Adjusting Working Time for Individual Resources


Project uses different types of calendars for different purposes. In this exercise, we will focus on the resource calendar. A resource calendar controls the working and nonworking times of a resource. Project uses resource calendars to determine when work for a specific resource can be scheduled. Resource calendars apply only to work resources (people and equipment) and not to material or cost resources.

When you initially create resources in a project plan, Project creates a resource calendar for each work resource. The initial working time settings for resource calendars exactly match those of the Standard base calendar, which is a calendar built into Project that accommodates a default work schedule from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., Monday through Friday. If all of the working times of your resources match the working time of the Standard base calendar, you do not need to edit any resource calendars. However, chances are that some of your resources will need exceptions to the working time in the Standard base calendar-such as

  • A flex-time work schedule

  • Vacation time

  • Other times when a resource is not available to work on the project, such as time spent training or attending a conference

Any changes that you make to the Standard base calendar are automatically reflected in all resource calendars based on the Standard base calendar. However, any specific changes you have made to the working time of a resource are not changed.

Tip 

If you have a resource who is only available to work on your project part-time, you might be tempted to set the working time of the resource in your project to reflect a parttime schedule, such as 8 A.M. to 12 P.M. daily. However, a better approach would be to adjust the availability of the resource as recorded in the Max. Units field to 50%. Changing the unit availability of the resource keeps the focus on the capacity of the resource to work on the project rather than on the specific times of the day when that work might occur. You set the maximum units for a resource in the Resource Sheet view, which you display by clicking Resource Sheet on the View menu. For more information about resource units, see “Setting Up People Resources,” on page 60.

In this exercise, you specify the working and nonworking times for individual work resources.

1. On the Tools menu, click Change Working Time.

The Change Working Time dialog box appears.

2. In the For calendar box, click Garrett R.Vargas.

Garrett R.Vargas’s resource calendar appears in the Change Working Time dialog box. Garrett has told you he will not be available to work on Thursday and Friday, January 10 and 11, because he plans to attend a film festival.

3. On the Exceptions tab in the Change Working Time dialog box, click in the first row directly below the Name column heading and type Garrett attending West Coast Film Festival

The description for the calendar exception is a handy reminder for you and others who may view the project plan later.

4. Click in the Start field and type or select 1/10/2008.

5. Click in the Finish field, type or select 1/11/2008, and then press image from book.

image from book

Project will not schedule work for Garrett on these dates.

Tip 

To set up a partial working time exception for a resource, such as a portion of a day when a resource cannot work, click Details. In the Details dialog box, you can also create recurring exceptions to the resource’s availability.

To conclude this exercise, you will set up a “4 by 10” work schedule (that is, 4 days per week, 10 hours per day) for a resource.

6. In the For box, click John Rodman.

7. When prompted to save the resource calendar changes that you made for Garrett, click Yes.

8. Click the Work Weeks tab in the Change Working Time dialog box.

9. Click [Default], and then click Details.

10. Under Selected Day(s), select Monday through Thursday.

11. Click Set day(s) to these specific working times.

12. In the lower To box, click 5:00 PM and replace it with 7:00 PM, and then press image from book

13. Click Friday.

14. Click Set days to nonworking time.

Now Project can schedule work for John as late as 7 P.M. every Monday through Thursday, but it will not schedule work for him on Fridays.

image from book

15. Click OK to close the Details dialog box.

Now you can see that Fridays are marked as nonworking days for John Rodman.

image from book

15. Click OK to close the Change Working Time dialog box.

Because you have not yet assigned these resources to tasks, you don’t see the scheduling effect of their nonworking time settings. You will observe this later in Chapter 4.

Tip 

If you find that you must edit several resource calendars in a similar way (to handle a night shift, for example), it may be easier to assign a different base calendar to a resource or collection of resources. This is more efficient than editing individual calendars, and it allows you to make project-wide adjustments to a single base calendar if needed. For example, if your project includes a day shift and a night shift, you can apply the Night Shift base calendar to those resources who work the night shift. You change a base calendar in the Change Working Time dialog box on the Tools menu. For collections of resources, you can select a specific base calendar directly in the Base Calendar column on the Entry table in the Resource Sheet view.




Microsoft Office Project 2007 Step by Step
MicrosoftВ® Office Project 2007 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))
ISBN: 0735623058
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 247

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