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Multiple resources on one activity.....

8 replies [Last post]
Fri, 2010-01-29 03:34
David Blades
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Joined: 8 Apr 2004
Posts: 50
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
... I would like to use multiple resources on a single activity with each resource potentially having different start and finish dates to those on the activity.

I am finding that as soon as I enter an end date on the resource it ends the activity. Any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks in advance
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Replies

Mon, 2010-02-01 20:05
#1
Ian Nicholson
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Joined: 29 Jan 2010
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Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
You can assign multiple resources to an activity with different start and finish dates by using the resource lag field to offset the start of the activity and the duration of the resource assignment to control the duration of the task. For example, if you have a 8 hour activity want to have a crane at for the first 2 and last 2 hours of the job with a pipefitter doing work throughout, you can set the resources as follows:

Rsrc Lag OD
Crane 0 2hrs
PF 0 8hrs
Crane 6hrs 2hrs

This is usually much more accurate than putting the crane for 8hrs with a usage of 0.5hrs/hr.

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Sun, 2010-01-31 10:00
#2
Anoon Iimos
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Groups: Pinoy Planning Planet Community
David,

If you use "resource dependent", I supposed the "duration" shall be driven by your resources (assignments) and resource calendars, so you cannot fix your duration.

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Sat, 2010-01-30 17:25
#3
David Blades
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Joined: 8 Apr 2004
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Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Thank you Arnold... this should make my life much easier. Can I ask if there are any other particular settings needed to make this work OK? Currenty planning to use resource dependant, fixed duration and units/time and % complete type duration.

Just wanted to check in case there were a specific set of settings best used with the tick removed from "drive activity dates"?

Thanks in advance
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Sat, 2010-01-30 04:08
#4
Arnold Puy
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Hi David,

In order to have your problem fix, you need to untick the "Drive Activity Dates".

To do that, go to "Resource Assignments" show the "Drive Activity Dates" on the column. Or go to Activities Window, Activity Details --> Resource Tab, then simply add the "Drive Activity Dates" and remove the check next to it.

Regards,

Arnold

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Fri, 2010-01-29 08:19
#5
Rafael Davila
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Groups: Spider Project Team
David,

For years I have been scheduling using soft relationships as to avoid using resource leveling on my previous software. Now I am kind of new into it but still cannot understand how some so called CPM software allows you to fool CPM logic when assigning resources.

If you fix in time your resource assignments then alignment with activity might not happen, therefore you are not doing CPM logic, you are on simple bar-charting. Your software if in compliance with true CPM logic should not allow you to do that. I would call it quasi-cpm. Please do not misunderstand me, most management of projects is done with quasi-cpm tools, and well served with such software unless there is a need to follow true CPM logic.

Don’t fix in time your assignments, let CPM logic work as it should be.

Best regards,
Rafael
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Fri, 2010-01-29 05:34
#6
Mike Testro
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Hi David

You can do this on PowerProject using the Allocations view.

I don’t use P6 but I am sure there must be a similar facility.

Best regards

Mike Testro
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Fri, 2010-01-29 04:57
#7
David Blades
User offline. Last seen 10 years 34 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 8 Apr 2004
Posts: 50
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Thank you Vladimir.

The reason I wanted to only use 1 activity is because my activity may be for 1 month but during that month I might have a guy on that job for 5 days, then another on that job for 5 days etc etc.

So what I was looking for was my activity to show the duration of the work period say 1st - 30th March but my additional resources to be listed as -
resource 1 - 1st - 5th March
resource 2 - 7th - 18th March
resource 3 - 21st - 29th March

I know each resource has the facility of a planned start / finish date or a start / finish date or an actual start / finish date some from these available options I was assuming it’s possible to set it up to do this???

I hope this is clearer???

Thanks again
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Fri, 2010-01-29 04:18
#8
Vladimir Liberzon
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Hi David,
I think that you have not one activity but many of them.
If resource requirements are different then something changed and the work is different. So it is different activity.
We usually recommend several criteria for defining project activities:
1) The work needs certain group of resources,
2) The cost of work does not change,
3) Belongs to one work package in WBS,
4) Duration is less than one week.
The last rule may be different for different types and levels of schedule.

Best Regards,
Vladimir
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