if you don’t use fixed duration and NOT effort driven?.... the duration will change."

Communication problem from my end, sorry. I’ll try to clarify.
1) I have hour estimates for each task and I want MS project to calculate the durations (I want the duration to change) for them according to the resource allocations.

2) When I add a resource (there are also multiple full-time resources also working on this task) that is only part-time (in this case he’s on parential leave and leaves in the middle of the task), the duration of the task actually increases.

Now let’s say the guy is able to do 100 hours before he leaves for two months. Before I added the guy to the task, the task ended before he came back. After I added the guy, the task ended after he came back.

So the duration increases, when I think it should decrease.

Sami
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Thu, 2004-04-08 10:39
#5
Will Russell
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Sami,

You might have to change the task type to fixed duration -not effort driven when adding this extra part time resource and then change the task type back to whatever you were using.

To be quite honest you haven’t given us much to go on - you don’t want the duration to change, but you don’t want to use Fixed Duration and you don’t want to turn off effort driven. What do you think is going to happen if you don’t use fixed duration and NOT effort driven?.... the duration will change.

You have to be careful when adding resources, it can make all the difference if you add all the required resources at the same time or if you add them one by one, especially if you are using the effort driven option.

I think a clearer explanation of what you are trying to achieve might help us to help you.

Will
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Thu, 2004-04-08 05:50
#6
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Fixed duration doesn’t help me, because I’m trying to find out the durations.

Effort driven cannot be turned of as I’ve hour estimations for tasks and estimates on how many people can work on each task (no duration estimates). Based on this I’m trying to divide resources to different tasks, so that durations become acceptable.

I don’t have parallel tasks for the same people, so they don’t have to divide their time between tasks.

Sami
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Thu, 2004-04-08 04:50
#7
Paul Smith
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I think you need to make sure the task is not effort driven and maybe also make it fixed duration
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