Identify 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 faced with overallocations, although it will be costly.

• Calculate overtime costs

Resolve 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 Project can even out the resource workload for you. Or, you can manually adjust 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 overallocations and balance the workload.

Click all of the following that apply:

• Resolve resource overallocations by leveling with 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 Project. 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 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, half-time from January through March and full-time from April through June.
• Change a duration by reducing the time 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.
  • Adjust the time a work resource spends 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 contour (contour: The shape of how scheduled work for an assignment is distributed across time. Use a contour to control how Project schedules the work of a resource. Contour examples include flat, back-loaded, front-loaded, bell, turtle, and more.) the resource's work on a task, changing the distribution of work over time, perhaps by decreasing the amount of work during the period of overallocation and increasing it during periods of underallocation. You can also decrease the resource's units (units: The quantity of a resource assigned to a task. The maximum units is the maximum number of units available for the resource. For example, if you have three plumbers, the maximum units is 300 percent or three plumbers working full-time.) on the assignment. You can have the resource start the assignment on a different date, perhaps before or after the resource is overallocated.

Resolve resource underallocations   You can adjust resource availability, assignment details, and task details to balance the workload and maximize underallocated project resources. Note that underallocations are often valid and temporary, based on resource availability and skill set, 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:

• Remove overtime if overtime is assigned during the period of a resource's underallocation. This can help resolve underallocations, since the work can now be spread across the normal work hours. It will also help reduce costs.
• Change a task's duration to resolve underallocations by increasing the amount of time planned for the underallocated task. Increasing duration might also 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. 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.
  • Adjust the time a work resource spends on a task to take advantage of an underallocated resource's available time. You can change the amount of work the resource is assigned to on one or more tasks. You can contour the resource's work on a task, changing the distribution of work over time, perhaps by increasing the amount of work during the period of underallocation and decreasing it during periods of overallocation. You can also increase the resource's assignment units.

Enter a note about resource, assignment, and task changes   Log information about changes you made to optimize the resource workload. Such notes can be helpful when you're tracking actual progress, closing the project, or collecting data for the next project.

• Add a note about schedule changes

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

Click all of the following that apply:

• Review resource workloads to see that you resolved the overallocations and underallocations you wanted to fix and to see if any other resources are now overloaded or underutilized.
• Determine if 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 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 overallocations or underallocations. You might now see different dates, different tasks, and different resources associated with the critical path.
• Check the impact on other projects to determine the date, cost, and resource impact on shared resources (shared resource: A resource that is used by more than one project. One resource can be a part of individual resource lists for several different projects, or the resource can be a part of a single shared resource pool.) or linked projects (linked project: A project that contains task dependencies to and from tasks in other project files. A link to a task in another project is represented with a placeholder or ghost task.).

Communicate 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.

• Communicate assignment changes to team members