It’s said that life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. That’s never more apparent than in the project management field. Obstacles like scheduling conflicts or supply chain issues can cause the best-laid plans to go awry.
But all is not lost. Resource leveling allows project managers to adapt and recover by reallocating existing assets to ensure the team delivers goals and objectives.
What is resource leveling?
According to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBoK) from the Project Management Institute (PMI), resource leveling techniques resolve overallocation or scheduling conflicts to ensure project completion. The process helps teams maximize available assets within time, cost, and scope limitations.
To succeed in resource leveling, project management must balance the demand for shared resources across multiple projects. Two truths govern this balancing act:
If delivery must occur within established project timelines, it will require more resources.
If the project cannot secure additional resources due to financial or availability constraints, the project manager must extend the deadline.
Resource leveling addresses limitations while maintaining deliverable quality and preventing existing assets from becoming overwhelmed.
When to use resource leveling
Project managers leverage resource leveling techniques whenever assigned resources run low or become over-allocated. The process redistributes tasks and creates a realistic schedule to deliver timely outcomes without overworking staff.
The benefits of resource leveling
Resource leveling helps project managers establish a realistic timeline, avoid delays, respect budgetary constraints, and maintain quality. By maximizing available assets, leveling yields the following benefits:
Optimizes resources
Resource leveling maximizes the use of assets already on hand. Teams can assess which tasks or projects warrant additional resource allocations. They can also determine whether action items have timeline flexibility for redeployment.
Minimizes losses
Resource leveling helps avoid significant delays, minimizing extra labor costs. Project leadership can manage resource demand without burdening the organization’s capacity and finances.
Prevents overwhelmed resources
Resources only go so far. Overallocation leads to overwork, stressing timelines even further. By balancing workloads and adjusting deadlines, resource leveling reduces stress on team members and improves their overall productivity.
Preserves quality
Project leveling helps leaders resolve budget issues, overallocation, and project delays while maintaining the same output quality. This ensures deliverables live up to client expectations.
Safeguards work-life balance
Work-life balance is a primary concern of workers globally. The leveling process lets project managers create a realistic schedule that achieves desired outcomes without bloated workloads or overtime. Studies show that a healthy work-life balance encourages staff to work 21% harder.
Practical examples of resource leveling
These five scenarios will explain resource leveling and when to apply it. These strategies help managers optimize resources, extend deadlines, or narrow the project scope to ensure success:
1. Delay start date
Should the project double-book a vital resource, leadership pushes the launch date back until availability opens. Depending on how soon the asset becomes available, the project schedule could remain the same or shift forward by the total wait time.
2. Add resources + extend deadline
Adding resources and project days is the best way to maintain output quality. Before revising resource allocation plans, ensure transparency and manage expectations by meeting with stakeholders to explain why additions are necessary.
3. Add resources + maintain deadline
Adding resources to a project with an immovable drop-dead date is called crashing. It reduces team member workload by dividing the surplus between additional bodies.
However, there is a disadvantage. Newly hired temporary workers require onboarding. Leaders must ensure workers’ contributions guarantee the same project delivery date, factoring in training time.
4. Maintain resources + push back deadline
If additional resources aren’t available, extending the project’s deadline gives the team adequate time to complete the project without impacting quality.
5. Same resources + same deadline
If a project experiences both resource and time constraints, leaders can deliver critical outcomes by reducing project scope. Removing non-critical features from the project plan and executing simultaneous tasks frees resources to ensure timely delivery.
Common techniques for project resource leveling
Project managers use one or multiple methods to level project resources:
Critical Path Method (CPM)
The critical path method provides visibility into essential tasks for project completion. Leaders sequence dependent activities to determine each task’s earliest and latest possible start and end dates, then add the work hours together to determine project duration. The critical path is the chain of dependent activities that takes the most time without considering resource constraints.
Once the team leader identifies the critical path, they can calculate each item’s total and free float.
Total float: How long the team can delay a task’s start date without impacting the project’s finish date.
Free float: The number of days the team can delay a task without impacting the start of subsequent activities.
Tasks on the critical path have zero float; stalling them delays the entire project.
Critical Chain Method (CCM)
The critical chain method is an updated version of CPM that considers resource availability during the planning phase. CCM delegates an asset to one task at a time, creating a chain of subsequent activities based on task sequence and resource limitations.
First, project management lists resources and assesses their availability. The process then adds a buffer period between each activity and the project finish date as a contingency against imprecise allocation. If a task finishes early, the buffer increases. Delays consume the buffer without affecting delivery.
Fast Tracking
Project managers can run multiple tasks simultaneously to ensure the team delivers on or before the deadline. This technique is called fast tracking. It’s only successful when activities overlap. For example, tasks without dependencies can parallel others staggered along the critical path.
Crashing
If fast tracking isn’t enough, project management can implement crashing – adding extra resources to shorten timelines. Before seeking stakeholder approval, leadership must first assess the needs of high-priority tasks and identify options that provide maximum value for minimal cost.
Tools for effective resource leveling
Project managers have many tips and tricks to simplify resource leveling, including the following:
Gantt charts
Gantt charts are graphs that help the team visualize project schedules and identify the critical path. With a high-level overview, PMs can more easily establish start and finish dates, spot dependencies, and calculate project duration. Management can rearrange the data to update schedules as work progresses.
Project management software
Some project management apps use resource-leveling algorithms to present conflict resolution options. The software also performs schedule optimization, preventing conflicts and the double-booking of allocated resources.
Network diagrams
A network diagram illustrates the project’s schedule with boxes representing individual tasks and their duration. Arrows depict dependencies and chronology. This planning tool helps project managers map out timelines, track progress, and determine the critical path.
Project archives
Referring to past project plans and schedules improves the accuracy of future planning efforts. Project managers gain insights into successful and failed resource management efforts before work begins.
Complete project plans and estimates
Leveling is simpler when management clearly establishes the project scope and provides realistic resource estimates from which to work.
Integrating resource allocation, leveling, and smoothing
Resource allocation, resource leveling, and resource smoothing work together to achieve optimal resource management. Here’s how:
Resource allocation: First, assign tasks to team members with the skills required to complete the work. Don’t worry about the impact on other resources yet.
Resource leveling: Next, apply leveling techniques to ensure workloads don’t exceed available limits and team members don’t put in excessive work hours.
Resource smoothing: Finally, resource smoothing distributes workloads by breaking tasks into subtasks that can be spread more evenly. It also involves adding daily buffers to prevent overwork and burnout. Smoothing utilizes project float to redistribute resources.
Resource leveling with Tempo
Tempo provides tools to assist with project scheduling and resource management. Our Gantt Charts tool uses existing Jira data to summarize each project plan into a single chart. It’s a one-stop shop for defining the critical path and identifying resource conflicts or dependencies.
Portfolio Manager is a comprehensive project management software that uses predictive scheduling to dynamically adapt to changing program plans or resource levels. Its sophisticated algorithms generate realistic schedules that balance workloads and prioritize high-value tasks at the touch of a button.
