Fine-Tuning the Project Plan

Core Training for Microsoft Office Project 2003

Evaluating Resource Allocation

1	To begin viewing resource allocations, on the Project Guide toolbar, click the Report button.
2	In the Report pane, click See how resources’ time is allocated.
3	The project pane now displays both the Resource Usage view and the Gantt Chart view. To see total work per resource over time, in the Resource Usage view, click the Resource Name column heading.
4	To hide all resource assignment lists so that you can see more resource names, on the Formatting toolbar, click the indicated Hide Subtasks button.
5	To view the timescaled grid for a resource, in the Resource Name column, click Carole Poland, and then on the Standard toolbar, click the indicated Go To Selected Task button.
6	To display the date for a particular point in the timescaled grid, in the Resource Usage view, hold the mouse pointer over the T column heading.
7	To change the timescale to see the work data summarized more broadly, click the Format menu, and then click Timescale.
8	To change the middle tier units from weeks to months, on the Middle Tier tab of the Timescale dialog box, under Middle tier formatting, click the Units arrow, and in the list, click Months.
9	To change the timescale to show only months, under Timescale options, click the Show arrow, and in the Show list, click One tier (Middle).
10	Notice the changes you have made in the Preview box of the Timescale dialog box. To apply your changes to the timescaled grids in the project pane, click OK.
11	To change the timescale to show more detail so that you can analyze an overallocation, in the Resource Allocation pane, click below the scroll box on the scroll bar, and then click Change Timescale.
12	To change the timescale to show weeks, on the Middle Tier tab of the Timescale dialog box, under Middle tier formatting, click the Units arrow, and in the list, click Weeks.
13	To change the timescale to display both weeks and days, under Timescale options, click the Show arrow, and in the list, click Two tiers (Middle, Bottom), and then click OK.
14	To view the assignments for an overallocated resource, in the Resource Name column, click Clair Hector, and then on the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.
15	Clair Hector has no overallocations for the week of March 6. To view her assignments for the next week, in the Gantt Chart view, click to the right of the scroll box on the horizontal scroll bar.
16	To move Clair Hector to the top of the Resource Usage view, click the Down scroll arrow 3 times and Clair Hector appears at the top of the Resource Name column.
17	To view the individual tasks assigned to Clair Hector, click the plus sign (+) to the left of Clair Hector in the Resource Name column.
18	To hide the Gantt Chart view so that you can see more of the Resource Usage view, click in the Gantt Chart window, click the Window menu, and then click Remove Split.
19	To change the timescale so that you can see the overallocation hour-by-hour, in the Resource Allocation pane, click Change Timescale.
20	On the Middle Tier tab of the Timescale dialog box, click the Units arrow, and then in the list, click Days.
21	To change the bottom tier from days to hours, click the Bottom Tier tab, and then, under Bottom tier formatting, click the Units arrow, and in the list, click Hours.
22	To apply your changes to the timescale in the project pane, in the Timescale dialog box, click OK.
23	To view Clair’s overallocation, on the horizontal scroll bar, click two times to the right of the scroll box to display the columns for 8 A.M. to 12 P.M. in the timescaled grid.
24	Notice that in the 8 A.M. and 9 A.M. columns, 2h displays in red, indicating an overallocation. To view the overlapping tasks in these columns, click the Down scroll arrow once.
25	To resolve the overallocation, click the 8 A.M. column for Develop script breakdown and schedule, and then, for the purposes of this exercise, press SPACEBAR and 0 will be entered for you in the 8 A.M. and 9 A.M. columns.
26	To see how the 8 A.M. and 9 A.M. overallocations were resolved, click the Up vertical scroll arrow.

Resolving Resource Overallocation Manually

1	To switch to Resource Allocation combination view, click the View menu and click More Views.
2	In the More Views dialog box, click Resource Allocation, and then click Apply.
3	To view the assignments for an overallocated resource, in the Resource Usage view, click below the scroll box on the vertical scroll bar, and then in the Resource Name column, click the plus sign (+) to the left of Jun Cao.
4	To view the tasks assigned to Jun Cao in the timescaled grid, on the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.
5	Jun Cao is assigned 16 hours of work each on May 23 and 24. To manually resolve this overallocation, in the Resource Name column, click Jun’s first assignment, Reserve camera equipment.
6	To display information for the selected assignment, on the Standard toolbar, click the indicated Assignment Information button.
7	To reduce Jun’s time on the assignment to half of the total units, on the General tab of the Assignment Information dialog box, in the Units box, click the Down arrow until 50% displays.
8	To apply the change, in the Assignment Information dialog box, click OK.
9	Jun’s work on the task is reduced to either two or four hours per day, but the overall task duration has increased. To change the scheduling effect of Jun’s reduced hours, click the indicator next to the Reserve camera equipment task.
10	To restore the task’s original duration while retaining Jun’s reduced hours on the task, in the leveling indicator list, click Change the task’s total work (person-hours) to match the units and duration.
11	To reduce Jun’s assignment units on her second task, in the Resource Usage view, click the Down scroll arrow on the vertical scroll bar, and then click the Reserve sound equipment task.
12	To display information for the selected assignment, on the Standard toolbar, click the Assignment Information button.
13	To reduce Jun’s time on the assignment, on the General tab of the Assignment Information dialog box, in the Units box, click the Down arrow until 50% displays.
14	To save your changes to the assignment, click OK.
15	Again, Jun’s hours are reduced, but the task’s duration has been extended. To change the scheduling effect of the changed assignment, click the indicator next to the Reserve sound equipment task.
16	To restore the task’s original duration while retaining Jun’s reduced hours on the task, in the leveling indicator list, click Change the task’s total work (person-hours) to match the units and duration.

Leveling Overallocated Resources

1	To view all of the resources and begin resource leveling, click the View menu, and then click Resource Sheet.
2	To level resources, click the Tools menu, and then click Level Resources.
3	In the Resource Leveling dialog box, accept all the default settings and then click Level Now.
4	To apply the changes made to the entire list of resources, in the Level Now dialog box, note that Entire pool is selected and then click OK.
5	Notice that Clair Hector is no longer overallocated. To see whether resource leveling has eliminated all overallocations, click below the scroll box on the scroll bar until you come to the end of the resource list.
6	To look at the project plan before and after leveling by using the Leveling Gantt view, click the View menu, and then click More Views.
7	In the More Views dialog box, click above the scroll box on the scroll bar until Leveling Gantt displays, click Leveling Gantt, and then click Apply.
8	To view the changes made to a task, click the Apply for filming permits task.
9	To view the task in the timescaled grid of the Leveling Gantt view, on the Standard toolbar, click Go To Selected Task.
10	The green bars represent pre-leveled tasks and the blue bars represent leveled tasks. To see information about a preleveled task, hold the mouse pointer over the green bar for task 8.
11	To see information about the same task after leveling, hold the mouse pointer over the blue bar for task 8.

Examining the Project's Costs and Finish Dates

1	To examine overall project cost and individual task costs, click the Tools menu, and then click Options.
2	To have Project display a project summary task from which overall costs can be tracked, in the Options dialog box, on the View tab, under Outline options for, click the Show project summary task check box, and then click OK.
3	To display project costs in a table, click the View menu, point to Table: Entry and then click Cost.
4	To widen the columns that display pound signs (###), double-click the split line between Total Cost and Baseline, and then double-click the right split line of the other two columns with pound signs (###).
5	Notice that the Total Cost and Remaining columns contain the same values because no actual costs have been recorded yet. To view the project’s finish date, click the Project menu and then click Project Information.
6	To view the project’s current, baseline, actual start and finish dates, and schedule variance, in the Project Information dialog box, click Statistics.
7	To close the Project Statistics dialog box, click Close.
8	To view critical tasks for the project, on the Project Guide toolbar, click Report.
9	In the Report pane, click See the project’s critical tasks.
10	In the Critical Path pane, you can see the current scheduled finish date. To filter only the critical tasks, in the Critical Path pane, click the Apply a filter arrow and click Critical.
11	Notice that noncritical tasks like Pre-Production disappear from the Project Guide: Critical Tasks pane. To return to the previous view, click the Apply a filter arrow and click All Tasks.
12	To close the Project Guide, on the Project Guide toolbar, click the Show/Hide Project Guide button.
13	To view the Gantt bars for tasks that are scheduled later in the project, click the Edit menu, and then click Go To.
14	In the Go To dialog box, for the purposes of this exercise, press SPACEBAR, wait as 36 is typed for you in the ID box, and then click OK.
15	Notice the critical tasks in red and noncritical tasks in blue. To view the Gantt bars more clearly, click the Right horizontal scroll arrow five times.