You might remove a resource (resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a project.) assignment from a task (task: An activity that has a beginning and an end. Project plans are made up of tasks.) to account for overallocation (overallocation: The result of assigning more tasks to a resource than the resource can accomplish in the working time available.) or underallocation (underallocation: Assigning a resource to work fewer hours than the resource has available.), or to control costs.
- On the View menu, click Gantt Chart.
- In the Task Name field, select the task from which you want to remove a resource.
- Click Assign Resources
.
- In the Resource Name field, select the resource you want to remove.
- Click Remove.
Notes
- As you remove assigned resources from tasks, the durations (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.) for those tasks might change. The 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 to the removed resources is redistributed to the remaining assigned resources. If you don't want durations to change, turn off effort-driven scheduling (effort-driven scheduling: The default method of scheduling in Project; the duration of a task shortens or lengthens as resources are added or removed from a task, while the amount of effort necessary to complete a task remains unchanged.) for the task.
- When you remove a resource from a task, the work assigned to the removed resource is automatically distributed among the remaining resources for tasks that are effort-driven and not fixed-work (fixed-work task: A task in which the amount of work is a fixed value and any changes to the task's duration or the number of assigned units [or resources] do not affect the task's work. This is calculated as follows: Duration x Units = Work.). Otherwise, you can manually adjust the work to redistribute it among the remaining resources.
- If you remove the only resource from a Fixed Units or Fixed Duration task, the work value disappears. To keep the work value, consider replacing the resource with a placeholder resource (placeholder resource: A temporary resource name that is added to a project plan to help estimate the types and numbers of resources needed. With placeholder resource names, you can develop your project proposal and obtain approvals.). This is particularly important if you use work values to help build your schedule (schedule: The timing and sequence of tasks within a project. A schedule consists mainly of tasks, task dependencies, durations, constraints, and time-oriented project information.).
- When you remove a resource from a task, any actual costs associated with the resource will be deleted. To keep the actual costs for the task, set the remaining work of the resource to zero.
