Automatic resource leveling using Microsoft project 2010
Whenever a task has been assigned a resource that is over-allocated, then the indicator column will display a little person icon to alert you to this fact. You can right click the icon and choose ‘re-schedule to a viable date’, which re-schedules all or part of the task to a time period when the resource has appropriate availability to fix the problem.
This is not always possible of course, as the individual may have insufficient time at any point within the project. When using automatic resource leveling (as opposed to Manual leveling), remember that you can always undo the change if you cannot accept it, or disagree with the leveling impact on your project.
Going back to the level person icon the indicator column again, if you right-click and this time choose the ‘fix in task inspector’, the task inspector view will present you with ideas for fixing the over-allocation.
The name given to resolving resource over-allocations is called leveling.
Microsoft project 2010 can only perform Automatic resource leveling in two ways:
- Delay the task until the overbooked resource has sufficient work time to resolve the problem.
- Split the task. What this does at the split is to stop the task at that point and to restart the remainder of the task at a future point in time when the resource is available.
Because Microsoft project 2010 is not ‘self aware’ it needs an algorithm to make informed choices when being asked to make Automatic resource leveling decisions.
This algorithm will first attempt to use remaining slack within the task to try and resolve the problem, if this can’t be done. then it looks at task priorities and given a choice will level the lower priority task, if this doesn’t work, it then attempt to move the task based on dependency relationships (obviously by honouring the link logic). If none of the above works, finally it will consider task constraints in making a decision about which tasks to level.
To level the over allocations automatically within Microsoft project 2010, perform the following steps:
- Select Resource, Leveling Options
- Select Automatic
- Select ‘Clear Leveling Values before Leveling’
- Select EITHER; ‘Level Entire Project’ OR ‘Level a date range via the ‘From’ and ‘To’ boxes
Using the ‘Leveling order’ drop down list select one of the following:
- Standard. This choice considers slack, dependencies, priorities, and constraints (in that order)
- ID Only. This delays or spirits the task with the highest ID number. Because the tasks are normally entered in sequence order (think of the Gantt chart view), then higher ID numbers will tend towards those tasks that start later.
- Priority, Standard. This is similar to the standard choice, but uses task priority as the first criterion in making the choice to either delay or split tasks.
The next step is to select one or several of the five checkboxes to advise Microsoft project 2010 how you wish the Automatic resource leveling to occur:
- Level only within available slack. Only those tasks with slack (non-critical tasks) will be delayed, and hence it is good advice to select this option first in an attempt to resolve the over-allocation yet keep the project finish date.
- Leveling can adjust individual assignments on a task. This allows Microsoft project 2010 to remove or change work assignments of the affected tasks.
- Leveling can create splits in the remaining work. This will split over-allocated tasks just prior to the point of over-allocation, and restarts the remainder of the task at a point in time when the resource becomes available.
- Level resources with the proposed booking type. The booking type can be set to either proposed or committees and refers to how firm you are in using that particular resource. What this means in practice is that committed resources will only be unaffected if proposed assignments do not resolve the over-allocation problem.
- Level manually scheduled tasks. If this box is checked then it allows project to move the task even if you have manually scheduled it (entered a start and finish date for the task).
Select the Level All button, and Microsoft project 2010 will perform the levelling operation.
If you are not happy with the impact this has had on your project plan then select the ‘Resource, Clear Leveling’ command in the Ribbon.
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