One of the many useful features in Microsoft Project is the resource graph. This allows you to check your resources allocation and helps you sort out situations of resources being over allocated, which will cause conflicts. This article describes how to use the resource graph with a project plan which has some resources over allocated.

Once you've developed a project plan, created task relationships and assigned resources you may then hit the problem of over allocated resources. This can occur if you assign one resource to two tasks which take place at the same time, or which have overlapping timescales. For example if you have a full time support person and you assign this person to two full time tasks which run at the same time, then you will create a resource conflict because the person cannot do two full time tasks at the same time. There would not be a conflict if you assign two support staff to the project, or if you assign the one person to work half the time on one task and half the time on the other.

If resources are over allocated, Project detects this resource conflict and shows you there is a resource problem in two ways. Firstly if you switch to the resource sheet view, where you entered resource details, the resources in conflict will show in red formatting. Secondly if you switch to the resource graph view you can view each resource allocation in turn, and Project colours over allocations in red and correct allocations in blue.

When you first switch to the resource graph view, the graph timescale is based on today's actual date and this may not match with the project dates. So you may need to scroll the view sideways or change the view zoom setting to find the resources information. Alternatively you could switch back to the gantt chart view, check the project date, return to the resource graph view and then drag the horizontal scroll bar in the lower right of the display. As you drag the bar a date is displayed to guide you, so you can then drag quickly to the correct timescale.

Once the resource graph is displaying some information, you'll see that the graph displays one resource at a time. You can change the resource being displayed either by pressing the up or down keys, or dragging the horizontal scroll bar in the lower left of the display. As you switch between resources, you'll see blue bars indicating correctly allocated resources and red bars indicating over allocated resources.

A really useful way to view the resource graph without the problem of having to change its timescale to show actual resources is to use the split view. To do this first return to the gantt chart view and ensure your tasks are in view. Then select the split view from the upper menu bars or ribbon tabs.

When the split view is selected, the gantt chart remains in the upper view and a task detail form is shown in the lower view. However you can change the lower view to the resource graph. To do this, first select any part of the lower view, then choose the resource graph view. This will now appear in the lower part of the split. Now if you select different tasks in the upper gantt chart, the corresponding resources will show in the lower resource graph. If you select a task in the gantt chart, then with the mouse select the lower resource graph, you can then use the up or down keys, or the left hand lower scroll bar to scroll through the resources assigned to that task.

Of course using these techniques to help show the red formatted resource conflicts doesn't help you fix the problems but more it helps you identify where the problems are. The size of the red or blue resource bars also shows you the number of allocated resource units, so you can also gauge the size of the over allocation.

If you're keen to learn more about how to sort out resource over allocation, why not consider attending a training course. This can be a really effective way to boost your Project skills and help you make it a more productive application.