Carol from Madison, WI asks: Is there a view where I can see the summary tasks as well as the detail tasks for over-allocated resources? I’d also like to see the resource usage for the resources at the same time.

Answer: I understand your desire to see this information. When schedulers reuse the same task names within a project schedule and resources are over-allocated, it’s hard to determine which of the same named tasks are affected. There’s no standard view to show summary task names along with detail task names, but you can easily create a custom view.

One of the standard views for seeing over-allocated resource information is the Resource Allocation view, shown below. In this example the Testers are over-allocated. Tasks are in a summary task grouping, and you can’t tell which summary group the tasks belong to.The same task name is shown more than once.

Ask the Experts: Reports on Over-allocated Resources

If renaming tasks to indicate which work breakdown structure (WBS) section tasks belong to isn’t an option, then a customized view that has the Gantt chart on the top and the Resource Usage view on the bottom could help solve the problem. Here’s how to create the view.

In Project 2010:

1. Task | Gantt Chart | More Views | New

In earlier versions of Project:

1. View | More Views | New

2. Create a Combination view

3. In the view Definition box:

a. Name: Gantt/Resource Usage.
b. Primary view: Gantt Chart.
c. Details Pane: Resource Usage.
d. Check Show in menu to add the View to the shortcut menu.
e. Click OK to close the box.

Ask the Experts: Reports on Over-allocated Resources

Only one resource may be selected at a time. Rerun the filter for each over-allocated resource. The results are shown below.

In Project 2010:

1. Task | Gantt Chart | Gantt/Resource Usage.
2. To apply the filter: View | Click on the down arrow for filters | select Using Resource.

In earlier versions of Project:

1. View | Gantt/Resource Usage.
2. To apply the filter: Project | Filter for: | Using Resource.

Ask the Experts: Reports on Over-allocated Resources

Once the view is created, consider saving it in the Organizer for future use.

To save an object in the Organizer using Project 2010:

1. File | Info | Organizer
2. Click on the View tab
3. Click on Gantt/Resource Usage on the right
4. Click on Copy to copy it into the Organizer (Global.mpt)

To save an object in the Organizer using earlier versions of Project:

1. Tools | Organizer
2. Click on the View tab
3. Click on Gantt/Resource Usage on the right
4. Click on Copy to copy it into the Organizer (Global.mpt)