St.

Dismas Assisted Living Facility Resource Usage Part 4

Teaching Purpose: In this installment students are required to develop Gantt charts for the resources
and prepare a resource calendar using MSP.
Question 1: Prepare a Gantt chart with resources for the action plan Dr. Alison submitted. Begin
this project on January 2. Prepare a resource calendar for Dr. Alison.
The following is the Gantt chart of the action plan presented in the case. This Gantt chart was prepared
using MSP with a resource calendar for Dr. Alison and Dr. Link with a workweek of Monday through
Friday, and a daily schedule of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with an hour of non-working time for lunch.
The resource calendar was applied using the Change Working Time under the Tools menu in MSP.
(The issue of scheduling the Test of the assessment tool will be addressed in answer #3 & #4).
Note: the case stated to start the project on January 2, if students use the year 2000, the project will
actually begin work on January 3rd, as January 2nd is a non-working day. If students use January 2,
2001 (or later), the project will start on January 2nd. The start date used in these examples is January 2,
2000, to coincide with the year that the case started.

The following is the standard resource calendar used for Dr. Alison for all of the
tasks defined by the action plan. Since the case outlined that a resource
scheduling conflict would only pertain to the task of Testing the assessment
tool, it is not appropriate to constrain Dr. Alison on the project for any other

tasks. Note: The following printout excerpt was prepared using the Reports
feature in MSP. The issue of how to handle the specific scheduling constraint will
be addressed in answer #3 below.
Question 2: How would you handle Dr. Alisons resource problem?
The resource issue that Dr. Alison has should be handled by adjusting the project
schedule to allow for the scheduling constraints.
The case states that Dr. Alison can perform all of the project steps within his 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. normal work week, however he will only be able to perform the
Test of the assessment tool during his administrative time on Wednesdays from
8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Since that step is important to the success of the project, it is
necessary to adjust the project plan to reflect Dr. Alisons scheduling conflict. It is
not appropriate to add another resource, or over allocate Dr. Allison to get this
task done within the time frame specified.
There are several different ways to set a resource constraint on the Test the tool task, Step #4 in the
action plan. MSP 2007allows you to create a specific calendar for a step in an action plan. Simply
create a New calendar in the Tools menu, Change working time section. In the new calendar create a
schedule that has its working time as Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., and all other days as non-working.
Then you apply this calendar to step 4 in the action plan. (This is done by selecting the task information
box for Step #4, going to the Advanced tab, and selecting the new calendar you just created. These
steps are all outlined in the Help section, under Assigning a calendar to a task.)
Once you apply the new calendar, MSP will automatically adjust the Gantt chart to reflect the changes
in the schedule. Note: If students are using MSP98, the schedule constraint can be incorporated into
the project by adjusting Dr. Alisons resource calendar for only the time period that this step takes place
(Jan 19 Jan 26).]
Question 3: Given Dr. Alisons availability, how long will it take to complete testing of the
assessment tool?
Based on Dr. Alisons availability to complete the step Test of the assessment
tool, Step #4 will now take from January 19, 2000 January 26, 2000. Please
note that the tasks duration remains at 6 hours, however with Dr. Alison only
available to work on the step from 8 a.m. 12 p.m. one day a week, the step will
now take an extra calendar week to complete. Without the constraint the task
could begin as soon as Step #3 was completed, January 14. However, with the
constraint applied, Step #4 cannot begin until the following Wednesday when Dr.
Alison is available, and he can only work 4 hours on that day, so another 2 hours
the following Wednesday is necessary to complete the task.

Question 4: Prepare a Gantt chart for Dr. Alisons plan incorporating any changes you recommend.
The Gantt chart below shows the scheduling changes adjusted for the availability of Dr. Alison to
complete step #4 in the action plan.

Or with a more detailed view of the calendar: