Viewing resource availability

You can see which resources are available to be assigned to a task by viewing resource availability in the tree of the assignment view. You might find this useful when assigning scheduled allocations to satisfy demand allocations because you can see if a compatible resource has enough time to satisfy a demand allocation.

Asta Powerproject calculates the availability of all the project's resources. Two availability figures can be calculated:

Task Availability shows the resources' availability to work on the selected task (that is, within the bounds of the task).
View Availability shows the resources' availability for the current view.

To calculate the availability of resources for a specific task:

Select the task then on the Allocation tab, in the Assign group, click Assignment View to display the assignment view. The toolbar in the assignment view has three drop-down controls.
From the first drop-down, choose the scope for calculating the resources' availability for the selected task. For example, choose View Scope to calculate the resources' availability within the bounds of the task, choose Out-Of-View Scope to calculate the resources' availability for tasks in the current view other than the selected task, or choose Branch Scope to calculate the resources' availability within the bounds of the selected task, including all subordinate tasks.
From the second drop-down, choose the scope for the resources' availability within the current view. For example, choose View Scope to calculate the resources' availability within the current view, choose Out-Of-View Scope to calculate the resources' availability outside the current view, or choose Branch Scope to calculate the resources' availability within the current view, including all subordinate tasks.
From the third drop-down, choose the time unit in which you want the availability to be displayed.

The availability of the resource(s) assigned to the selected task is displayed in the Task Availability and View Availability columns in the tree pane. You may need to adjust the width of the tree pane and the list view within the assignment view to see the availability figures.

When a permanent resource has multiple skills, the availability information shows the availability of the resource, not the availability of individual skills.

You can sort the resources within each resource folder according to their availability. To do this, right-click the Task Availability or View Availability column heading in the tree pane, then select Sort Ascending or Sort Descending as appropriate.

You can configure Asta Powerproject to check the availability of a resource - permanent or consumable - each time you assign a resource to a task. Configuring Asta Powerproject to check resource availability as and when you assign resources helps you to avoid over-allocating resources by assigning them to too many tasks at the same time.