Identify any overallocated or underallocated resources   Review the resource workload for the project plan that you just built. Although some overallocation or underallocation might be normal in certain circumstances, this review can help you to see whether your resources are acceptably allocated or whether you need to make further adjustments to the resource workload.

• Review resource workloads

Account for overallocations by adding overtime   You can add overtime to tasks that are assigned to overallocated resources. Although overtime (overtime: The amount of work on an assignment that is scheduled beyond the regular working hours of an assigned resource and charged at the overtime rate. Overtime work indicates the amount of the assignment's work that is specified as overtime work.) doesn't resolve overallocations, it ensures that resources have a way to work the time represented by the overallocation. This is often the best strategy when you are faced with overallocations, although it will be costly.

• Calculate overtime costs

Resolve any resource overallocations   The Leveling (leveling: Resolving resource conflicts or overallocations by delaying or splitting certain tasks. When Project levels a resource, its selected assignments are distributed and rescheduled.) feature in Microsoft Office Project 2007 can even out the resource workload for you. Or you can manually adjust the resource availability (availability: Indicates when and how much of a resource's time can be scheduled for assigned work. Availability is determined by project and resource calendars, resource start and finish dates, or the level at which the resource is available for work.), assignment details, and task details to relieve any overallocations and balance the workload.

Click all of the following that apply:

• Distribute project work evenly with the Leveling feature in Project 2007. The leveling feature reschedules by using available slack (slack: The amount of time that a task can slip before it affects another task or the project's finish date. Free slack is how much a task can slip before it delays another task. Total slack is how much a task can slip before it delays the project.) time, splitting (split task: A task whose schedule is interrupted. For example, a two-day task that does not require contiguous work might be split so that the first day of work is scheduled for Monday, and the second day is scheduled for Thursday.) tasks, and adding delay (delay: The amount of time between the scheduled start of a task and the time when work should actually begin on the task; it is often used to resolve resource overallocations. There are two types of delay: assignment delay and leveling delay.) until the overallocations are resolved. Because of this, leveling can often extend the project's finish date.
• Specify resource availability by adjusting the resource's availability (availability: Indicates when and how much of a resource's time can be scheduled for assigned work. Availability is determined by project and resource calendars, resource start and finish dates, or the level at which the resource is available for work.) for the overall project. You can change the dates when the resource starts and finishes work. You can also change the unit availability (unit availability: Amount of time, expressed as a percentage or a decimal number, that a resource can be scheduled for assigned work. It refers to the availability of a resource; for example, a resource may be available 50%, 100%, or 300% of full time.) at varying periods throughout the project. For example, you can schedule a resource to work half-time from January through March and full-time from April through June.
• Change a duration by reducing the time that is planned for the overallocated task. Be sure that the reduced duration (duration: The total span of active working time that is required to complete a task. This is generally the amount of working time from the start to finish of a task, as defined by the project and resource calendar.) still reflects a minimum reality. When you change a duration, be sure to adjust the corresponding amount of work (work: For tasks, the total labor required to complete a task. For assignments, the amount of work to which a resource is assigned. For resources, the total amount of work to which a resource is assigned for all tasks. Work is different from task duration.) assigned.
• Delay a task until the resource has time to work on it, that is, when the resource is no longer overallocated. Be aware that if the task is linked (linking: In a project, establishing a dependency between tasks. Linking tasks defines a dependency between their start and finish dates. In OLE, establishing a connection between programs so that data in one document is updated when it changes in another.), delaying (delay: The amount of time between the scheduled start of a task and the time when work should actually begin on the task; it is often used to resolve resource overallocations. There are two types of delay: assignment delay and leveling delay.) the task might change the scheduling of any successor (successor: A task that cannot start or finish until another task starts or finishes.) tasks.
• Interrupt work on a task by splitting (split task: A task whose schedule is interrupted. For example, a two-day task that does not require contiguous work might be split so that the first day of work is scheduled for Monday, and the second day is scheduled for Thursday.) a task to be finished when the overallocated resource (or even a different resource) has time to complete the remaining work. Be aware that if the task is linked, splitting the task might change the scheduling of successor tasks.

•  Adjust an assignment to resolve overallocations

  Click all of the following that apply:

  • Assign a resource to a task to relieve some of the workload from an overallocated resource that is also assigned to the task.
  • Replace a resource assignment for an overallocated resource with a resource who has available time to help balance the workload for specific assignments (assignment: A specific resource that is assigned to a particular task.).
  • Remove a resource assignment if you have other comparable resources who are already assigned to the task.
  • Schedule the remaining work on a task to help relieve an overallocated resource. You can decrease the amount of work that the resource is assigned to on one or more tasks. You can also reassign the remaining work (remaining work: The amount of work, in terms of a time unit such as hours or days, that is left to be completed on a task. This is calculated as follows: Remaining Work = Work - Actual Work.) to additional resources.

Resolve any resource underallocations   You can adjust the resource availability, assignment details, and task details to balance the workload and maximize the underallocated project resources. Note that underallocations are often valid and temporary because they are based on the resource availability and skill set, the task constraints (constraint: A restriction set on the start or finish date of a task. You can specify that a task must start on or finish no later than a particular date. Constraints can be flexible [not tied to a specific date] or inflexible [tied to a specific date].), and the many other factors that go into scheduling a project.

Click all of the following that apply:

• Calculate overtime costs if overtime is assigned during the period of a resource's underallocation. Doing this can help to resolve underallocations, because the work can now be spread across the normal work hours. Doing this can also help to reduce costs.
• Change a task's duration to resolve any underallocations by increasing the amount of time that is planned for the underallocated task. Increasing the duration also might improve the quality of the task's outcome.

•  Adjust an assignment to resolve underallocations

  Click all of the following that apply:

  • Assign an underallocated resource to more tasks for the period of underallocation. Doing this can be particularly helpful if the underallocated resource can relieve an overallocated one.
  • Replace a resource assignment with a comparable underallocated resource to help balance the workload for specific assignments (assignment: A specific resource that is assigned to a particular task.).
  • Remove a resource assignment if a resource is so underallocated that you can actually free the person for work on other projects. Or you might be able to remove multiple comparable resources from an assignment if the underallocated resource is available to complete the task alone.
  • Reschedule the remaining work on a task to help relieve an overallocated resource. You can decrease the amount of work (work: For tasks, the total labor required to complete a task. For assignments, the amount of work to which a resource is assigned. For resources, the total amount of work to which a resource is assigned for all tasks. Work is different from task duration.) that the resource is assigned to on one or more tasks. You can also reassign the remaining work to additional resources.

Evaluate the results of resource optimization   Verify that you did indeed resolve any resource allocation problems and that the finish date, planned costs, and other projects are not adversely affected by these changes.

Click all of the following that apply:

• Review resource workloads in order to see that you resolved the overallocations and underallocations that you wanted to fix and to see whether any other resources are now overloaded or underutilized.
• Determine whether the project end date has changed if you set a baseline for your project and you want to view the time difference between the baseline and the currently scheduled end date.
• Show the critical path in order to check whether the critical path (critical path: The series of tasks that must be completed on schedule for a project to finish on schedule. Each task on the critical path is a critical task.) changed as a result of resolving any overallocations or underallocations. You might now see different dates, different tasks, and different resources associated with the critical path.

Communicate the assignment changes   If you assigned new tasks to resources or changed or removed existing assignments as a result of optimizing the resource workload, notify the affected resources, either electronically or by printing assignment reports.

• Publish the latest plan and team assignments if you are using Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 to communicate the project information.
• Add a note about schedule changes to log information about the changes that you made to optimize the resource workload. Such notes can be helpful when you are tracking actual progress, closing the project, or collecting data for the next project.