Question

What are resource leveling and resource smoothing? Answer using your own words but citing current scholarly research. What is the impact to the critical path, and how is "float" used in leveling and smoothing resources? Give an example of leveling and smoothing resources on a project you know or can find through research.

Answer 1

Resource leveling is a technique in project management that overlooks resource allocation and resolves possible conflict arising from over-allocation. When project managers undertake a project, they need to plan their resources accordingly.

An organization starts to face problems if resources are not allocated properly i.e., some resource may be over-allocated whilst others will be under-allocated. Both will bring about a financial risk to the organization.

Structure of Resource leveling

Many organizations have a structured hierarchy of resource leveling. A work-based structure is as follows:

• Stage
• Phase
• Task/Deliverable

Resource smoothing

Resource smoothing is one of the project management tools used in the resource optimization techniques. It is defined as a technique that adjusts the activities of a schedule model so that all requirements for the resources do not go beyond the resource limits already pre-defined during the planning.