Hi all,
Perhaps I’m just not sufficiently up on the finer points of project management, but I’m confused.
I’m putting together a Gantt chart on the release of a new product, but I’m confused about how to set up resource allocation properly.
In the Task Properties window, the resources tab allows me to allocate the resour4ces the task will use - I get that. But what does the default unit mean? Does it mean that the designated percentage of the resource’s time is allocated to the task, or that the resource is providing the designated percentage of the time required by the task.
To give an example, we’re having custom machinery made. Our internal resources will be putting in about 10% of the time on this task, and the machinery fabricator about 90%. So do I put in those figures against the resources?
Thanks, Edwin.
Exactly this one, percentage of resource’s time.
Dmitry
Thanks for that.
Edwin
This is a really good point and I have a similar follow on question.
If the ‘unit’ is the percentage of the time allocated and we work an 8 hour day, does that mean if I work 1 hour on the task I can allocate 12.5%? (100/8 = 12.5)
how does this then translate over multiple days or even weeks on a given task ?
Thanks Ian
Yes.
The exact meaning is actually up to you. If some resource works 50% on a 4 days long, you may assume uniform distribution of allocated time (resource works 1/2 of its work time every day) or as another option assume it works the first 2 days only. From visualization and resource load chart perspective, however, uniform distribution is assumed.
Thanks for the clarification Dmitry. Keep up the excellent work!
I have a follow up question.
So lets say I have a project with 23 tasks/activities which I have put up in the chart. But now I want to allot 10 resources for task A, 2 for task B, and so on do i set the unit to 1000% for task A,200% for task B?
If you have just one resource which can handle a workload of 10 resources (e.g. if you created a single resource for a team of 10 people) then this is probably the way to go. But why don’t you create 10 separate resources and assign them all to your task A with 100% load?