Monitor Resource Allocation in Microsoft Project 2010

How to Monitor Resource Allocation in Microsoft Project 2010: Video

This video shows you how to monitor resource allocation in Microsoft Project 2010. Need more Project training? Click here for the complete tutorial.

Monitoring Resource Allocation in Project 2010: Overview

As you complete the work on your project file, you should monitor your resource allocation. You may be under-using resources that you could otherwise utilize, which is called underallocating resources. Perhaps more importantly, you may also accidentally be overallocating resources, trying to schedule more work to a resource than is possible in a given time period. In this lesson, we will examine how to monitor your resource allocation within your project file.

One useful view that allows you to see resource allocations is the “Resource Usage” view of your project file. You can click the “Gantt Chart” drop-down button in the “View” group on the “Task” tab and then select the “Resource Usage” command to see this view. This view show resources, work contours, and resource allocation issues. Within this view, overallocated work resources are displayed in red. One way to change resource overallocation is to manually change the hours assigned to the selected resource, or to add additional work resources to the tasks to which the overallocated resource has been assigned- thereby reducing the hours for the selected resource. Another way to resolve overallocation is by using automatic leveling available in Microsoft Project.