The purpose of this assignment is to balance resources for an IT project. You will use Microsoft Project and Excel to complete this assignment. Refer to
Appendix A in the textbook for guidance in using Microsoft Project. Review the “Resource Histograms” section of Appendix A in the textbook.
Part 1
As the project manager for the “Global Treps Project,” you are expected to complete the project on time and within the budget allocated. The senior
management team has indicated that project costs cannot exceed $120,000, and the project must be completed within 6 months. Assume that labor costs
are the only costs associated with the project and that the following human resources are available to work full-time on the project at the established hourly
labor rate. Note that the work week is 56 hours, as Saturdays and Sundays are workdays for this project.
Project Manager (you): $120 per hour
Website Developer (Bobby): $95 per hour
System Test Engineer and Event Runner: Vietnam (Kim): $55 per hour
Support Team Manager and Event Runner: India (Ashok): $55 per hour
Event Runner: Ethiopia (Alfreda): $45 per hour
You have met with the project team and determined the tasks each person will be assigned. This information is located in the “Global Treps Project Resource
Assignments” file. Using the “Global Treps Project Resource Assignments” file and the Microsoft Project “Global Treps Project Rev 2” file from the Topic 5
assignment, complete the following:
Enter the human resources listed above into the “Resource Name” field on the Microsoft Project “Resource Sheet.” Enter the labor rate information into the
“Std Rate” field. Do not alter any of the other fields on the “Resource Sheet.”
Assign resources to each task in the “Global Treps Project Rev 2” file. Do not alter resource hours, task durations, or start/finish dates. Save the file as “Global
Treps Project Rev 3.”
Part 2
Balancing resources is crucial in project planning. It is likely that after completing Part 1 of the assignment, you will have to make adjustments in resource
allocations in order to optimize resources and meet the goals established in Part 1 of the assignment.
Review the “Resource Graph” for your project and consider specific steps you can take to adjust resource allocations to meet the established goals. Conduct
research related to whether salaries need to be market-adjusted based on your location and whether the workweek needs to be adjusted. Consider effort
versus durations in this exercise.
Resolve resource over-allocations by manually adjusting relevant resources and tasks. Make realistic adjustments to the hours. Do not alter resource task
assignments, task durations, or start/finish dates. Do not use the “Resource Leveling” feature in Microsoft Project, as it may result in undesired changes to
the project durations, start/finish dates, or resource hour allocations. You want to ensure that resources are not assigned to more than the specified number
of hours in each workweek. Save your final file as “Global Treps Project Rev 4.”
Sample Solution
