Levelling out

Hi Carol

Resource levelling is process whereby, at its simplest, work is distributed among resources so that no one resource is exceeding its allocated number of working hours in any period. For example if a resource is working 10 hours in a day, and its resource calendar has it available for only 8, then it would be overallocated and the assignment would require levelling.

There are two main approaches.

First, and recommended, you should solve the overallocations yourself by one or more of the following methods

1.Reassigning another resource to the task
2.Delaying the task to a time when the resource is free
3.Splitting the task, delaying a portion of it to a time when the resource is available
4. Changing the resource's availability so the extra hours are added to its schedule

The second approach is to use the automatic levelling tool. Click on Tools-Levelling-Level resources. Project will then try to resolve the overallocations automatically, by delaying and splitting tasks. There are two problems here.

1.First as it can only delay and split tasks, it is often the case that it can't solve all the problems

2.The levelling tool may well make substantial changes to your project, and the time saved by not solving the problems yourself is often lost spending time refamiliarising yourself with your project.

Hope this is useful

Regards

Stephen