Microsoft® Office Project 2007 Inside Out

Contouring Resource Assignments

When you assign a work resource to a task, typically the work time allotted for the task is spread equally across the task duration. For example, if Pat is the only resource assigned full-time to a 4-day task, Pat is assigned 8 hours of work in each of the 4 days.

If you want to adjust how the hours are assigned, however, you can shape the work amounts. You can assign 1 hour on the first day, 2 hours on the second day, 5 hours on the third day, 8 hours on the fourth and fifth day, 5 hours on the sixth day, 2 hours on the seventh day, and 1 hour on the eighth day. You still have 32 hours of work, but the duration has stretched to 8 days. The assignment is shaped like a bell: It has a ramp-up period, a full-on period, ...