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Training information:

Assigning resources to ongoing tasks

Resolved · Urgent Priority · Version 2007

Reply Tue 17 May 2011, 10:34Misbah (guest) said...

Assigning resources to ongoing tasks

Hi,

Can you please tell me what the best way is to assign on-going tasks in the project plans?

eg. tasks which have no definite end date (how should the date be set) but require resources to be assigned to it and book time to it as and when they work on it, without over allocating them (resource % allocation).

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Reply Tue 17 May 2011, 13:34Trainer Andrew said...

RE: Assigning resources to ongoing tasks

Hi Misbah

Thank you for your question. As you have probably found MS Project assumes that tasks have a start and a finish, rather than run indefinitely. Can you give me an example of the kind of activity you are looking to include in your plan and I'll see if I can suggest how to model it?

Kind regards,
Andrew

Reply Thu 19 May 2011, 10:33Misbah (guest) said...

RE: Assigning resources to ongoing tasks

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for getting back to me. We have numerous background on-going tasks which a resource may work on as and when they need to.

eg, overall general project management (all projects), this would be an on-going task with no end date but would be ad hoc and needs to be recorded within timesheets. How would this be set in a project? Currently we have been assigning resources at 0% as we do not want resources to be showing as over allocated.

Another task example may be a developer working on maintaining the in house software (software development – again on-going with no end date) but then having to work on another task.

Hope this makes sense.

Thanks

Reply Thu 26 May 2011, 15:24Misbah (guest) said...

RE: Assigning resources to ongoing tasks

Hi Andrew,

is it possible for me to get an answer on this?

Thanks,

Reply Tue 7 Feb 2012, 12:19Trainer Rodney said...

RE: Assigning resources to ongoing tasks

Hello Misbah,

A project can only be considered a project if it has specific start and end dates. All tasks within each project will also have specific start and end dates and should all be completed by the finish date. This will result in a project being completed on time and hopefully within the budget allocated.

It looks as if you are trying to use MS Project to perform functions outside of what it is intended to do. Of course you are entitled to use the programme as you see fit, however, there is no solution to the question you have asked about assigning resources to on-going tasks.

I hope this resolves your question. If it has, please mark this question as resolved.

If you require further assistance, please reply to this post. Or perhaps you have another Microsoft Office question?

Have a great day.
Regards,

Rodney
Microsoft Office Specialist Trainer

Mon 13 Feb 2012: Automatically marked as resolved.

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Ms project tip:

Keep constraining dates to a minimum

As far as possible avoid fixing the dates of your tasks. For example try to steer of clear dragging task bars in the Gantt chart to move them on the timeline or entering dates directly into the Start / Finish fields.

Date constraints such as these limit Microsoft Project's ability to automatically adjust your project whenever you add, remove or modify the duration of your tasks. Instead use the logic in your task dependencies that link your tasks to enable Project to calculate the start and finish dates for you.

View all MS Project hints and tips