Resource Leveling versus Resource Smoothing - Key Project Management Concepts from the PMBOK
Summary
TLDRThis video explains the key differences between resource leveling and resource smoothing in project management, particularly for PMP exam preparation. Resource leveling adjusts resource use to match availability, often changing the critical path by shifting tasks. It’s useful when resources are over-allocated, such as a single person assigned to multiple tasks simultaneously. In contrast, resource smoothing adjusts activities within their float to avoid changing the critical path, using available schedule flexibility. The video provides examples and emphasizes the importance of understanding these techniques for effective project scheduling.
Takeaways
- 📚 Resource optimization adjusts start and finish dates of activities to match resource availability, avoiding overallocation.
- ⚖️ Resource leveling is used when shared or critically required resources are overallocated during the same time period.
- 🔄 Resource leveling can cause changes to the original critical path due to shifting activities to balance resource use.
- 👥 Example: If a person is assigned to two tasks simultaneously, one task must be shifted to another time period to avoid overallocation.
- 🕒 Resource leveling extends the time frame of activities, which can affect the overall project schedule.
- 🔧 Resource smoothing adjusts activities within their available float without changing the critical path.
- 🛠️ Unlike resource leveling, resource smoothing only uses available slack time and does not extend the project duration.
- 📈 Critical path remains unchanged during resource smoothing as it only adjusts activities within their float.
- 🗓️ Example: A task with 5 days of float can be delayed without affecting the project timeline, maintaining schedule integrity.
- 💡 Understanding the difference between resource leveling and smoothing is crucial for project management, especially for PMP exams.
Q & A
What is resource optimization in project management?
-Resource optimization is used to adjust the start and finish dates of activities to align planned resource usage with actual resource availability. This helps ensure that more resources aren't used than are available, avoiding delays due to a lack of resources.
What are the two techniques used for resource optimization?
-The two techniques used for resource optimization are resource leveling and resource smoothing.
How does resource leveling differ from resource smoothing?
-Resource leveling adjusts the resources by moving their assignments and can extend the project schedule, potentially changing the critical path. Resource smoothing, on the other hand, adjusts activities within their available float, ensuring the critical path and overall schedule remain unchanged.
When is resource leveling typically used?
-Resource leveling is used when shared or critically required resources are over-allocated, meaning they are assigned to two or more activities during the same time period.
What impact does resource leveling have on the critical path?
-Resource leveling can change the critical path because it adjusts the schedule to level out resource usage, which may extend the project's timeline.
Can you give an example of resource leveling in action?
-In resource leveling, if Sue is assigned to two activities (A and B) during the same time period, the project manager would move activity B to a different time period, ensuring Sue is not working on two tasks simultaneously. This adjustment might extend the project's timeline.
What is the purpose of resource smoothing?
-Resource smoothing aims to adjust activities within their free and total float without changing the critical path. It ensures that resources are used efficiently without extending the project timeline.
How does resource smoothing affect the project schedule?
-Resource smoothing does not change the critical path or the overall project schedule because it only shifts activities within the available float.
What is the difference between free float and total float?
-Free float is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the subsequent activity, while total float is the time an activity can be delayed without delaying the project's overall finish date.
Why is it important to understand resource leveling and smoothing for the PMP exam?
-It is important to understand these concepts because they are frequently tested on the PMP exam, and confusion between the two could lead to incorrect answers. Understanding when to use each technique and their effects on the project schedule is crucial.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Resource Optimization
The video introduces the key project management concepts of resource leveling and resource smoothing, with a focus on understanding these techniques for the PMP exam. The speaker highlights the importance of grasping these concepts to ensure success in project scheduling questions on the exam. Resource optimization adjusts the start and finish dates of activities to align resource usage with availability, ensuring work can be completed efficiently without over-allocation of resources.
⚖️ Resource Leveling Explained
Resource leveling is described as a technique used when resources are over-allocated, such as when a person is assigned to two tasks at the same time. The speaker explains how resource leveling resolves this by adjusting the schedule, often causing changes to the project's critical path. An example is provided where Sue is assigned to two tasks at once, but leveling spreads out the activities to prevent overload. This may extend the project duration since resources are redistributed to avoid conflicts.
🗓️ Example of Resource Leveling
An illustrative example of resource leveling is presented, showing how the critical path changes when resources are adjusted. Initially, Sue and Tom are both assigned to Activity A, but Sue is also assigned to Activity B in the same period. To resolve this, Sue's tasks are rescheduled, spreading the activities over multiple days to avoid overlap. This adjustment lengthens the project's timeline, altering the critical path due to the resource redistribution.
🌟 Resource Smoothing Overview
The speaker introduces resource smoothing, another technique that adjusts activities within their float (or wiggle room) without affecting the critical path. Unlike resource leveling, smoothing does not extend the project timeline. It ensures resources are used efficiently within the available flexibility of the schedule. By using available float, project managers can avoid delays while ensuring resources are appropriately allocated.
📊 Example of Resource Smoothing
A practical example of resource smoothing is provided using a schedule network diagram. The diagram shows activities with no float and one with five days of float, which can be adjusted without affecting the critical path. By shifting this activity, the project maintains its original timeline while still optimizing resource usage. The speaker emphasizes how resource smoothing allows flexibility within the project schedule, ensuring smooth resource allocation without extending deadlines.
🔑 Key Differences Between Resource Leveling and Smoothing
In conclusion, the video highlights the key differences between resource leveling and resource smoothing. Resource leveling may alter the critical path and extend the project timeline, while resource smoothing uses available float to adjust tasks without changing the overall schedule. Understanding these differences is crucial for effectively managing resources in a project and passing the PMP exam.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Resource Optimization
💡Resource Leveling
💡Resource Smoothing
💡Critical Path
💡Float
💡Overallocation
💡Schedule Network Diagram
💡Start and Finish Dates
💡Free Float
💡Total Float
Highlights
Introduction to project management key concepts with a focus on resource leveling vs resource smoothing.
Resource optimization adjusts the start and finish dates of activities to align with resource availability.
Resource leveling is used when resources are over-allocated, ensuring that resources are not used more than they are available.
Leveling focuses on moving the resources, while smoothing focuses on adjusting activities within the critical path using float.
Resource leveling can cause changes in the original critical path due to shifting resource allocation.
Example of resource leveling: when Sue is assigned to two activities in the same time period, resource leveling is needed to shift the timeline.
After resource leveling, activities are rescheduled to ensure that resources are not double-booked, which may extend the project duration.
Resource smoothing adjusts the activities within their free and total float without changing the critical path.
Unlike resource leveling, resource smoothing maintains the critical path, utilizing the available float to adjust activities.
In resource smoothing, activities with float can be pushed back without affecting the overall project schedule.
The critical path method is explained, highlighting that activities without float cannot be delayed without impacting the project.
Example of resource smoothing: one activity has 5 days of float, allowing it to be pushed back without altering the schedule.
Resource smoothing uses available wiggle room to balance resource allocation without extending the project timeline.
Key difference: resource leveling may change the critical path and extend the timeline, while resource smoothing keeps the timeline intact.
The importance of understanding these concepts for the PMP exam is emphasized, particularly to avoid confusion between leveling and smoothing.
Transcripts
hi everyone
welcome back to this series of project
management key concepts
where we're delving deeper into the
project management body of knowledge
this one in particular is resource
leveling versus resource
smoothing and the reason why we're
looking at this is sometimes these items
you can get confused on the pmp exam so
it's just
just a good idea to sort it out before
going into the exam
and just in case you get a question on
these two items on your project
schedule so what is well resource
optimization
in general is used to adjust the start
and finish dates
of activities so we're adjusting the
planned resource use
to be equal to or less than the resource
availability
because we don't want to be using more
resources than we actually
have we probably won't get this little
bit of work done if we don't have the
resources to
do it for example so we might need to
level or
smooth those resources out so these are
the two techniques used
and leveling focuses on moving the
resources themselves
while smoothing focuses on moving the
activities
for example within your critical path
using float
now you might be familiar with some of
those terms but we'll go into a few
examples and that should make it a
little bit more clear as well
so resource leveling this can be used
when shared or critically
required resources are over allocated
such as when a resource has been
assigned to two or more activities
during the same
time period so obviously you know unless
you
can clone that person if the same person
is assigned to two activities
in one time period then probably they
may not get one of those things done
so we just need to level that out so
when we're resource leveling it can
often cause the original critical path
to change
and here is what i mean by that you'll
see in this example
so as you can see in the first example
here we've got
su and tom performing activity a
but we've also got sue again performing
activity b
in the same time period so again unless
we can clone sue
which i don't think is possible quite
yet we may have to shift that
activity so that sue is not doing uh
those two things in the same time period
and then we've got the the third one
over here that seems to be clear
it's just one person doing that activity
so after resource leveling
as you can see we've got uh during day
one we've got su and tom
doing their activity a yep then we've
got sue
doing her activity be on day two and
then tom
moving his out to day three and this is
why
we say that the critical path may or
will
change during resource leveling because
we are
leveling out the resources but we're
also
extending out the time to suit because
we've had to res uh to level out those
resources so the critical path
may change now resource smoothing
adjusts the activities of a schedule
model within
their free and total float
so because of that as you know with
critical path
uh the critical path is not changed
because we're just using up
the available wiggle room in our
schedule
and again let's have a look at what we
mean
this is an example of a schedule network
diagram and this is
what all of the different boxes mean so
you've got early start the duration
and the float those are the two things
that we're really looking at here
so as you can see we've got no float on
this
on this activity no float on this
activity
but we have got five days worth of float
or
wiggle room on this particular activity
so maybe we can push this back
by five days and it will still be okay
things can be smoothed out and it won't
adjust the critical path
or our overall schedule and that is the
idea of resource leveling
versus resource smoothing
[Music]
[Applause]
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