PRJ: How to Use Priority to Affect Leveling in Project (174681)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Project 98 for Windows
  • Microsoft Project for Windows 95 4.1
  • Microsoft Project for Windows 95 4.1a
  • Microsoft Project for the Macintosh 4.0
  • Microsoft Project for Windows 4.0
This article was previously published under Q174681

SUMMARY

This article describes how to use priority to control how leveling is applied to a project using a common resource pool.

MORE INFORMATION

Resource leveling allows you to resolve resource effort across tasks when a resource is overallocated. Priority of the task is one of the primary keys that can be taken into account when deciding how to assign tasks to an overallocated resource.

Priority can be set on a task-by-task basis. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. On the Project menu, click Task Information, and then click the General tab.
  2. In the Priority list, click the priority level you want.

    The Do Not Level priority option is the highest priority you can set for a task. Using this option, the task will never be delayed by resource leveling.
  3. Click OK.NOTE: In Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project 2002, the Level Assignments option replaces the Do Not Level priority option.

    You can set the Level Assignments option field in Project 2000 and Project 2002 to Yes or No. When you set this option field to No for a task, that is the equivalent of Do Not Level.
Once priority has been set, you can modify your leveling settings to take priority into account. To do this, use the following steps:

  1. On the Tools menu, click Resource Leveling.
  2. In the Resolving Overallocations section, in the Leveling Order drop-down list, click Priority Standard.
  3. Click OK.
Once you start leveling, a task will be delayed if it has a lower priority level than another task competing for the resource at the same time.

REFERENCES

Microsoft Project 98

For more information about resource leveling, click the Office Assistant, type "resource leveling", click Search, and then click to view "Strategies for reducing resource overallocations."

NOTE: If the Assistant is hidden, click the Office Assistant button on the standard toolbar. If Project Help is not installed on your computer, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

120802 Office: How to Add/Remove a Single Office Program or Component

Microsoft Project 4.1

For more information about resource leveling, click the Index tab in Microsoft Project Help, type the following text

resource leveling command

and then double-click the selected text to go to the "Resource Leveling Command (Tools Menu)" topic.

Microsoft Project 4.0

For additional information, click "Search for help on" on the Help menu. Type "resource leveling". Click Show Topics. Select the "Leveling Cue Cards Command" topic and then click Goto.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/25/2003
Keywords:kbhowto kbusage KB174681
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