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From: Holy Harmonica on 4 Jun 2010 13:04
I have set Max Units for my clerk at 50%. She has regular duties but I can
use her for project work about 50% of the time. I also want to enter a
Recurring Task for the monthly accounting reports she does assigning her 100%
for 2 days.
I set the recurring task up for a Duration of 2 days, fixed units and
effort driven. I expanded and selected all the detailed tasks. I [Alt][F10]
to open the Assign Resources box. I clicked on the clerk's Units box and set
it to 100% I clicked Assign. The result was for the first detail task 100%
Units assigned, 50% for all the other detail tasks. All tasks have a
Duration of 2 days. The 1st detail tasks shows as overallocated. I'd like
all the tasks set at 100% units for 2 days with my clerk assigned to the
tasks.
I'd like to not have any overallocations. It seems like sloppy project
management to me, and I don't like the red fonts glaring at me. Or do I just
have to accept that Project Managers regluarly have some overallocations in
all their projects?
I thought of a few ways to handle these things:
- designate the first 2 days of everymonth as exception non-working days for
the clerk.
- assign only 50% clerk to the accounting. Since that is her Max Units, it
will make Project alert me if I try to assign other tasks on the same day.
- Create an "Organisation Service" Daily Recurring Task. Change my clerk's
Max Units to 100% Assign her to work 50% units on the daily task.
Suppress/delete the task on the 2 days that I assign her to monthly
accounting task at 100%.
Any other suggestions?

From: Dale Howard [MVP] on 4 Jun 2010 13:45
Holly --

As you now know, it makes no sense to participate half-time (50%) in a
meeting! :) I think you are misunderstanding the purpose of the Max. Units
value, although you are certainly moving in the right direction. This field
serves only two purposes:

1. Microsoft Project uses the Max. Units value to determine whether a
resource is overallocated or not. In your situation, you assigned the clerk
at 100% Units on a task when the Max. Units value is only 50%, so the
software considers the resource overallocated.

2. Microsoft Project uses the Max. Units value when you assign a resource
to a task but do not specify a Units value. If you use the Assign Resources
dialog, select a resource but leave the Units field blank, and then click
the Assign button, the software will enter the Max. Units value in the Units
field automatically and then make the resource assignment.

In your situation, here are a couple of workable solutions:

-- Set the clerk's Max. Units value to 100%, but only assign the clerk at
50% Units on regular tasks.
-- Leave the clerk's Max. Units value at 50% and then ignore the
overallocations resulting from the Recurring Task.

Also, keep in mind that Microsoft Project warn you in any task view if you
are accidentally overallocating a resource. This is true for every version
of Microsoft Project except for the 2010 version which now gives you a
"burning man" indicator on tasks containing an overallocated resource. Hope
this helps.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
VP of Educational Services
msProjectExperts
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
http://www.projectserverexperts.com
"We write the books on Project Server"


"Holy Harmonica" <HolyHarmonica(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3C4F1BD0-BA07-46D2-90A5-645359A159FF(a)microsoft.com...
> I have set Max Units for my clerk at 50%. She has regular duties but I
> can
> use her for project work about 50% of the time. I also want to enter a
> Recurring Task for the monthly accounting reports she does assigning her
> 100%
> for 2 days.
> I set the recurring task up for a Duration of 2 days, fixed units and
> effort driven. I expanded and selected all the detailed tasks. I
> [Alt][F10]
> to open the Assign Resources box. I clicked on the clerk's Units box and
> set
> it to 100% I clicked Assign. The result was for the first detail task
> 100%
> Units assigned, 50% for all the other detail tasks. All tasks have a
> Duration of 2 days. The 1st detail tasks shows as overallocated. I'd
> like
> all the tasks set at 100% units for 2 days with my clerk assigned to the
> tasks.
> I'd like to not have any overallocations. It seems like sloppy project
> management to me, and I don't like the red fonts glaring at me. Or do I
> just
> have to accept that Project Managers regluarly have some overallocations
> in
> all their projects?
> I thought of a few ways to handle these things:
> - designate the first 2 days of everymonth as exception non-working days
> for
> the clerk.
> - assign only 50% clerk to the accounting. Since that is her Max Units,
> it
> will make Project alert me if I try to assign other tasks on the same day.
> - Create an "Organisation Service" Daily Recurring Task. Change my clerk's
> Max Units to 100% Assign her to work 50% units on the daily task.
> Suppress/delete the task on the 2 days that I assign her to monthly
> accounting task at 100%.
> Any other suggestions?
>
From: Holy Harmonica on 4 Jun 2010 14:40

Thanks Dale. It's helpful to know that Project users accept some
overallocations. Thanks for the clarification on how Project uses Max Units.
So, I think that I could do this:
- set Max Units to 50%
- assign my clerk to project tasks (Project will automatically assign 50%
units)
- change my clerk's Max Units to 100%
- assign my clerk to the recurring tasks.
Expected results
- able to assign 100% units to all recurring tasks
- Project identifies overallocations above 100% units

From: Dale Howard [MVP] on 4 Jun 2010 15:17
Holy --

It sounds like a workable plan to me! Go for it, my friend. :)

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
VP of Educational Services
msProjectExperts
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
http://www.projectserverexperts.com
"We write the books on Project Server"


"Holy Harmonica" <HolyHarmonica(a)discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4240A248-FA92-47FE-B320-E5ACB8092CD9(a)microsoft.com...
>
> Thanks Dale. It's helpful to know that Project users accept some
> overallocations. Thanks for the clarification on how Project uses Max
> Units.
> So, I think that I could do this:
> - set Max Units to 50%
> - assign my clerk to project tasks (Project will automatically assign 50%
> units)
> - change my clerk's Max Units to 100%
> - assign my clerk to the recurring tasks.
> Expected results
> - able to assign 100% units to all recurring tasks
> - Project identifies overallocations above 100% units
>
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