Resource Leveling

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Resource Leveling is a project management process used to examine a project for an unbalanced use of resources (usually people) over time, and for resolving over-allocations or conflicts.

When performing project planning activities, the manager will attempt to schedule certain tasks simultaneously. When more resources such as machines or people are needed than are available, or perhaps a specific person is needed in both tasks, the tasks will have to be rescheduled concurrently or even sequentially to manage the constraint. Project planning resource leveling is the process of resolving these conflicts. It can also be used to balance the workload of primary resources over the course of the project, usually at the expense of one of the traditional triple constraints (time, cost, scope).

When using specially designed project software, leveling typically means resolving conflicts or over allocations in the project plan by allowing the software to calculate delays and update tasks automatically. Project management software leveling requires delaying tasks until resources are available.

In either definition, leveling could result in a later project finish date if the tasks affected are in the critical path.

[edit] References

Project Management Institute A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition, 2004 Project Management Institute, Inc. ISBN-10 193069945X, ISBN-13: 978-1930699458

Microsoft Office Online: Project 2003