I've just finished a Project Management class to finish my degree. I've done some project management in the past as well.

When these kind of problems come up, they are often best solved by further discretization of the tasks. Technically, a task (often called a "work package") is a block of work that requires resources. If you have a "task" that requires two people, you can sometimes divide this into two tasks and then schedule that way, otherwise you'll need to use other methods of scheduling to work around resource conflicts..

Which brings me to the important point: Everything depends on the work breakdown structure (WBS), which is a heirarchical breakdown of the work. You need to make sure that you have the WBS properly broken down to the "work package" level or you are going to have these kinds of nightmares with scheduling. After you have the project exploded down to the individual work package level, you can do two things: 1. Estimate resource requirements for each task, and 2. build a project network diagram.

The network diagram depicts work package dependencies. If you have allocated resources to work packages and made a network diagram to show what comes before what, then MS Project can build the schedule for you, resolving all of the resource conflicts.

That's the best way to do it. First, have a detailed WBS (the more detailed and granular the better). Second, for each work package assign an estimate of the resources (could be X person for Y hours). Third, build the network diagram which incorporates task dependencies into the plan.

The project schedule is the *result* of all of these things, and is put together relatively mechanically. The key is to spend the time on the WBS, estimates, and network plan.

I'd be happy to answer any questions as this stuff is pretty fresh in my brain right now.

It can get complicated. Don't try to do everything together in one step. First WBS, then task level estimates, then network diagram. It seems like a lot of busy work, but I promise you that it works like a charm.

Oh, before all of this, you should have a detailed scope statement, agreed to by project stakeholders. The WBS is the work breakdown to accomplish the scope statement. Save yourself lots of hassle down the road by putting *in writing* exactly what you are going to accomplish.

Best,

Jim