Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Modifying Resource Assignments

Sometimes you want to control how Project calculates resource assignments because the built-in calculations described in the previous section don’t quite fit your situation. For example, if you assign two people to a 3-day task, Project initially assigns each person full time for all 3 days. Suppose what you really want is the 3-day task collapsed into 1.5 12-hour days. Using the “Task type” field, you can tell Project that you want to adjust the duration, not the work hours or assigned units.

Another factor to consider when modifying resource assignments is Project’s effort-driven scheduling, which means that the total amount of work required for a task drives the changes that Project makes. Effort-driven scheduling keeps a task’s total amount of work the same when you add or remove resources to the task by reducing or increasing the work each resource performs. But effort-driven scheduling doesn’t always hold true, particularly for tasks like diabolical project meetings that refuse to grow shorter no matter how many people attend. This section explains how to integrate task types and effort-driven scheduling with duration, work, and units to modify resource assignments exactly the way you want.

Tip

If you’re planning to use Project’s resource leveling feature, the best method for handling project admin time is to add additional time (for example, 5% or 10%) for it to your tasks. For example, if a task’s estimated hours are equal to 40, you might assign ...