Project 2013 Introduction

Project 2013

Lesson 4 – Working with Resources

After assigning a resource to a task, the resource name appears to the right of the appropriate task bar in the Gantt chart. For work resources, the unit percentage appears to the right of the resource name if it is a percentage other than 100%, which is the default. In addition, a checkmark appears to the left of the resource name in the Assign Resources dialog box, indicating it is assigned to the task that is currently selected. When you assign a work resource to a task, Microsoft Project calculates the hours of work for the resource. This calculation is based on the duration of the task multiplied by the number of hours in a work day. For example, if you assign a resource to a task with three day duration and there are eight hours in the work day, Microsoft Project will assign that resource 24 hours of work. You can view work values for resources assigned to tasks in the Task Usage view. By default, Microsoft Project uses what is known as effort-driven scheduling. In effort-driven scheduling, you create a task, assign it a duration and then assign resources to the task. After assigning resources, the total amount of work required to complete the task is calculated and is fixed. If you initially assign multiple resources, work for all resources will be calculated at 100% for the duration of the task. For example, the task of painting a house has a duration of two days. You initially assign two painters to the task and the duration is still two days. The amount of work calculated for the resources is 32 hours [16 hours of work per day (8 hours/day per resource x 2 resources) x 2 days]. If you remove one painter, work remains fixed at 32 hours, one painter will now take four days to complete this task. The duration changes automatically to four days. = ( ℎ ⁄ )

Assigning a resource to a task

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