Allocating varying amounts of resources

I have been battling with allocating resources in Microsoft Project, do units represent for example people? if 1 person is required for a job, how can that be allocated in Microsoft Project given the constraint of a team being limited to 5 people.

Note that when you allocate a resource to a task in Project (and in most other software) it initially assumes that the resource (e.g. a person) is completely devoted to that task. Now look at the resources column of the Gantt chart view in Project, or the Resources tab of the task information box in Pertmaster. You'll see a number, 100 % in Project, 1.00 in Pertmaster. Change this number to specify your allocation.

Two people working on task in Project would appear as: Worker[200%]. In Pertmaster the Units Assigned value is 2.0.

You can of course specify less than a whole unit, for a part time task. Half-time = 50% or 0.5.