Allocation for Project Manager

We are using Smartsheet with Resource Management enabled. We are tracking % allocation for employees and would like to do so for Leads as well. The idea is that the Lead would be allocated for the duration of task consisting of smaller subtasks at, say, 20%.

We are using the Basic Project with Resource Management template.

My first thought was to assign the Lead as the resource in the main task, which I am able to do. But I am not allowed to add a % allocation for the Lead to the main task - it simply disappears.

My second attempt at a workaround was to create a "Lead" subtask, but the issue there is that it won't adjust dynamically to the duration of the larger task. I tried using a formula and making the Duration of the "Lead" subtask equal to the duration of the main task, but that did not work, either.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

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Fernando Doldan

Just heard back from Smartsheet Support:

APR 22, 2016 | 01:54PM PDT

Shaine replied:

Hello Fernando,

Thanks for reaching out to us at Smartsheet. We don’t have a way to assign Allocation % in a parent task for resource management, or a workaround to implement this functionality at this time but I’ve added your vote for this to our enhancement request list to be considered for future development.

We appreciate your input!

Regards,
Shaine

Smartsheet Customer Support

J. Craig Williams

Fernando,

I don't have a true work-around either.

But I have what I think might be an "aid"

The root feature lacking is to be able to (CAREFULLY!!) add formulas to some of the Project Setting fields. The problems of implementing this feature badly are far far worse than not having it at all, in my opinion.

Ooh, that was a digression.

The aid.

So, we can't add a formula to Duration.

Maybe we can tell if the entered one is WRONG and let the user fix it.

So, add your "Lead" task row below each parent as you were thinking.

Enter your duration or wait until you have the system tell you what that duration is.

In a Text/Number column, use something like

=NETWORKDAYS(Start24, Finish24)

for row 23 and your start and end dates named [Start] and [Finish]

Put that in every parent row (I might go one step further and check if I was on a parent row but that is documented elsewhere - and I'm not sure I would in this case)

Since your Lead task is always one row below the parent, just check if this tasks duration matches the parents longest.

=IF(NETWORKDAYS(Start24, Finish24) = [Check_Duration]23, "OK", "Not OK")

for the column Check_Duration.

Your "OK" / "Not OK" resullts can be tailored to your needs.

Conditional formatting or a report will then give you hint or a list of what you need to change.

Depending on how you think about durations (net work days or actual days), you can modify the formula as well.