Why Doesn't MS Project use all of a resource's availability when resource levelling is applied?

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
Judy Washington

Answer 1

Hi Judy,
The resource leveling command is not a resource optimization tool.  It's only job is to resolve resource overallocations by delaying tasks.  It will not:
Change resource assignment units to tasks.
Ensure the resource is "fully" utilized.
For example:
Resource with max units of 100% (the default).
Task A starts on 20 January until 22 January and the resource is assigned at 75%.
Task B starts on 21 January until 23 January and the resource is assigned at 50%
The resource is overallocated on Tuesday (peak = 125%) and Wednesday (peak = 125%).
Leveling produces this result:
Project did not drop the assignment to Task B to 25% to allow it to continue while Task A was going on -- it simply delayed B (at 50%) until A was scheduled to finish.