Learning path
Go further in Learning path: Manage skills, people and capacity.
Summary: Units is the share of an assignment's hours that a resource actually contributes. It is the number that turns a span of days into an amount of work.
Applies to
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Product | LYNX-X |
| Version | 28.10.9809.0 |
| Required permissions | Read and write access to the project |
| Last updated | 2026-09-04 |
| Owner | Support |
Definition
Every assignment on a task carries a Units percentage, shown on the task's Assignments tab. It is the proportion of the assignment's hours that this resource is expected to contribute.
The three columns work together:
Duration hours × Units = Effort
Purpose
Duration and effort are not the same thing, and Units is what separates them.
A task can span two weeks while costing one person three days of work. Without a units percentage you would have to choose between recording the span and recording the work, and LYNX-X needs both. The span is what the schedule reserves; the effort is what the resource load counts.
That is why changing Units changes the effort but not the duration. You are not saying the task is shorter. You are saying less of it belongs to this person.
Examples
Two assignments from D1 Product Development Project:
| Assignment | Duration | Units | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get Sign-off (S: Project Manager) | 8 days / 64h | 100% | 64h |
| Sourcing Materials (V: Purchasing) | 7 days / 56h | 20% | 11h 12m |
The first is somebody's whole attention for the duration. The second reserves seven days in the plan but only asks for about a fifth of that time: 56 hours at 20% is 11.2 hours, which LYNX-X shows as 11h 12m.
The second example is the one worth remembering. A task can sit in the plan for a week and cost barely more than a day of anyone's time.
Key concepts
- Units is a share, not a speed. It does not make work go faster; it records how much of the span is this resource's.
- Effort is what resource load counts. Two tasks of equal duration load a resource very differently if their units differ. See Reading multi-project resource load.
- Each assignment has its own Units. A task with three assignments has three percentages, and they do not have to match.
Note
The older documentation describes percentages above 100%, for example 300% to mean three full-time equivalents on a skill with that much availability. Nothing in this space uses a value above 100%, so it is not described here. If you need that behaviour, check it in a test project first.
Related articles
- How resource availability affects task duration
- Choosing how to assign work
- Pre-selecting a resource pool for a project
Revision history
| Version | Date | Author | Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 2026-09-04 | Support | New article. |
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