## Assign a Resource to Variable Work Hours for a Task (Resource Contouring)

At times your schedule may show that each overallocated resource is scheduled to work all available work hours. How can you use existing resources to resolve overallocations? It’s possible to free up the time of some resources by assigning them to their tasks only for the number of hours they will actually spend on the task each day. Closely matching a resource’s assigned hours on a task to the actual hours spent on the task each day is called resource contouring.

When you assign a resource to a task, Microsoft Project automatically assigns the same number of hours per time period throughout the duration of the task. This is known as a flat contour. You can change this behavior to more accurately reflect how a resource’s work will be patterned throughout the duration of a specific task.

If several resources are assigned to one task, you can contour each resource’s time independently.

You can select one of several predefined work contours to apply to a particular resource working on a particular task. You pick the contour that best matches the way the resource will actually work on the task. This allows you to fine-tune a resource’s allocated hours, possibly freeing up time that that resource can use on a different task, one with overallocated resources.

The Resource Usage and Task Usage views display the work contours.

To apply a contour to an assignment

1. On the View Bar, click Task Usage .
   Resources are grouped under the tasks to which they are assigned.
2. In the Task Name field, select a resource for which you want to apply a preset work contour.
3. Click Assignment Information , and then click the General tab.
4. In the Work contour box, click a contour pattern.
5. To change the start and finish dates for the resource assignment, click the new dates in the Start and Finish boxes.

When working with work contours, keep the following in mind:

- Once you’ve applied a specific contour to a task, adding new total work values for the task will automatically reapply the preset work contour pattern for the task and resources. Microsoft Project will first distribute the new task work values across the affected time span, and then assign new work values to the resources working on the task.
- If you change the start date of a task or the start date of a resource’s work on a task that has a preset contour applied to it, the contour will automatically shift and be reapplied to include the new date. All work values within the timespan will receive new values to preserve the pattern of the original contour.
- Once you manually edit a work value on the timescale portion of a view that has a preset contour applied to it, the preset contour pattern will no longer be automatically applied. You can, however, reapply the preset contour to redistribute the new values.
- If you increase the duration of a task, the preset contour will be stretched to include the new timespan.
- If actual work has been entered, any changes to the task’s total work or to the total remaining work will be automatically redistributed to the remaining work values and not to the actual work.

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