Project 2013 Intermediate

Lesson 2 – Adjusting Resources

Project 2013

Practice the Concept: Open the Leveling Options dialog box again, change the time period to Day by Day , and select Level All . Notice that the second task ( 14 Smooth Foundation ) is delayed until the other task ( 13 Dig Foundation ) is finished. Switch to the Resource Sheet view and notice that both resources no longer appear in red.

C HANGING THE L EVELING O RDER

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Discussion

When Microsoft Project levels resources, it uses a set of rules to determine the order in which the tasks will be delayed. When more than one task will be delayed, you have three selections to determine the order in which the tasks are delayed. In the Resource Leveling dialog box, you can display the Leveling order list under Resource overallocations and select one of the following options: (1) ID Only , (2) Standard, and (3) Priority, Standard .

When the ID Only option is selected, Microsoft Project chooses the task with the higher ID number as the task to delay.

The Standard option is the default order of leveling. With the Standard option, Microsoft Project uses five criteria to determine which task should be leveled first. The order of these criteria is as follows: predecessor relationships, slack, dates, priority, and constraints on the task.

The Priority, Standard option is the same as the Standard option, but the order of the criteria changes. The priority is the first determining factor, followed by predecessor relationships, slack, dates, and constraints.

Priority refers to the level of importance you attach to a task regarding leveling. You can assign a priority level from 0 through 1000, with 1000 indicating that the task is not to be leveled. By default, all tasks are assigned a priority level of 500. Slack refers to the amount of time a task can be delayed before it impacts the dates of another task or the project finish date. You can also set other leveling options in the Resolving overallocations area to control the way Microsoft Project levels resources. If you want Microsoft Project to level tasks without affecting a project’s finish date, you can select the Level only within available slack option, which is not selected by default. However, this option does not allow Microsoft Project much flexibility in leveling resources. If you want Microsoft Project to level overallocated resources assigned to the same tasks as

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