Objectives – MS Project 2010

q Change the task type settings to control how resources affect task assignments

q Apply a preset resource contour to change work value distribution

q Working with task information forms

When planning a project schedule, adjustments are often needed to reflect necessary changes in project scope, assignments, etc. In MS Project, when an assignment is changed, the schedule is recalculated to display the changes. You can work with the scheduling method and the task type settings when making changes to the initial resource assignment.

In the previous lesson, the initial resource assignments were made for our project. But we need to learn how to make adjustments to how those resources are used. It is important that you read every part of this lab carefully, if not twice.

Working with Effort-Driven Scheduling

How a task reacts to the addition and removal of resources is defined by the scheduling method and the task type settings. In MS Project, the default scheduling method is effort-driven scheduling. Effort-driven scheduling extends or shortens the duration of a task to accommodate changes to resources but doesn’t change the total work for the task.

Work is the amount of effort, or number of hours, resources put into a task.

The total work for a task is determined by the duration estimate for the task and the initial resource assignment using the following formula:

WORK = DURATION * UNITS

For example, say you give a task the duration of one day (or eight hours based upon a normal working day). If the initial resource assignment is two units (200%) of a particular resource, the total work for the task will be 16 hours.

16 hours = 1 Day (8 hours) * 200%

As resources are added or removed after the initial assignment, the amount of work is notrecalculated, but redistributed among the resources. In other words, the duration is recalculated, not the work:

DURATION = WORK / UNITS

So if you assign two more units of the previous resource or two different resources, the total work remains 16 hours; however, the 16 hours is now redistributed among the four resources (16 hours divided by 4 units equals 4 hours of work per resource). The duration is now .5 days (4 hours).

.5 DAY (4 HOURS) = 16 HOURS / 400%

Effort-driven scheduling assumes that the more (or fewer) resources you assign to a task will decrease (or increase) the duration of a task. “If I can use more people, I can get done faster”. The key to effort-driven schedulingis when you make that first assignment (when you press assign or press enter when entering resource assignments), that is when the amount of work is calculated and never changes when you make additional assignments or subtract resources. This effect is very important to understand!

Let’s demonstrate this effect.

1. Log onto Windows.

2. Open your completed file MyLab2_XXX.mpp. (or use the MyLab2_XXX.mpp file from Doc Sharing) Check the addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure your beginning file is correct.

3. Save as MyLab3_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.

4. Make sure you are in Gantt chart view and your table is the task entry table.

5. From the View tab and the Task Views group, click Other Views and then More Views.

6. The More Views dialog box appears (figure 1). Select Task Entry and then press Apply.

Figure 1

7. You will notice that your screen “splits” into two separate windows or panes again.

8. The top window or pane is your Gantt chart view with the entry table. The bottom pane is known as the task form window and contains many different formats. The default format you are looking at is known as the resources and predecessors detail view. We will use different detail formats in this window in coming labs. For now, remember this is the task form window.

9. In the top pane, click on task #3, Inventory Current Equipment. Notice in the lower pane, the resource assignment you made from the previous lab, Systems Administrator. Remember that you initially assigned two units of this resource. The duration you gave this task was 3 days (or 24 hours). When you made the assignment, the initial scheduling then calculated the work. Given the formula, work equals duration times units, 24 hours times 2 units equals 48 hours of work and that is what is in the work column for that resource.

10. Also notice the box Effort driven (next to the Previous button) is checked. That means that this task is using effort-driven scheduling. Also notice the textbox below it labeled Task Type and the phrase Fixed Units. We will be returning to this box shortly.

11. Again, making sure you have clicked on task #3, open the Assign Resources dialog box from theResource tab (the one with the faces).

12. Change the number of units of the resource Systems Administrator to 300%. (Either type in 300 or use the up arrow and then press enter). (Figure 2).

Figure 2

13. Notice in the lower pane the units of the resource changed to 300% and the work remained at 48 hours, but notice the duration of the task: it changed to 2 days. Why? Taking our formula that work equals duration times units, when we make any change afterthe initial calculation of work, work is not recalculated, but the duration is! Therefore (using our algebraic knowledge), duration is equal to work divided by units, or 48 hours divided by 3 units equals 16 hours or 2 days. Got it? Also remember the 48 hours is the cumulative amount of work for the three units.

14. But what happens if we now subtract some of the units? In your Assign Resources dialog box, change the units of Systems Administrator to 100%. What happened? Your work is still 48 hours, but since there is only one resource the duration is recalculated for 6 days (48 hours divided by 1 unit equals 48 hours or 6 days).

15. Change the units of resource for Systems Administrator back to the original 200%. Your duration should return to the original 3 days.

16. Since this was the same resource, what would happen if we added a different resource?

17. Click on Systems Analyst and make an assignment of 100%. (Click Assign button or Press Enter).

18. You should now see in the task form the name of Systems Analyst appear and in the work column the 48 hours of work is now distributed evenly among the three resources (2 Systems Administrators and one Systems Analyst), but it still totals 48 hours. The duration is now 2 days, because each unit will be working 16 hours or 2 days.

19. Close the Assign Resource and Keep this assignment of the Systems Analyst to this task. (Duration for project is now 40 days).

Effort-driven scheduling can be turned off for individual tasks (or all tasks when you first created a project in the Tools – Options – Schedule). When effort-driven scheduling is turned off, total work increases (or decreases) when units of different resources are added (or subtracted) from the task. To see this effect:

1. Click on task #4, Assess Current Department Needs. In the lower pane (in the task form), make sure the Effort driven box is unchecked.

2. Press the OK button to effect the change. (You must do this!)

3. Making sure you’ve clicked in the task #4 in the upper pane.

4. In the lower pane, add one unit (100%) of the Systems Analyst and one unit (100%) of the Systems Manager to this task and press OK.

5. Notice the duration remains at two days, but each of the units is assigned the same amount of work (16 hours). You would do this if you know each of your resources is doing different work within the task’s duration and they are a different resource. (See figure 3).

Figure 3

6. Keep these assignments for this task.

7. But what if we turn off effort-driven scheduling, but add additional units of the same resource? What happens? Here is where it can get confusing and you must reflect on what is happening behind the scenes and the effect task type has on scheduling.

8. Click on task #7, Research Products and Services. Your task form should show the resource Systems Analyst, 50% under the Units column and 28 hours of work (50% of 7 days/56 hours, is 28 hours).

9. Make sure the Effort driven box in is Unchecked the task form and click on OK.

10. Change the 50% to 100%, and click OK. What happened? Notice the work stayed at 28 hours (in other words, work was not recalculated), but the duration changed to 3.5 days! We would have expected that work should have been recalculated to 56 hours and the duration to stay the same.

11. Keep this assignment.

The task type setting also has an effect on how tasks are scheduled. There are three task types: Fixed Units, Fixed Duration and Fixed Work. Using one of these types, any variable in the standard equation of Work = Duration * Units can be controlled.

When Fixed Units task type is used (and it is the default), the duration of the task is affected. Fixed Unit tasks are also called Resource-driven tasks. Assigning additional units of the same resource will decrease the schedule, not the work! Therefore, work remains at 28 hours, but duration is recalculated by dividing the work by the new number of units (28 hours divided by 1 equals 28 hours or 3.5 days). To help you, here is a table to explain the effect of effort-driven with fixed unit task type:

At this point, this all seems very confusing I assure you. Actually, fixed units sounds like a bad term for this task type. But if you notice from the table, the key is really effort driven. If a task is effort-driven, the philosophy says that the more resources, regardless of being the same resource or a different resource, work remains the same, but the duration will be affected. If a task is not effort-driven, but a fixed unit or resource-driven task, duration will only be affected if you add or subtract the number of units of the same resource!

But what if you want to ensure that the duration of a task never changes? You can control that by changing the task type to Fixed Duration. Let’s see that effect:

1. Keep the assignment you just made on Task #7 (100% of Systems Analyst), and now click on task #9, Issue RFPs. The resource assignment is the Project Manager. The duration is 7 days therefore work has been calculated as 56 hours of work based upon 1 unit (100%).

2. In the task form in the bottom pane, change the task type to fixed duration by choosing from the pull-down men, and check the effort-drivenbox). (Figure 4)

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