I agree with Chip Nowacek, that resource leveling is “the critical features that makes PM software different than a spreadsheet.”. I only want to mention, that it is a widely accepted point of view among professional planers, that resource leveling of MS Project is also very poor. This has been widely discussed in http://www.planningplanet.com/. To start with, Microsoft never disclosed the resource leveling algorithm. In my view there is very limited set of situations, where it can be used. (If needed, I can pull more references to confirm this statement).
So, it would be nice, if ProjectLibre would implement good resource leveling algorithm.
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If automatic leveling algorithms are unknown or difficult to implement, perhaps it would be better and more general to implement an embedded interpreter (such as Jython?) which would have access to the tasks and resources. Once even a simple interpreter is enabled, its availability would distribute the leveling algorithm development to a broader base of contributors than just the "core" Project Libre developers. This would also have additional benefit of making it possible to create functional extensions to PL, for example for generating special reports.
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Resource leveling isn't hard to implement using a Genetic Algorithm. The chromosome is the sequence of task scheduling and your fitness metric can be as simple as project duration. I made a prototype for MS Project a couple of decades ago which worked reasonably well.
Last edit: David Hawley 2024-09-26
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Any news on this?
To be honest, I can't believe I am not missing something here.
When I create a task that takes 5 days, I can't define that it's done at half speed so it takes 10 days.
Neither can I assign a ressouce that is available to 50% so the duration of the task is doubled.
Neither can I assign 2 tasks to the same 100% ressource, resulting in the duration result in timeA+timeB.
All I have is a histogram showing that a ressource is overallocated.
I tought all that is the base to having a quick overview in project planning.
Am I not seeing it, or is it really missing?
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Hi Ralf, Yes, you can do both... your example is a 5 day task and with the default calendar of 8 hours a day is an 40 hour task. If your Calendar is standar then it will finish in 5 days.... however, if your task calendar is working only 4 hours a day it will take 10 days to finish the 80 hours of work. You can have Project, Task or Resource calendars. You can do the same on your resource if it is assigned a calendar that only works 4 hours a day.
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Without manipulating calenders: What do I have to do, to see that 2 tasks, each 5 days, all done by the same person will require 10 days?
(and not making one the successor of the other one, that's the workaround I use now :)
At the moment it takes 5 days, and the one person has a workload of 200%
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Leveling is one of the critical features that makes PM software different than a spreadsheet.
I agree with Chip Nowacek, that resource leveling is “the critical features that makes PM software different than a spreadsheet.”. I only want to mention, that it is a widely accepted point of view among professional planers, that resource leveling of MS Project is also very poor. This has been widely discussed in http://www.planningplanet.com/. To start with, Microsoft never disclosed the resource leveling algorithm. In my view there is very limited set of situations, where it can be used. (If needed, I can pull more references to confirm this statement).
So, it would be nice, if ProjectLibre would implement good resource leveling algorithm.
Yes resource leveling is an important function. We are seriously thinking about it.
If automatic leveling algorithms are unknown or difficult to implement, perhaps it would be better and more general to implement an embedded interpreter (such as Jython?) which would have access to the tasks and resources. Once even a simple interpreter is enabled, its availability would distribute the leveling algorithm development to a broader base of contributors than just the "core" Project Libre developers. This would also have additional benefit of making it possible to create functional extensions to PL, for example for generating special reports.
7 years later, no more automated resource leveling ?
Resource leveling isn't hard to implement using a Genetic Algorithm. The chromosome is the sequence of task scheduling and your fitness metric can be as simple as project duration. I made a prototype for MS Project a couple of decades ago which worked reasonably well.
Last edit: David Hawley 2024-09-26
Any news on this?
To be honest, I can't believe I am not missing something here.
When I create a task that takes 5 days, I can't define that it's done at half speed so it takes 10 days.
Neither can I assign a ressouce that is available to 50% so the duration of the task is doubled.
Neither can I assign 2 tasks to the same 100% ressource, resulting in the duration result in timeA+timeB.
All I have is a histogram showing that a ressource is overallocated.
I tought all that is the base to having a quick overview in project planning.
Am I not seeing it, or is it really missing?
Hi Ralf, Yes, you can do both... your example is a 5 day task and with the default calendar of 8 hours a day is an 40 hour task. If your Calendar is standar then it will finish in 5 days.... however, if your task calendar is working only 4 hours a day it will take 10 days to finish the 80 hours of work. You can have Project, Task or Resource calendars. You can do the same on your resource if it is assigned a calendar that only works 4 hours a day.
Without manipulating calenders: What do I have to do, to see that 2 tasks, each 5 days, all done by the same person will require 10 days?
(and not making one the successor of the other one, that's the workaround I use now :)
At the moment it takes 5 days, and the one person has a workload of 200%