Project 2000. Entering Assignments, страница 2

What is an Assignment Contour?

An assignment contour is the timephased distribution of resource units on an assignment. (Note: In most cases, assignment contours refer to the distribution of work. However, in order to better understand how Microsoft Project calculates the work distribution in a contour, we will define it as the distribution of units.) There are two main categories of contours in Project: predefined contours and edited contours.

Predefined Contours

Understanding predefined contours and their behaviors will help us in understanding edited contours, so let’s take a look at them first. Like Microsoft Project 98, Microsoft Project 2000 ships with eight predefined contours. Each contour takes an assignment and divides it into ten segments. In each segment, work is calculated using the units predefined per that contour’s definition. Below are the eight predefined contours and a table showing how each distributes units in each of the ten segments. 

Note that each table shows the percentage of the units a resource is assigned for a particular timephased segment in relationship to the units a resource is assigned to a task as a whole.

The eight predefined contours and their contour definition tables are:

1.  Flat

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Units

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

100%

2.  Back Loaded

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Units

10%

15%

25%

50%

50%

75%

75%

100%

100%

100%

3.  Front Loaded

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Units

100%

100%

100%

75%

75%

50%

50%

25%

15%

10%

4.  Double Peak

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Units

25%

50%

100%

50%

25%

25%

50%

100%

50%

25%

5.  Early Peak

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Units

25%

50%

100%

100%

75%

50%

50%

25%

15%

10%

6.  Late Peak

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Units

10%

15%

25%

50%

50%

75%

100%

100%

50%

25%

7.  Bell

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Units

10%

20%

40%

80%

100%

100%