In the Trenches with Microsoft® Office Project 2007

Understanding How Availability Affects Your Project

Many of the resources you use on a project affect the length of time needed to complete a task. On these effort-driven tasks, one person might complete the job in 30 days, while two people might be able to complete the job in half the time, and three people in one third of the time. If the cost of all three resources is the same, using one or three people won’t affect the cost of your project; rather, the number of people you use will affect only the project’s duration. That’s the simple, straightforward, mathematical approach.

In a perfect world, you’d have all the resources you need to complete your project exactly when you need them. But we don’t live in a perfect world. So when you’re planning ...