Hi,

In this blog I will demonstrate how can you set up different resource Availability to the same  resource in MS  PROJECT  2010.

I will make “set up” for my examples. First I will add two tasks.

TASK 1 will have 5 days duration and it will start at 16.06.2011 and it will finish at 22.06.2011. TASK 2 will have 10 days duration and it will start at 04.07.2011 and it will finish at 15.07.2011.

Now I will add two resources in the Resource sheet:

Finally I will Set up different Availability to each resource. I should open Resource table if I want to do that. I will choose RESOURCE 1 and I will make him available from 01.06.2011 to 20.06.2011 with 100% units (availability), and from 21.06.2011 to 30.06.2011 with 50% units (availability):

That means that RESOURCE 1 will be available only from 01.06.2011 to 30.06.2011 and he will work full time job until 20.06.2011, and part time job (4 hours) from 21.06.2011 to 30.06.2011

Now, I will choose RESOURCE 2 and I will make him available from 01.07.2011 to 10.07.2011 with 50% units (availability), and from 11.07.2011 to 15.07.2011 with 100% units (availability):

That means that RESOURCE 2 will be available only from 01.07.2011 to 15.06.2011 and he will work part time job (4 hours) from 01.07.2011 to 10.07.2011, and full time job from 11.07.2011 to 20.06.2011.

O.K. Now I will assign RESOURCE 1 to the TASK 1:

and I will get:

You can see little “RED MAN” in status column. It means that RESOURCE 1 is over allocated. If you open Team planner you will get:

RESOURCE 1 is over allocated at 21.06.2011 and 22.06.2011 because he is available only 4 hour per day (50%). If you open Resource usage sheet you will see over allocation at 21. and 22.06.2011:

What can I do with over allocation? First I can leave it: “AS IS”. It means that RESOURCE 1 will work 8 hours even it is not available. Or I can right click on status column and I will get:

First I will choose Reduce work and I will get (Open Resource Usage sheet):

You can see that the Task Duration remains same (5 days) but it will take less time at 21.06.2011 and 22.06.2011 (4 hours per day), because RESOURCE 1 is only 50% available at those days. That means that TASK 1 requires only 32 HOURS:
16.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 17.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 20.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 21.06.2011 –> 4 hours + 22.06.2011 –> 4 hours = 32 hours

If I choose Increase Duration I will get:

or, in Resource Usage View:

Task duration is increased for 2 days. Why? Because TASK 1 has initially 5 days duration, and that means 5 days X 8 hours / day = 40 hours. So if I want 40 hours of work and I RESOURCE 1 is available 8 hours / day from 01.06.2011 to 20.06.2011 and 4 hours / day after 20.06.2011 he will work:
16.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 17.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 20.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 21.06.2011 –> 4 hours + 22.06.2011 –> 4 hours + 23.06.2011 –> 4 hours + 24.06.2011 –> 4 hours = 40 hours.

If I choose Fix in Task Inspector I will get:

In Task inspector I can pick one of tree options. First two options are explained before, and the third option offers you to assign additional resource.

In my next blog I will show what happens if you try to assign RESOURCE 2  to the TASK 1 (e.g. when resource is totally unavailable).

See you!