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I have a "Master Schedule" that is made up from linked files that include
schedules for individual projects. While in the "Master Schedule" I am trying
to level the resources so no one is over allocated. When I try to level it is
not working and states that one of my projects (lets say Project #3) is
linked to another task that cannot move. I am not sure why this error message
is coming up. I don't have it linked to anything else and all my seperate
projects have predecessors so that all tasks are dependant on eachother. I am
a newbie to Project and quite frankly not impressed with the level of
difficulty. Now I am sure for the everyday user this is way easy to work
with, but I have maybe a total of 100 hours in this software (I consider
myself very green with this because I hear lots of good things about Project,
I just have no training nor have I figured out a lot of it). Anyways, that is
a little background and my situation that I am currently trying to handle.
Let me know if you require more information. Thank you for your time.
--
Thank you,

Tyler M

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By the way I am using MS Project 2007
--
Thank you,

Tyler M


"Tyler M" wrote:

> I have a "Master Schedule" that is made up from linked files that include
> schedules for individual projects. While in the "Master Schedule" I am trying
> to level the resources so no one is over allocated. When I try to level it is
> not working and states that one of my projects (lets say Project #3) is
> linked to another task that cannot move. I am not sure why this error message
> is coming up. I don't have it linked to anything else and all my seperate
> projects have predecessors so that all tasks are dependant on eachother. I am
> a newbie to Project and quite frankly not impressed with the level of
> difficulty. Now I am sure for the everyday user this is way easy to work
> with, but I have maybe a total of 100 hours in this software (I consider
> myself very green with this because I hear lots of good things about Project,
> I just have no training nor have I figured out a lot of it). Anyways, that is
> a little background and my situation that I am currently trying to handle.
> Let me know if you require more information. Thank you for your time.
> --
> Thank you,
>
> Tyler M

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Firstly, let's explore what a computer can do to level resources. Firstly
the computer (in a typical schedule) does not know who has what skills, or
even if two people with the same skills can swap tasks. It does not know who
will resign if they ever have to do that "!@#@&*!*#" job again! It does not
know who has the hours available from other projects (unless you have a
resource pool with updated calendars and all other projects accurately
scheduled). It doesn't know if a task can safely or productively be
interrupted or put on hold, nor many other options.

To enter and maintain this level of detailed information would take far
longer than leveling manually!

Project can attempt to delay tasks, delay incomplete work but it can't
adjust units or swap resources (not enough info to do this).

Finally, if someone leveled my project for me and change a load of things, I
would justifiably be very annoyed and immediately remove all leveling
changes in my schedule.

Leveling requires resource management processes, senior management input on
project priorities and and a clear knowledge of resource skills and
aptitudes.

The only time I use resource leveling is to level low priority tasks so they
fit into gaps in resource usage. My critical path tasks I always level
manually.

So leveling is not simple, using any tool. How far does this take you?!

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project - http://www.project-systems.co.nz

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see: http://www.projectvbabook.com




"Tyler M" <TylerM@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8ED46FAA-B556-42CB-9689-290238613787@microsoft.com...
> By the way I am using MS Project 2007
> --
> Thank you,
>
> Tyler M
>
>
> "Tyler M" wrote:
>
>> I have a "Master Schedule" that is made up from linked files that include
>> schedules for individual projects. While in the "Master Schedule" I am
>> trying
>> to level the resources so no one is over allocated. When I try to level
>> it is
>> not working and states that one of my projects (lets say Project #3) is
>> linked to another task that cannot move. I am not sure why this error
>> message
>> is coming up. I don't have it linked to anything else and all my seperate
>> projects have predecessors so that all tasks are dependant on eachother.
>> I am
>> a newbie to Project and quite frankly not impressed with the level of
>> difficulty. Now I am sure for the everyday user this is way easy to work
>> with, but I have maybe a total of 100 hours in this software (I consider
>> myself very green with this because I hear lots of good things about
>> Project,
>> I just have no training nor have I figured out a lot of it). Anyways,
>> that is
>> a little background and my situation that I am currently trying to
>> handle.
>> Let me know if you require more information. Thank you for your time.
>> --
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Tyler M
>
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> signature database 4916 (20100304) __________
>
> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
>
> http://www.eset.com
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The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

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Well, there could be a few things causing the warning (not an error, just a
warning).
You may have predecessor/successor links to/from the summaries.
You may have date constraints.
You may have weird concoctions of SS, SF, FF predecessor/successor links,
with also positive or negative lag.
You may have actual starts and/or actual finishes.
These 4, or a combination of them, just about cover it.
This warning that you get is just a result of the way the you have modeled
the project, and some part of it is wrong (even if you can't see where or
why).
If I could see it I could fix it.
--
Trevor Rabey
0407213955
61 8 92727485
PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au

"Tyler M" <TylerM@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:939C1602-F1D5-4FD0-AEEF-830789570821@microsoft.com...
>I have a "Master Schedule" that is made up from linked files that include
> schedules for individual projects. While in the "Master Schedule" I am
> trying
> to level the resources so no one is over allocated. When I try to level it
> is
> not working and states that one of my projects (lets say Project #3) is
> linked to another task that cannot move. I am not sure why this error
> message
> is coming up. I don't have it linked to anything else and all my seperate
> projects have predecessors so that all tasks are dependant on eachother. I
> am
> a newbie to Project and quite frankly not impressed with the level of
> difficulty. Now I am sure for the everyday user this is way easy to work
> with, but I have maybe a total of 100 hours in this software (I consider
> myself very green with this because I hear lots of good things about
> Project,
> I just have no training nor have I figured out a lot of it). Anyways, that
> is
> a little background and my situation that I am currently trying to handle.
> Let me know if you require more information. Thank you for your time.
> --
> Thank you,
>
> Tyler M

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On Mar 4, 5:12*pm, "Rod Gill" <rodATproject-systemsDOTcoDOTnz> wrote:
> Firstly, let's explore what a computer can do to level resources. Firstly
> the computer (in a typical schedule) does not know who has what skills, or
> even if two people with the same skills can swap tasks. .......
>
> To enter and maintain this level of detailed information would take far longer than leveling manually! .........Leveling requires resource management processes, senior management input on project priorities and and a clear knowledge of resource skills and aptitudes.
>
> So leveling is not simple, using any tool. How far does this take you?!
>

Rod,

I appreciate your posts most often but I am unable to accept your last
statement about "any tool". There are many scientific scheduling
software that perform automatic resource leveling for multi-project
scheduling in a sensible manner. Of course, they need most of the
information that you mentioned. Many organizations have such
information but project management (PM) software generally do not
store and use it. My experience does not agree with your statement,
"To enter and maintain this level of detailed information would take
far longer than leveling manually". You would not enter such
information as frequently as resource leveling. Moreover, the simple
data entry effort does not create headache as resource leveling does.
To the best of my knowledge, PM software are not designed and
developed to automatically make use of this information in scheduling
(like multi-functional machines, workers with different skill sets and
different worker preferences for a task assignment).

When resources are very limited, schedules without resource leveling
may not be practical and dependable even over short time intervals. In
fact, resource leveled scheduling helps resource management process
more effectively. Resource-leveled schedules must be updated often
like weather forecast to respond to uncertainty in the system. Multi-
project scheduling becomes laborious and time consuming if resource
leveling is to be done manually each time. Let a powerful, scientific
scheduling tool do it automatically in seconds even for thousands of
tasks across multiple simultaneous projects. Such a tool keeps the
data about all projects and resources in a single file. You can
perform extensive what-if analysis of multi-project schedules with
respect to any changes like those in project priorities, increase or
decrease in resource availability, calendar changes, rework, etc
because it can generate a sensible, resource leveled schedule in
seconds. Although some of those sophisticated scheduling tools do not
require formal training, they are not as cheap as popular PM software.
Since project management software like Project are highly popular and
very cheap, many people never look at those scientific scheduling
tools. Please look outside the world of project management software
which have poor scheduling logic.

Regards,
Prasad ( www.optisol.biz )