How to Perform Resource Management in Microsoft Project

How to perform Resource Management in Microsoft Project

The Resource Usage view in Microsoft Project displays the work hours performed by each resource. Once you’ve linked up your tasks in order of sequence and assigned a resource to each task, your Resource Usage view will show you the work scheduled for each worker or workers.

In the Resource Usage below, you can see a Painter has been flagged as over worked on an 8 hour day. He was assigned to paint the North Block and West block on the same day. He has 15.5 hours of work scheduled in one day. This is impossible for one Painter to achieve.

Your project plan has now identified a problem with your schedule. With the Painter over allocated, you have 2 options.

1. You can assign an extra painter for that day to stay on track with the project schedule.
2. Or you can delay one of the painting tasks to another day. This may extend the project finish date.

How do you know which option to take?

The Gantt Chart below is a construction schedule for a hospital. The red bars are critical tasks that need to start and finish on time, or it will delay the project finish date. If the Painting task is a red bar, then you would choose Option 1 – to add another worker.

But if the painting task is a blue bar, then you may choose Option 2 – to delay the task, which may not affect the project finish date.

By using Microsoft Project to plan your project, it will help you identify whether you actually need more resources on your project.