Why Do I get 0h hours for resources after using Resource Levelling in Project 2010?

Question

Hi,
We are using MSProject 2010 and Project Server 2010 with Enterprise resources. All resources on all projects in the enterprise are shared resources. We are finding that after resource levelling is applied to the project some resources are only
being assigned a fraction of their total availability, and in some cases Project will assign 0 hours to a resource for several consecutive weeks even though the resource has capacity for the week the task is scheduled to start. 
For example: Let's say we have a task that is scheduled to start on 1-20-14. The task is a 112 hours of effort with no constraints and one resource assigned to it. The resource is available 40 hours per week for the next 4 weeks. After resource
levelling I would expect Project to assign the resource as follows: 40 hours in week 1, 40 hours the next week and 32 hours the next week, for a total of 112 hours. Instead, Project does not assign the resource to the task until week 4 (even
though the resource has capacity on the start date of the task) and pushes the finish date out. In some weeks the resource has 0h hours showing in the timephased grid on the Resource Usage sheet.  We have experimented with the levelling settings and it
does not seem to matter which boxes are checked, but following is our preferred settings:
1. Levelling Calculations set to Manual
2. Look for overallocations on a day by day basis
3. Clear levelling values before levelling is CHECKED
4. Level entire project is selected.
5. Levelling order is Priority,Standard
6. Level only within available slack is CHECKED
7. Levelling can adjust individual assignments on a task is CHECKED
8. Levelling can create splits in remaining work is UNCHECKED
9. Level resources with the proposed booking type is UNCHECKED
10. Level manually scheduled tasks is CHECKED.
Does anyone have any ideas about why Project is not using the resource's available capacity?
Thanks, Judy

Answer 1

Hi Judy,
Thanks to give us more detail. But actually if you need to level a resource, it means that this resource is overallocated. In your example, since it is not overallocated on the 12weeks task you mention, it means that it should be assigned on another task.
If not, there would be no need to perform any resource levelling.
Concerning the fact that levelling assign resource at 0hr per week, this can be absolutely normal.
Imagine that you have a resource working at 100% on 2 tasks on the same period. imagine also that there is actual work on one of the 2 tasks. Project will level the resource, meaning that it will move ahead the remaining work of one of the task (depending
on the levelling parameters). But the actual work will not move, thus between the actual work and the moved-foreward remaining work, the resource will be assign at 0hr by time period on the splitted task.
Please check all the task of the levelled resource and actual work.
See in my example below:
Hope this helps.
Guillaume Rouyre - MBA, MCP, MCTS