Hi,

my Blog reader run into problem with limited Resource availability. I will show the scenario and explain it with MS PROJECT 2016.

I will create simple Project with one Task, 4 day duration, and I will assign John to it:

Now I will make this Task as fixed Work, because I want to reduce Duration when I assign another Resource to it:

Now I will make this Task as 25% completed, and it means that John has worked one day on it:

No I will assign Mary to the Task, but she is supposed to work only at Tuesday and Wednesday. My Blog reader did this:

The Result is:

Since he put Wednesday, 14.03.2018. as finished day, Mary became over allocated. Why? Because Mary is supposed to work at Tuesday (because John is finish his work at Monday, and after that he has assigned Mary to the Task), and Wednesday. Remaining work for John was 24 hours (total work was 4 days * 8 hours per day = 32 hours – 8 hours done at Monday = 24 hours), and Mary will work at Tuesday and Wednesday 12 hours per day. To avoid that, he should follow this step:

and he will get:

But this is also NOT what my Blog Reader expects. He expects:

1. Task 1 actual duration is 1 day,  remaining duration is 3 days, actual work is 8hrs and remaining work is 32h- 8h = 24h – OK
2. So the amount of total remaining work that falls on Tuesday and Wednesday is 24 h- 8h = 16 hrs to be shares between two resources. – NOT OK
   So John’s  work for Tue and Wed:  = 8hrs – NOT OK
3. Mary’s work for these two days is the same – 8hrs – NOT OK
   John also works alone on Thursday which is 1 day.  – NOT OK
4. So the remaining duration should be a sum of two durations: Duration 1 – when John and Mary work together (Tue and Wed), and Duration 2- when John worked alone on Thursday: Total remaining duration = 1d +1 d = 2days – NOT OK
5. So total remaining task duration is  2 days and the total task duration is  actual duration + total remaining duration = 1d + 2d = 3 days – NOT OK
   

I will not explain why those things are not OK, but I will rather explain how MS PROJECT really works:

1. First we had a Task with 4 days Duration – fixed work, and John assigned to it. It makes TOTAL WORK to be done 4 days * 8 hours per day = 32 hours
2. Then we put 25% complete, which means that Actual work is 8 hours (1 day), and remaining work is 32 – 8 = 24 hours. So far, so good
3. Then we assign Mary to the Task. Now we have John and Mary available to split those 24 hours among them
4. John and Mary will work 8 hours each at Tuesday, e.g 16 hours together. Now, 24 hours – 16 hours = 8 hours left for Wednesday.
5. John and Mary are going to split those 8 hours at Wednesday among them, so each of them will work 4 hours at Wednesday:

And now – Duration:

1. John has worked alone at Monday (Mary wasn’t assigned to the Task). This is 1 day
2. John and Mary are working full time at Tuesday. This is 1 day
3. John and Mary will work half a day at Wednesday. This is 0,5 day
4. Total is: 1+1+0,5=2,5 days

This is how MS PROJECT works.

Hope this helps!

Regards.