Re: [Planner Dev] Duration Calculation

[Bill Y <wsy merl com>]

   From: Kurt Maute <kurt maute us>

   > Then have some sort of balancing between them if the unit value is
   > changed by the user. For example if there were two sub-tasks and
   > resource "Bob" was applied to both with a unit of 50 on each sub-task
   > and the user changed resource "Bob" unit to 60 on the first sub-task the
   > second sub-task should automatically update to 40 unless it was
   > previously edited. It may be beneficial to have a check box or something
   > that would allow this auto balancing or one that would not (make it fixed).

   I wouldn't implement resource leveling this way.  What I would do is
   give priority to the tasks along the critical path, so that if there is
   a resource conflict, the resource would be given to the task that's on
   the critical path, and the one that's not would show a delayed
   completion date.

   For conflicts among tasks that are either both on the critical path or
   both not on the critical path, I would give priority to the task with
   the lower WBS number, since most PMs that I know put the tasks that
   generally should go first higher in the WBS.  To allow the user to
   override this, I'd let them use the priority field.

If both tasks are not on the critical path, then it really doesn't
matter and you;ll gain some efficiency by having one thing done, then
the other (it eliminates task switch overhead).

If both tasks ARE on the critical path, then the external
circumstances may dictate what the best proportioning is.  
However, it's probably at least concave-up and so a simple
stepwise search will find the optimal proportioning.

I'm not sure if that's easy to put into the current architecture
or not though.

   - Bill Yerazunis