When to Use "Effort in Percentage" for Resource Allocation

Using effort in percentage is a helpful way to allocate resources when they are not fully dedicated to a single task or project. Instead of assigning a fixed number of hours, you assign a percentage of their available time over the entire duration of the task.

What Does It Mean to Allocate by Percentage?

When you allocate a resource by percentage, you’re specifying how much of their daily availability will be spent on that task. For example:

• A task runs for 250 working days.
• The resource works 8 hours per day.
• Allocating 100% means they’ll work full-time on that task for the entire duration:
  • 8 hours/day × 250 days = 2000 hours total.

This may be too much if the task doesn’t require that much effort or if the resource has other responsibilities.

When Is Percentage-Based Allocation Useful?

Use effort in percentage when:

• The task spans a long duration.
• The resource is not dedicated full-time to the task.
• The resource is shared across multiple projects or tasks.

Example Scenario

You have a Project Manager who is managing 5 projects simultaneously. Instead of assigning full-time hours to each project, you can allocate 20% of their time to each one. This means the PM will spend the equivalent of:

• 20% of 8 hours/day = 1.6 hours per day on that project.

This approach ensures the PM is not overbooked and their time is spread appropriately across projects.