Resource Capacity vs Work in MS Project

A tutorial to show how to automatically calculate resources' capacity based on the project duration and display this in a chart alongside the resources' work.

[@yinkabello8671]

hey Ben... great video is the 60hrs per week.. pls confirm? so for someone who does 9 to 5, the no of hrs for the calculation will be 35hrs?

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

This is based on the standard calendar of 40 hours per week, defined as 8:00 - 12:00 and then 13:00 - 17:00

[@yinkabello8671]

@@BenHoward_PowerBI thanks for your response. Your blog has great content. Kudos

[@yinkabello7797]

Hi Ben, Probably an obvious question but why do you divide the project difference by 60 and multiply by max unit.

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

Hi @@yinkabello7797, everything regarding time is held in minutes in MSProject, so dividing by 60 turns it into hours, and then multiplying be max units gives the hours per day - most people are at 100% so it is fine, but if someone is at 50% then their capacity is 1/2 so hence the multiplication by max units.

[@donnabirch3512]

Hello! Is it possible to do this in a project that is using a resource pool? I expect you have to refer to the resource pool project when referring to the Max Units and I did try using Field, Text, Name and replacing it the the project name both with and without the file extension and path. Any ideas?

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

That's a great question. As far as I know you cannot reference fields from other files in custom fields and hence this won't work with a resource pool.

[@vidiaamalia91]

Hello. Sorry I'm a little bit confused. So does capacity (the orange line) means how many hours the resource is available, and work (blue) means how many hours they have to work?

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

The capacity is the total amount of time a resource can work, so say 8 hours per day. Work is the amount of work they have assigned to them. The difference between the two, which I don't plot, is the remaining availability, which is is capacity - work. Hope this helps.

[@sachgopa2]

Hello Ben, I have defined the available hours for each of the resource in resource availability table but Microsoft Project is not using the available capacity. What do I need to do to make sure Project uses the resource available hours?

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

Hi Sachin Deshpande, If you want to change the availability over time using the table, then you can use an existing report called "Work Overview" which is available in the Dashboards group. Check out the Remaining Availability graph, which displays the data in a timephased view. If you add work this graph then it will give you the data you are after. I would then filter this per person, otherwise it it too complex!

[@kmbalajiin]

Hello Hen, i would like to use the custom calendar in this formula, how to use the same ?

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

Hi, @3:16 in the video, enter the calendar's name (I removed the "standard" one).

[@argenisacosta8296]

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[@ErhanDuz]

Hello Ben, İs it possible to assign the resources by formula. I want to know how can I add the resource names based on shits. For example the task between 08:00 am /16:00 pm should be done by the resource "Crew-A". ıf I change the hours as 16:00 pm to 24:00 pm, ı want to resource name changed automatically as "Crew-B". İs it possible?

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

Hi, you would have to do this in VBA.

[@tonybrando2247]

The interface of the platform could be made more understandable. Now PPM is difficult to track changes made to the project. I also don't like reporting tools. For this task we use another program zentao.pm

[@Leo-bg8mi]

Hi, pls help if you are online. I am getting frustrated as I am not able to calculate hours capacity as shown...I am constantly getting syntax error at Project finish field...I tried several things and seems that I am missing something :( Please help

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

Hi, are you able to post somewhere a screenshot showing the error and formula you are using?

[@Leo-bg8mi]

@@BenHoward_PowerBI You are here! Ok great thank you. I am using this formula: ProjDateDiff( [Project Start] ; [Project Finish] ; calendar ) / 60 * [Max Units]

[@Leo-bg8mi]

You have mail :)

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

​@@Leo-bg8mi You either need a value for calendar, or if you remove it, it will use the project calendar. Try ProjDateDiff( [Project Start] ; [Project Finish] ) / 60 * [Max Units]

[@Leo-bg8mi]

@@BenHoward_PowerBI Same :(

[@joellaelliott6088]

late to the party... how do I set up max unit? I don't see it in my selection options... thanks in advance!

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

You can set it per resource in the resource sheet. It's available as part of the standard view, or in the resource information dialogue box.

[@BenHoward_PowerBI]

You can set it per resource in the resource sheet. It's available as part of the standard view, or in the resource information dialogue box.