Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

You can find a lot of examples when you can see that it is possible to assign Resource to Tasks with 0% Units. In this post I will show you how can you do it, and what would happen if you do it. Of course, I will use MS PROJECT 2016!

First I will create very simple Project with 2 Tasks:

and two Resources – John and Mary:

As you can see, for this example, John has 0% Max Units by default, and Mary has 100%.

Now I will assign John To Task 1:

and I will get (I will show Task Usage View):

As you can see, John is over allocated, because by default (since I did not enter Units in the Units field shown in a picture above) Units are 100%. So, in Resource sheet his default Max. Units field is 0%, but he is allocated (or assigned) to Task 1 with 100%, and now he is Over allocated, and he is suppose to work 8 hours per day, e.g. 40 hours for the Whole Task.

Now I will assign Mary to the Task 2 with 0%:

and I will get (I will show Task Usage View):

As you can see, Mary will work zero hours (because she is assigned with zero %), and Task duration is now 0 days, so it is Milestone now.

OK! Now you know combinations with 0% units assigned. But, the most important question is WHY? Why will someone assign Resource to the Task with 0% Units, or why will someone have Resource in Resource sheet with default Max units = 0%?

If you have Resource with 0% Max units in Resource sheet it means that you have Resource which is unavailable all the time for all Project activities, and every assignment with Units > 0% will result in over allocation. This can be use in rare situation when you know that you, actually do not have Resource available, but in urgent case, where you have no other option you will use it so these Resource will work over time, e.g. it will be overrated.

On the other hand, if you assign Resource to the Task, and you put 0% in Units, it means that this Resource will do no work on the Task, e.g. it will not spend a single second on it. So, the right question will be: “Why should someone assign this Resource to the Tasks?”. The answer is (from my point of view): There is no reason for that, except if you have some administrative procedure, let’s say that you want to assign Mary, as a Project Manager responsible for this Task, but she will actually do nothing on it.

Hope this helps.

Regards.

Hi,

I’ve got very good question from one of my Blog readers:

“Hi,
I am a novice. Tried to find some solution to a certain scenario in your blogs but browsing through some dozen articles, I thought it better to ask you. Apologies for your inconvenience.
Scenario:
A task naming “Walkway” constitutes 100 ft walkway with 4 days “Work”. Resources are assigned such as
1. [Name] Construction team, [Type] Work, [Unit] 100%, [Work] 8x4days-32 hrs
2. [Name] Pavers, [Type] Material, [Work] 500 Sft
Is there some way that if scope is changed to 200 (100×2) ft walkway, the [Work] for both type of resources automatically changes respective to the task I.e. Construction team [Work] 64 hrs (32×2) and Pavers [Work] 1000 Sft (500 x 2).
Best regards”

OK! I will try to explain this using Microsoft Project 2016!

First I will create the Project with Task – Walkway, and with 4 Days Duration:

and I will create Resources:

• Construction Team – Work
• Pavers – Material
• Asphalt – Material

I added Asphalt, because I will need it for explanation. Paver is, according to Wikipedia: “A paver (paver finisher, asphalt finisher, paving machine) is a piece of construction equipment used to lay asphalt on roads, bridges, parking lots and other such places.” So, it is machine.

Now I will assign resources according to the example above, and I will also assign 500 for Asphalt:

‚

and I will get:

As you can see, I added Work field in Gantt Chart View.

Now I will change Work from 32 to 64 hours and I will get:

As you can see, Asphalt and Paver is unchanged (quantity remains 500). Why is that? It is because MS Project will treat Material Resources as they should be treated. When work in hours for Work resources is increased, it does not mean that more material is needed for the Task. For example, if you build a wall, and you need 1000 bricks for it, and 100 hours, if you find out that you need 30 more hours it does not automatically mean that since you need more time you need more material.

BUT! If you know that you will spend exact amount of Material per some time (like per hour), than you can do that. Let’s say that we found out that we have to build twice larger Walkway. And that we know that Pavers can do 15.625 square feet per hour. In that case I we should assign Resources like this:

Notice, that MS Project rounded Units for Pavers to 15,56e per hour. Now we get this (in Resource Usage View):

As you can see Quantity for Pavers is 500,16, which is 15,63 (per hour) * 32 (hours) = 500,16

Now if We change work from 32 to 64 hours, as we did before (I will not show you this picture again), we will get (now I will use Task Usage View):

As you can see, Quantity for Pavers is now 1.000,32 which is 15,63 (per hour) * 64 (hours) = 1.000,32, but quantity for Asphalt remains the same. So in this particular example if we know that we are going to spend quantity of 1.000 of Asphalt we should change it manually.

Hope this helps.