PMGT5887 Chap.8 Resources, Costs, Levelling and Progress Tracking
Resources, Costs, Levelling and Progress Tracking
The second Microsoft Project week adds people and money to the schedule, and this chapter covers both. It explains work, material and cost resources, the Resource Sheet and the four-tab Resource Information dialog, resource calendars, and what overallocation means when a person is booked beyond their available hours.
It shows levelling with a designer booked twice on one day, quotes the PMBOK definition the Topic 7 page uses, and rebuilds the six levelling methods from the slides around their effect on finish date and cost, with a worked choice that turns on slack.
It then sets out the routes by which cost enters a file: standard and overtime rates, cost per use, fixed costs on a task or the project, cost resources, accrual timing and the five cost rate tables per resource. The chapter ends with tracking: why a baseline is saved first, how a status date keeps actuals honest, what the Project Statistics dialog and custom tables provide, and how the PMBOK Guide describes project controls.
Two costing exercises show each route by which money enters a plan.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Work, material and cost resources
- 02
Resource calendars and overallocation
- 03
Resource levelling and its cost in time
- 04
Six methods to resolve overallocation
- 05
Rates, cost per use and fixed costs
- 06
Cost rate tables and accrual
- 07
Baselines and status dates
- 08
Project statistics and project controls
Worked example · free
Costing one task with three kinds of resource
- +1Installer work: 16 x $55 = $880, plus the $90 cost per use = $970.
- +1Material: 12 signs x $40 = $480.
- +1Fixed cost: the $250 permit is attached to the task, not to a resource.
- +1Task total: $970 + $480 + $250 = $1,700.
Key terms
- Work Resource
- A person or piece of equipment whose cost is driven by hours of work at a set rate.
- Material Resource
- A consumable supply, costed as the units used multiplied by the cost per unit.
- Cost Resource
- A cost item, such as travel, applied to a task with an amount entered for each assignment.
- Overallocation
- The state in which work assigned to a resource exceeds the hours it has available.
- Resource Levelling
- Adjusting start and finish dates to balance demand for resources with the available supply.
- Status Date
- The date as of which actual progress is recorded and compared with the plan.
Resources, Costs, Levelling and Progress Tracking FAQ
What is the difference between a fixed cost and a cost resource?
A fixed cost belongs to a task, or to the project summary task for overheads. A cost resource is created on the Resource Sheet and assigned like a resource, and any number of them can be applied to one task.
Why does levelling often make a project longer?
Levelling resolves clashes by moving work to when a resource is free. If the moved work has no slack, the finish moves too, so cost and time should be checked before and after.
Why set the status date before entering actuals?
Progress is measured as of the status date. If it is left at today's date by default while you enter last week's figures, the comparison between actual and planned work will be wrong.
What are cost rate tables for?
Each resource has five, labelled A to E, so one person can carry different hourly and per-use rates for different kinds of work or for rates that change on a set date.
What is the difference between a baseline and the current schedule?
The baseline is a saved copy of the approved plan. The current schedule changes as actuals are entered and tasks move, and the gap between the two is the variance a manager reports.
Assessment move
Practise the cost routes with three short tasks until you can total each one in under a minute. For levelling, take any overallocation and ask three questions: does the task have slack, is overtime acceptable, is anyone else free; the answers pick the method. In Microsoft Project, save a baseline, set a status date and enter a few actuals to see the variance appear.
Build a small file with three resources of different types and one overallocation, then try two different levelling methods and record what happens to the finish date and the total cost each time. That comparison is the reasoning a scenario question asks you to explain in a few lines.
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