Last Updated: July 13, 2024

Activity 10 - Acquire Project Team

Activity Page Outline

Application 1 - Acquire Project Team Workflow (30 minutes)

Learn the Acquire Project Team Workflow (10 minutes)

Update Journal on the Acquire Team Workflow (20 minutes) jump to

Application 2 - Complete Acquire Project Team Exercises (3 hours 10 minutes) jump to

Exercise 1: Replace Resources and Replace Resource Assignments (15 minutes) jump to

Exercise 2: Define Resource Availablity (15 minutes) jump to

Exercise 3: Examine Resource Workloads (30 minutes) jump to

Exercise 4: Automatically Level Resources (25 minutes) jump to

Exercise 5: Share and Level Resources Across Projects (30 minutes) jump to

Exercise 6: Level Your Master Project (60 Minutes) jump to

Update Journal on Acquiring and Leveling the Project Team for Your Master Project (15 minutes) jump to

There are two applications on the page. Complete each when directed in the MS Project Master Class Book.

This entire page should take 4 hours and 10 minutes to complete.

Acquire Project Team Workflow (25 minutes)

A workflow is a set of sequential or parallel processes or steps performed to complete a specific Activity in a project life cycle. It typically involves a series of interdependent tasks that must be completed in a particular sequence, often with specific criteria or conditions that must be met before moving on to the next step. The workflow for each Activity in this MS Project Master Class is the Activity (chapter) outline.

Learn Acquire Project Team Workflow (10 minutes)

(jump to the top of the page)

(jump to the top of the page)

Complete Acquire Project Team Exercises (3 hours, 10 minutes)

This exercise series focuses on Acquiring the Project Team. In this series, you will:

• Replace generic or skill resources with the people doing the work.

• Level workloads

By taking an in-depth view of resource workloads.

By replacing or reassigning resources around availability.

By changing the timing of tasks.

By using automatic resource leveling.

• Manage and level resources across projects.

• Level the resource workloads in your Master Project.

(jump to the top of the page)

Exercise 1: Replace Resources and Replace Resource Assignments (15 minutes)

In this first exercise, you will open the Aquire Team Overview.mpp file and replace generic resources with team members. In addition, you will level the workload of one resource by replacing them.

The project management idea is to plan with resource skills rather than people up to this point. Most of us don’t do that; we plan with the people on hand or in mind. The implications of planning with “skill in mind” are apparent. In the best-case scenario, we should ask, “What skill is required for this activity?” Not, “Who do I have available?”

The simple project you opened has five tasks and two skill resources assigned. The first step in the workflow is to replace these skill resources with actual people.

Open the Resource Sheet view and rename these resources with Ted, Susan, and Alice, in that order.

Ted replaces Project Manager

Susan replaces Software Engineer

Alice replaces Project Manager II

Growing up in Seattle, the 38-floor Smith Tower (the white building on the right with a pointed top) opened in 1914 and was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. The flying saucer Space Needle was built for the World's Fair in 1962, and from that point, taller buildings seemed to be built each year until I left to go to college. Now, when I visit, I hardly recognize the cityscape.

In contrast to most cities, the tallest building in Washington D.C. is the Washington Monument, and it will remain that way unless the federal 1910 Height Act changes.

Project Example

In several Project Server deployments I have worked on, the organization maintained a resource pool of generic skill-based resources. For example, 500 IT were defined and their skills were managed in a databased by a resource manager. J. Smith, might know English and Spanish and might be both a web developer and a SQL Server database administrator. At this point in planning, a skill-based resource, using a matching functionality, is paired or matched with the actual people in the organization with those same skills. The next step is to assess returned resources to check their availability to work on the project. Availability is reviewed with graphing or histogram functionality showing project commitments. An available skilled person is then selected to replace the generic skill-based resource.

In the Aquire Team Overview.mpp file, ppply the Resource Graph view and then Zoom the Entire Project. This graphic clearly shows the allocation or workload for a selected resource.

Return to a Gantt Chart view. 

Resource leveling means addressing periods a resource is over and under-allocated and leveling their workload, so they are not experiencing times of overallocation when the quality of work goes down, and delays are a common outcome of over-allocation. Resource leveling also means looking for ways to better or more fully utilize resources, enhancing potential project contributions before their time is squandered. 

There are two ways to address overallocation: reschedule and reallocate. 

In this project example, both Task 1 and Task 2 coincide, and it is easy to see why Ted is overallocated 100% during this period. Link those two tasks with a standard dependency. By rescheduling Task 2, the overallocation is resolved. However, linking does cause a scheduling change and perhaps that change is not acceptable.

Unlinke these two tasks.

The other general approach is to adjust assignments. First, select Task 2, and then open the Assign Resources dialog box and replace Ted on Task 2 with Alice as shown in the figure below. 

Save the project. 

Project Example

I fell in love with Hoover Dam when I was a small boy, so I jumped at the opportunity decades later to do some project management work for the dam. Especially since the Gantt Chart and an early version of portfolio management, with large independent projects coinciding and in sync, are part of Hoover Dam history.

The International Association of Project Managers writes that “The Gantt chart is named after American engineer and management consultant Henry L. Gantt, who used it to provide a visual picture of the Hoover Dam project so that everyone involved could see when the individual construction phases were scheduled to take place.”

The Chief Engineer for the Six Companies involved in building the dam was Frank Crowe. The dam was going to be the biggest globally, creating a lake 150 miles long and 580 feet deep. The location of the dam was isolated in the desert without infrastructure, transportation, or housing. Besides Crowe’s managerial and engineering skills, his organizational genius was managing multiple significant projects simultaneously.

(jump to the top of the page)

When I was working on Gantt Charts for the maintenance department at the dam in 2007, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg were filming Transformers, the American action film based on the Transformers Toy line. At the same time, the government was constructing another large project, the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which was the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the United States. This bridge incorporated the widest concrete arch in the Western Hemisphere. At 890 feet above the Colorado River, it is the second-highest bridge in the United States and the highest concrete arch bridge. There is a bronze Gantt Chart at the bridge of this multi-year project.

At Hoover Dam, there are 17 main turbines in the Hoover Powerplant -- nine on the Arizona wing and eight on the Nevada wing. When a generator goes down for scheduled maintenance, a Gantt Chart is printed out and hung from the side of a generator housing. The maintenance manager frequently updates the plan and reprints the chart. Team members use the large printout to determine what they should be working on during any given shift.

We were building workload simulations. When a generator would go down for general maintenance, it had to be completed on time. In the past, they had done what most organizations do on large capital projects when they fell behind schedule - they would assign more resources. I was there to help them do that more efficiently using Microsoft Project. We created expert plans, mock scenarios, shift work, and resources by skill working the various schedules. At times, we would assign an entirely new shift to critical tasks, increase costs by $20,000 and only gain 10 minutes on the schedule. Making new assignments and evaluating the actual impact on the schedule was invaluable information.

I don’t know of any software other than Microsoft Project and a few high-end project management tools like Primavera that can do this type of analysis.

A second objective related to the work I was helping the dam with was to capture “expertise in a plan.” My contact, the prime maintenance manager, was considering retirement after more than thirty years at the dam, so he built a knowledge base of project plans. A bonus for me was that this manager, who loved the dam and knew everything about it, took me everywhere.

(jump to the top of the page)

Exercise 2: Define Resource Availability (15 minutes)

In this exercise, we are going to take a closer look at these three things:

• Replacing generic or skill resources

• Viewing resource workloads

• Reassigning resources or modifying activities around resource availability

Replace Generic or Skill Resources

The first thing to do is replace the “skill” resources with a team of people. Apply the Resource Sheet view and make these changes:

• Sponsor = Wendy

• PMO Director = Susan

• PM Consultant = Ariel

• PMO Staff = Floyd

Defining an Actual Person’s Availability

After replacing “skill” resources with the actual people doing the work, define each person’s availability. Keep in mind that now you are dealing with resources that have commitments to other projects, line activities, time at the “water cooler,” conferences, training, and life experiences like vacations, maternity leave, and accidents and illnesses. Address resource availability by making the appropriate changes to their: 

• Calendar

• Exceptions to the base calendar

• Max Units

• Contour of availability

Let’s make some adjustments to Wendy’s availability:

• First, Wendy will not be back from the holidays until January 5th, so block off these dates in January (1/3-4/2022).

• Next, Wendy is available full-time for meetings and to kick off the project by spending several days determining the outcomes and scope of the project and aligning those with the business. Still, she isn’t available more than a few hours a week. Leave her Max. Units at 100% against her Standard base calendar but then contour her availability to 25%, beginning 2/1/2022.

When finished, you get a message that the duration of a Fixed Duration task has been changed to accommodate this change. The task was 3.17 days in duration and it has been changed to 5.17 days to accommodate Wendy’s availability.

(jump to the top of the page)

Exercise 3: Examine Resource Workloads (30 minutes)

Use the same Acquire Team.mpp file used in the previous exercise for this one.

The next step is to evaluate resource workloads. Insert the Peak field in a resource sheet view, and you can see that at some point in time (this could be during a 15 minute period) one of the resources is double-booked, and two resources are triple booked. All of the resources are highlighted in red, indicating the resources are overallocated. The indicators column also displays the overallocation indicator. 

There is no other information related to workloads in the Resource Sheet view. A closer look at resource over allocations must be observed and untangled in different views like the Resource Graph or Resource Usage views. 

Apply the Gantt Chart view. The Gantt Chart view identifies which tasks are associated with over allocations, and the dates of these tasks tell us where to look. 

Wendy needs to be there for this first task, so we have no choice but to delay the project before it even starts. The best way to do that is to change the project start to 1/5/2022. We already know that Wendy isn’t coming back from the holidays until 1/5/2022, so we might as well make that change to the overall schedule. 

Let’s simulate something about general shifts in a schedule first. Before changing the project Start date in Project Information to 1/5/2022, go to Options / Schedule and turn Calculation Off at the bottom. Then enter 1/5/22 in the Start date field in Project Information. Notice the schedule does not shift; the Project Start milestone is still 1/1/22. We know it did not change to 1/5 because we turned off Calculation. 

When a task or tasks do not appear to be scheduled correctly, there are five things to initialy check: 

1. The project or task calendar.

2. Calendar options for the project in Options / Schedule.

3. Timing constraints.

4. Check to see if Resource Leveling is set to Automatic.

5. Make sure Calculation is On in Options / Schedule.

Correct the problem by turning Calculation (a global setting that applies to all open projects) back On, and the Project Start task starts on 1/5. Then change the duration of Determine outcomes & scope that Microsoft Project changed to 5.17 days when Wendy’s availability was adjusted, back to 3.17 days. 

Also, notice the timing constraint on PMO complete. There is a Must Finish On constraint of 5/3/22. If you insert the Total Slack field, you will note that the schedule has several days of negative slack, so let’s make that correction by delaying the finish date. For the PMO complete task, go to Task Information / Advanced tab, and change the MFO date to 5/5/2022. 

From the Gantt Chart view in the figure below, we can see the tasks involved in the over allocations and we get a pretty good sense of the general time period, in this example last part of February and the first part of March, we need to look at closely to resolve these resource conflicts.

Apply the Resource Usage view. Adjust the time scale to week periods, because let’s say, that is the unit you are concerned about regarding over allocations. Then scroll to 1/30/2022 and make some of your observations and perhaps decisions. 

Add these details and color the backgrounds so that the rows are distinctive and shown in the figure below: 

• Work

• Work Avail.

• Rem. Avail.

• Overalloc.

• Unit Avail.

For example, you might make these observations: 

• As you already know, the resources are overbooked in February.

• Wendy is overallocated during the first part of February, and her over allocations are minimal, so we will not worry about it. We already rescheduled the project around her availability by delaying the project start date and changing the constraint date for the last task.

• Susan and Ariel are significantly overallocated during 1/30 and slightly overallocated during 2/6.

• Ariel is significantly overallocated during 1/30 and then not used at all beginning 2/20.

• Susan and Floyd are seriously overallocated during 2/27.

Select Wendy and then Apply the Resource Graph view. Zoom the Entire Project, set the timescale to weekly, and then scroll through the resources. 

Susan has the clear-cut case of the bottlenecks. There is a two-week period that it is not humanly possible to complete her assignments.  

Split the window and apply the Gantt Chart on the bottom view. Then scroll to 1/30. 

It is clear which assignments contribute to Susan’s overallocation, as shown in the following screen.

Let’s start addressing some of these more severe resource conflicts. Susan is assigned to ID #6 and #7. These tasks overlap. 

Please take a minute to look at her assignments for both tasks. 

We will have to change the schedule, adjust her assignments, or a combination of both. Let’s say the best solution is to get rid of the overlap. Double click on #7 to open task information and remove the lead for Determine process & procedures by entering 0 in the lag field under the Predecessors tab. 

The scheduling message below appears. This message is poorly written but still lovely to get. This message would have told you where to look for the problem in previous versions of MS Project. For now, remember the scheduling message associated and remember to look at the schedule to determine what has happened. 

Before looking for the scheduling problem, notice that you have resolved the overallocation for Susan during this period.

As is almost always the case, when you address an issue, such as timing, cost, resources, or scope, you create another issue you must address. Poor project managers spend much of their time putting out fires. This could be because they lack skills or work for an organization that poorly plans or executes. Good project managers problem-solve. They realize there are constant changes, disasters, challenges, and obstacles. They are prepared, and they have confidence in their plans.

Project Example

I was living in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics. A few months before the Olympics, it appeared as if many of the venues would not be finished in time. I remember watching the lead program manager interviewed by a room full of press. The press asked several pointed questions about completing on schedule. He calmly answered each question, “We have looked closely at that. We have planned, and we are prepared. Even though it might not appear as though we will not be ready, we will finish on time.”

To address scheduling problems, the best view to apply is the Gantt Chart. In the project file, we are using, tasks #6 and #7 are no longer overlapped in the Gantt Chart view, but what was the scheduling message trying to tell us? Look at the last task and remember the constraint on that task. Then insert the Total Slack field, and the problem is more apparent; there are 4.45 working days of negative slack on the last task created by the slip in the schedule. The project needs to be brought in to resolve this scheduling problem. 

Typically, when you adjust one project constraint, such as getting your budget trimmed or losing a valuable resource, you have to compensate somewhere else. 

In this case, look at the lag between Establish performance metrics and Obtain feedback. Perhaps the initial thinking was to put that much lag there to increase the quality of input obtained. Reducing that lag would reduce the scope or quality of the project if it hinges on the quality of the feedback, but it seems to be the best way to address this scheduling problem. But how much do you reduce this lag? Well, the Total Slack field tells you 4.5 days. 

Change the lag from 30 days to 25.5 days.

Notice the Total Slack is now zero, and the scheduling problem was corrected. 

Go back to the Resource Usage view, with the Gantt Chart view on the bottom of a split window. Select Susan, and we can see that the next problem we need to address is her assignment to three tasks coinciding. In addition, notice that Floyd is assigned to these three overlapping tasks, too, and Ariel is available during this period. 

So let’s do these three things: 

First, let’s remove the overlap between ID #12 and #13. It would be nice to do these together; we can’t staff the tasks with the same people. 

Insert the Total Slack field, and #13 has 0 days slack, so we know that changing/delaying that task will delay the project. But go ahead, double click #13 and change the type of dependency from a Start to Start to a Finish to Start.  

Then, with the Gantt Chart view selected below, open the Assign Resources floating dialog box (Resource tab / Assign Resources command) and do the following: 

Replace Susan on #10 and #13 with Ariel. Susan’s overallocation is resolved. Ariel now has a heavy work week on 3/6, but it is low enough for her to level. The following week she has a low assignment, and then she is open.  

Finally, select Floyd. He is overallocated the weeks of 3/6-3/13. Suppose both Susan and Floyd had wanted to work on Establish monitoring criteria, but now it doesn’t seem practical given the over allocations. Let’s let Susan do the bulk of the work. Reduce Floyd’s assignment on #12 and #13 to 10%. That keeps him involved but doesn’t require a lot of work. That brings down his overallocation to something he can manage. 

In this exercise, we have resolved (to our satisfaction) the resource conflicts, and we have addressed some of Ariel’s underutilization. Let’s take a final look at the schedule by applying the Gantt Chart view. There are still over three days of negative slack. Shorten the lag of Obtain feedback to 22 days. 

Now the schedule looks good. 

In summary, we resolved the serious over allocations in the schedule. The project is only finishing a couple of days later (5/5 vs. 5/3) than when we started trying to schedule the actual people doing the work. We have a small amount of Total Slack built into the schedule, but we can redefine Critical Path in Options / Advanced to 1 days. This is done on the Tasks are critical if slacks is less than or equal to: selection at the bottom of that dialog box. Change the definition of the critical path, and then show Critical Task (Format tab / Bar Styles group / Critical Tasks checkbox command) and notice there is now a clean Critical Path flowing through the project. 

Save the project. 

(jump to the top of the page)

Exercise 4: Automatically Level Resources (25 minutes)

Although rarely used successfully, expectations for automatic resource leveling are typically disappointing. However, we believe that automatic leveling can be very successful under a specific set of conditions, and almost anyone could effectively use a hybrid approach.

This Resource Leveling.mpp project is almost exactly like the project we were working with above before we manually leveled resources.

We already know there is not much slack in the schedule, so the Must Finish On constraint has been removed on the last task because we know leveling is likely to push out the project end date. Automatic resource leveling will delay the project and may only be an appropriate feature to try if the finish date can be reasonably extended. 

A hybrid approach is the best one to take when using automatic resource-leveling. First, if you have available resources, replace overallocated resources and then try automatic leveling. Make a few adjustments, level, remove leveling, make a few more adjustments, level again, and try a couple of iterations of this. 

Open the Assign Resources floating dialog box using the command on the Bridge Quick Access Toolbar and select tasks #6 and #7. 

• Reduce Susan and Ariel’s assignment to each task to 50%. We know Wendy is only available at 25%, and she really should be assigned to both tasks, so assign her at 12%.

• Floyd is available, so assign him to both tasks at 50%.

That resolves the conflicts on these two tasks. Notice the overallocation indicators are gone. 

Next, since we are attempting to utilize resources better, let’s use this opportunity to shorten the schedule a bit. First, overlap the last two detail tasks by making the dependency an 15FS-4 days. Wendy should be assigned to #15 and #16 at 12%. Assign Ariel to both tasks at 50% and reduce the assignments of Susan and Floyd to 50%.

These steps shortens the schedule by several days, and the assignments are improved. In addition, when thinking about it, it would be good for the entire team and the customer to be involved in these last two tasks so an assumption might be that performance has increased.

Select #12 and #13 and assign Wendy at 10%, Assign Ariel at 50% and change the assignments of Floyd and Susan to 50%.

Then automatically level the remaining overallocations.

First, add the Leveling Delay and Total Slack columns.

Notice the three tasks under Implement PMO shown below that have resource overallocations. One task has 22 days of Total Slack, but two tasks have zero slack so leveling could delay the project.

Click the Leveling Options command on the Resource tab and make the selections in Resource Leveling dialog box in the figure below.

Clicking the OK button will save your selections in this dialog box. In this case, select Level All to level.

All of the schedule changes made by resource leveling are temporarily highlighted in blue. The Leveling Delay field show how much as task has been delayed by automatic resource leveling.

All resources are now leveled.

Format the Critical Tasks and save the project. 

(jump to the top of the page)

Exercise 5: Share and Level Resources Across Projects (30 minutes)

In this section, we will share and manage resources across projects. In addition, we are going to level resources across projects automatically.

Before we start the exercise, review each of the files.

Notice that the Resource Pool.mpp has four resources but no tasks, and the other files have tasks but no resources. The file you use as the resource pool could be a current project. This file is designated as the resource pool .mpp file but is just a regular *.mpp file. No selection in Microsoft Project makes it a resource pool file.

Step1

The first step in sharing resources across projects is to create the resource pool file. Again, the resource pool file is a regular Microsoft Project *.mpp file. It has no unique characteristics. However, most people create a resource pool file and enter and define all of the resources in a Resource Sheet view.

Step 2

The Resource Pool.mpp file will be the resource pool in this exercise. To share those resources, select an existing project that you want to share the resources from the resource pool file, and then from the Resource tab, click the Resource Pool command and the Share Resources…command.

An individual project can still maintain its own local resources, but if there is a naming conflict, the defined resource in the pool should take precedence or be used instead of the resource in the project.

Step 3

To view workloads across projects, create a master project by opening a blank project file and then insert the projects that share resources into this file by going to the Project tab / Subproject command, checking Link to project, selecting the projects, and then clicking Insert.

Projects are always inserted as collapsed in order to save time loading and to prevent crashing. When a project is expanded, the rest of the data from that project is loaded into the master.

Projects can be inserted read-only or read/write. If you want to make changes in the master file, like leveling resources, changes you want to save back to the source projects, insert the projects as read/write.

Next, let’s share resources for the first project together, and then you can do the other two projects independently.

With the Resource Pool.mpp file open, open or select the Deployment Project.

• Share the resources from the resource pool by selecting the Resource tab, click the Resource Pool command and Share Resources… Select the Resource Pool.mpp and make sure the pool has precedence.

• Then open the Assign Resources floating dialog box and assign all four resources at 100% to the three detail tasks as in the next figure.

Follow the same steps for the other two projects, HR Project and New Software Project.

When finished, save all three projects and close all projects including the resource pool.

Next, insert the three projects (not the resource pool) into a blank (Master) project as shown below.

When you click Insert, by default these projects are inserted into the master project as read/write. Place the projects in the same order on the screen below.

Expand each project. As you do this you will be asked to open the resource pool file so that resources can be viewed across the sharer files. Click OK.

After expanding the projects, it is easy to assume there are resource over allocations or conflicts since the projects overlap. Let’s look at some of these allocations.

Apply the Resource Graph view, split the window and show the Gantt Chart on the bottom. In the Gantt Chart view, insert the Project field so that you can identify which tasks (since the names are the same) are associated with which project.

It is easy to see that Alice, for instance, is overallocated. Select the Format tab on the ribbon and note the different graphs that are available.

Return to the Gantt Chart view without a split window and insert the Leveling Delay and Priority fields.

These resource over allocations can be resolved in the master project in the same way they are resolved in a project. Automatic Resource Leveling can also be used. If you use automatic Resource Leveling, we recommend using a hybrid approach as illustrated above.

If you use automatic Resource Leveling the Leveling Delay field will let you know in elapsed time how much a task is delayed by leveling. The Priority field allows you to give projects and tasks a priority ranking when leveling. The ranking is 0 to 1000, a 1000 ranking means that the task will not be leveled at all. A task with a ranking of 1, will be delayed before a task with a ranking or priority of 2.

Let’s give this a try. Give the Deployment Project a priority of 1000, make the same selections in Leveling Options as shown in the figure below, and then Level All.

You can apply a hybrid approach to this, but resource leveling across projects can go a long way toward preventing bottlenecks in an organization's project worktraffic flow.

Close the master project and there is no reason to save any changes. A master project may be temporarily created for a specific purpose with no intent of using the file again. When closed, you will be asked if you want to save changes to the source projects including the resource pool file. Save only the changes to the software project and then do these three things:

1. Open the New Software Project.mpp. Disconnect this project from the resource pool file. Resource / Resource Pool / Share Resources / Use own resources. Notice, that you still keep the resources from the pool file that you assigned to tasks. A possible scenario might be one in which an individual in the organization maintains the resource pool files, and project managers use this file only when building their team of resources for a project. After assignments are made, they use their pool, unlinking to the resource pool file.

2. Apply the Leveling Gantt view to this project. This view clearly identifies the schedule results of automatic leveling.

3. Save the project.

(jump to the top of the page)

Exercise 6: Level Your Master Project (60 minutes)

Open your Master Project and do two things. First, replace generic or skill resources with the people doing the work. Then, level resources to your satisfaction.

Then compare your current timing (start, finish, and duration), work, and cost with your baseline information on the summary level.

(jump to the top of the page)

(jump to the top of the page)

Review Microsoft Project Features Covered on Acquire Project Team (5 minutes)

Resolving Resource Overallocations

No one has unlimited resources. The better people plan, the more they realize they must address resource overallocation and underutilization. 

As a project is examined from various perspectives, Microsoft Project does a great job of identifying resource allocations over time. 

Four views are almost exclusively dedicated to viewing resource workloads: 

• Team Planner view

• Task Usage view

• Resource Usage view

• Resource Graph view

Resource Leveling

In the mid-80s, software development rapidly solved problems and performed tasks in minutes or hours that once took days.

When Resource Leveling was first available for project managers using a PC, a 1,200-task schedule with moderate resource overallocation took 24 hours to level resources.

The software reviews literally “went nuts” about how great that was. There was this implicit promise that you could plan however you wanted, and the software would untangle the mess and resolve all of your resource conflicts. This was a fascinating idea for many people.

As it turns out, Resource Leveling has never been a magic bullet. Most people give up on the feature without discovering circumstances that could make it valuable. At the same time, in some instances mentioned in the MS Project Master Class Book, some project managers have accomplished incredible things using this feature.

Like Resource Leveling, sharing resources has been a staple of project management software since the mid-1980s.

Sharing resources across multiple projects and then combining those projects into a master project has been a handy tool over the years. Download the

(jump to the top of the page)

(jump to the top of the page)