Glossary
Contouring
work contour, work distribution
Contouring describes how the work of a resource is distributed across the duration of an activity. Instead of assuming the same effort every day, the contour maps when the work really happens.
Most planning tools distribute work evenly by default: 40 hours across 10 days equals 4 hours per day. In practice, hardly any activity runs that way. A concept phase starts intensively and tapers off, an acceptance phase only picks up towards the end, a construction stage ramps up and down again. Contouring maps exactly that profile.
Common contours and their typical use:
- Flat: constant effort per day, the standard case for routine work.
- Front-loaded: emphasis at the start, for example analysis, concept or setup.
- Back-loaded: emphasis at the end, for example testing, acceptance or defect fixing.
- Bell: slow ramp-up, peak in the middle, ramp-down at the end. Typical for construction stages or campaigns.
- Double peak: two effort peaks in one activity, for example setting up and tearing down a trade show stand.
The benefit shows in the utilisation: a realistic contour reveals overload where it actually occurs and frees capacity where the average value only reports arithmetical load.
Not every tool carries a contour as a dedicated field. Microsoft Project has the work contour for this; Merlin Project currently has no such field. There you build a contour by splitting the activity into several sub-activities and entering separate work and duration values for each section. The result is shown day by day in the Assignments view with the Work distribution layout.
How to use contouring together with fast tracking is shown in the article fast tracking, crashing and contouring in practice.
