P6 Professional User Guide

3)Specify a number in the Job # field to indicate the sequence in which the service should be performed, if more than one service is listed.

4)Type a brief description of the service in the Job Name field.

5)In the Status field, select Enabled to activate the scheduling service.

You can suspend a service at any time by selecting Disabled in the Status field.

6)In the Run Job area on the Job Details tab, schedule when the service should be run: every day at a specific time, or weekly, every two weeks, or monthly on a day and time you specify.

Leveling Resources

Leveling resources

Resource leveling is a process that helps you ensure that sufficient resources are available to perform the activities in your project according to the plan. During resource leveling, an activity is only scheduled to occur when its resource demands can be met. To accomplish this, tasks may be delayed to resolve resource availability conflicts.

Typically, you level during the forward pass through a project. This determines the earliest dates to schedule an activity when sufficient resources will be available to perform the task.

If forward leveling delays the project's early finish date, late dates remain unchanged unless you clear the checkbox to preserve scheduled early and late dates in the Level Resources dialog box. In this case, a backward pass recalculates late dates.

After a project is leveled, you can identify the resource assignments affecting the critical path by viewing the resource-driven critical path.

Tip

While resource leveling provides one way to resolve resource conflicts, you may also want to consider alternative solutions, such as changing activity relationships or reallocating resources.

Notes

The maximum amount of work that a resource is capable of doing for a given timeperiod is defined by the resource’s Max Units/Time value in the Units & Prices tab of Resource Details.

Leveling is disabled when no projects are open.

Resource curves are not used when leveling; however, manual future period values are considered when leveling.

If multiple projects are open when you level resources, you must select which project's settings to use when leveling.

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Managing Projects

Leveling priority definitions

Projects typically contain more than one chain of activities. If two activities from different chains are ready for leveling, P6 Professional chooses one using the priorities you specify in the Leveling Priorities area of the Level Resources dialog box. Then, it sorts numbers first, then alphabetic characters, followed by blank values. If you specify no prioritization codes, P6 Professional sorts by activity ID.

The following table defines your priority and order options for leveling resources.

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P6 Professional User Guide

Specify leveling priorities

1)Choose Tools, Level Resources.

2)In the Leveling Priorities area, click Add.

3)Select a new leveling priority.

A priority within the table takes precedence over any priorities below it.

4)Specify a sort order.

5)Click Level.

Notes

To remove a priority from the list, select the priority, then click Remove.

To edit a priority, click the field name, then select a new field name and/or double-click the Sort Order column and select Ascending or Descending.

If multiple projects are open when you level resources, you must select which project's settings to use when leveling.

Level resources

1)Choose Tools, Level Resources.

2)Mark the Consider Assignments in Other Projects With Priority Equal/Higher Than checkbox and specify a priority number if you want to consider other project assignments when determining whether a resource is overallocated.

3)Mark the Preserve Scheduled Early and Late Dates checkbox to preserve the early and late dates that were calculated during project scheduling.

4)Mark the Level All Resources checkbox to level all the resources within the project. To level specific resources, clear the Level All Resources checkbox and click Select Resources to choose the resources that you want to include in the leveling run.

5)Specify leveling priorities.

6)Mark the Log to File checkbox to record your leveling results in a log file, then click to specify a filename and location.

7)Click Level.

Tip

To display and/or use the resource leveling defaults, click Default.

Notes

Resource curves are not used when leveling.

A Resource assigned to a suspended activity is considered available for assignment to other activities until the resume date of the suspended activity.

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