Level project's resources


The Resource Sheet presented below the Gantt Chart shows a time phased distribution of the work for resources and their assignments.

For each resource and assignment, in the Assigned row, you will see the overallocated resources (resources programmed to work on all the assigned tasks more than it is possible according to their calendars and MaxUnits values) rendered with red color and the resources that have overtime work (work scheduled for a resource beyond its regular working hours) rendered with yellow. At the same time the table indicates the task and the time interval where and when the problem occurs.

In the Available row, the working hours of the resources with no assignments are rendered in green color.

Depending on the situation, there are a few methods to solve the overallocations (to level the resources):

1. Remove resources or decrease the Units value for some of the resources' assignments until their sum does not exceed the MaxUnits value of each resource. If it is needed to compensate the decrease of the Units value for a certain tasks it can be added available resources (available hours are shown in green color). To do this in the current view select the appropriate task, open the Details window, click the Resources tab and make the necessary modifications.
Hint: To keep the task's work constant, before any assignment modification select Try to keep the work when changing resources/duration (make task work-driven) checkbox at the bottom of Resources tab. This way the duration of the task will change automatically while the work is kept unchanged.

2. If the lack of resources is a constraint then you can try to move one or more tasks. You can also link tasks that require the same resources although it's not recommended. In both cases a note on the task would be useful to remind you the cause of the action.

3. Increase the MaxUnits value (employ more resources with the same role) if the work has to be done in the scheduled time. In this case the name of the resource should indicate a role rather than a human resource.

The combination of Gantt Chart and Resource Sheet is also useful to make a fair distribution of the work even though the resources are not overallocated.
Hint: Using the Details window you can see the details for a resource or a task depending on your currently selected element in the table.