From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Working with part-time workers and teams - Microsoft Project Tutorial

From the course: Project Management Foundations: Schedules

Working with part-time workers and teams

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- Getting assignments right for part-time workers and teams is important to forecasting the project schedule accurately. When you assign a part-time worker, the first step is specifying the person's availability to the project. Suppose you expected a full-time editor for two weeks, but the editor works halftime on the project. When you assign the editor, you can adjust the assignment to reflect the halftime schedule. You might also specify when the part-timer works. When an activity requires interaction with others, you have to schedule the work for a day and time that the person is available. Think about the editor who works halftime. If you schedule a status meeting with the editor, you have to schedule it during the editor's work hours. An alternative approach is to ask a part-time worker if they can work when the activity is scheduled. This approach is good when a meeting includes several people and most of them can already make it at the same time. Another special case in assigning resources is handling a team of workers with the same skills. Assign the team by a team name, not individuals' names. In this case, it's more important to get the required skill than an individual worker. For a team, the availability is more than full-time. For example, 200% for a two person team. In the sample project, the technical reviewer resource represents a team of two. If you assign them to the review manuscript activity, which is estimated to be 240 work hours, the activity duration is three weeks. That's 240 work hours total divided by 80 hours of work per week for the team. Keep in mind teams spend overhead time on communication and interaction. If you estimate work hours and switch a single person assignment to a team assignment, add five to 10% to your estimate to account for this overhead, then assign the team to the activity. By assigning part-time workers and teams to reflect their availability, you can build a more accurate schedule that makes it easier to keep your project on track when work is underway.

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