RESOURCE LEVELLING

• Resource leveling is a project management technique

that involves resolving overallocation or scheduling
conflicts to ensure a project can be completed with the
available resources.
• Resources include the time, materials, or tools
needed to complete a project. 
• The purpose of resource leveling is to get the
most out of available resources while working
within the project’s time, cost, and scope
constraints. 
• Resource leveling can be challenging for 
project managers as it requires balancing the
demand for the same resources 
across multiple projects. 
•  
Depending on your team needs, here are possible outcomes :

• If the goal is to keep the current project deadline,

more resources may need to be made available. 
• If the goal is to run the project with currently
available resources, the deadline of the project
may be extended. 
 When to use resource leveling

This technique contributes to not only project management, but also

helps maintain work-life balance for the team. Here are some reasons
why your team can benefit from resource leveling. 
1)To optimize your resources
Resource leveling lets you get the most out of the resources you have
on hand. It helps you assess which projects should receive additional
resources and which ones are flexible in terms of deadlines. 
2)To minimize deficits
Resource leveling prevents significant project delays, thereby
minimizing the losses in costs and labor. This technique allows you to
manage the resource demand without exceeding the company’s
current capacity and financial resources. 
3)To prevent task overloading
Overallocation of resources leads to overwork, which can be
overwhelming for team members. Resource leveling prevents this by
resolving overallocation issues and adjusting deadlines to ensure team
members don’t have too much on their plates.

4)To ensure the quality of a project output

Leveling allows you to manage both resources and client expectations
by maintaining the same level of quality for project deliverables. In
general, resource leveling can be a useful technique for resolving
budget issues, resource overallocation, and project delays.
 Resource leveling examples

To help you get a better understanding of how resource leveling can be

applied across your team, here are some examples: 
Example one: Delaying a project start date
A project requires a designer to create mock-ups for the client, but
the designer was double-booked, and the rest of the design team is
occupied as well. They decide to start the project two days later
when the designer is available. Since the designer works fast, the
project end date remains the same. 
Example two: Obtaining additional resources 
The IT team has been responding to a large number of IT requests to
deal with a virus that infected company computers. Since the
company’s current antivirus software isn’t robust enough to handle
the virus, the team decides to invest in new antivirus software so
they’re able to fix the computers.
 Example three: Postponing a project end date 
• The marketing team is launching a new social media
campaign and they’re waiting for approval from the social
media manager, who is currently out of the office due to
illness. Since the campaign isn’t time-sensitive, they decide
to push the launch date back by a few days so the manager
has time to review. 
• Whether you lead a marketing, sales, or IT team, resource
leveling can come in handy for resolving resource conflicts.
Once you decide on a solution, let the rest of your team
know your plan. You can use a meeting template to plan the
agenda. 
 Resource leveling tools

• Use Gantt charts: A Gantt chart is a bar chart that visualizes

a project schedule and can be ideal for identifying and
planning the critical path. You can easily get a high-level
overview of the task dependencies, start and finish dates,
and project duration. As the project progresses, you’ll be
able to rearrange the chart and adjust dates as needed. 
• Leverage project management software: Some project
management software comes with resource leveling
algorithms that can help resolve overallocation conflicts. 
Project management software also gives greater visibility
into team members’ schedules, which will assist in
preventing scheduling conflicts and double-booking ahead
of time. 
• Draw network diagrams: A network diagram is another type of
visual representation of a project’s schedule. It’s shown as a
chart with sequences of boxes and arrows to depict the
chronology of tasks. It can be used to plan the schedule as well
as track project progress. When you connect the series of
boxes, each representing a task with its duration, you’ll be able
to identify the noncritical and critical paths. 
• Use previous projects as a reference: Keep an archive of past
project plans and schedules so that you can reference them
when doing a similar project to come up with a 
more accurate project plan. Looking at past successful or
unsuccessful projects will give you a better idea of how much
leeway to give each task and approximate which resources are
required so you can gauge resource availability before the
project starts.   
 Resource Scheduling

• Resource scheduling is the process of identifying when project

resources are needed and allocating them based on factors such as
capacity planning or resource availability.

• The main purpose of resource scheduling is to guarantee that

there’s no over or under-allocation of resources at any point of the
project.

• This leads to not only getting projects done on time and within
budget, but also builds morale, fosters better relationships, helps
with profitability and boosts stakeholder satisfaction
 Why Is Resource Scheduling Important In Project Management?

Resource scheduling is important in project management for a

variety of reasons:
• The main reason that resources can have an impact on all 
project constraints: time, scope, cost, risk, quality and of course,
resources.
• In most projects, poor resource scheduling delays individual tasks
which cause a domino effect that delays the whole project.
• These delays mean extra project costs and sometimes project
managers are obligated to reduce their project scope or
compromise the project deliverables quality to save time.
 What Should You Consider Before Creating a Resource
Schedule?
 The resource schedule is linked to other important aspects of your
project and your organization. So, resource scheduling is a 
project management decision-making activity that needs many
inputs. Here are some of the things:
• Resource capacity planning: This consists of assessing the total
amount of work that can be done with the resources that your
organization currently has.
• Resource utilization: Resource utilization refers to the number of
resources that are currently being used by your company.
• Resource forecasting: It’s important to estimate the future
resource needs of your project. There are different 
resource forecasting tools and techniques you can use to do so.
• Resource availability: Once you’ve understood your resource
capacity planning and resource utilization, you’ll be able to
determine what resources are at your disposal, or what’s your
resource availability.

• Project schedule: Your resource schedule must be aligned with

the project schedule and vice-versa. You’ll need to weigh your
resource capacity, utilization and availability whenever drafting
your project schedule. However, once the schedule baseline has
been approved and the project execution phase begins, the
resource schedule must align with the project schedule and not
the other way around.
 Resource Scheduling Methods

There are two main approaches that are followed by project

managers when scheduling resources, time-constrained and resource-
constrained resource scheduling. This decision is made based on
resource availability.
• Time-constrained resource scheduling: Time constraint is a
resource scheduling approach that prioritizes the timely delivery
of projects even if that means extra project costs. For example, a 
project manager using this approach would hire extra workers to
make up for a project schedule delay, so that deliverables can be
produced on time.
• Resource-constrained resource scheduling: Contrary to time-
constrained resource scheduling, this method builds the resource
schedule based on resource availability.
 COST ESTIMATING
• The cost and schedule estimation process helps in determining
number of resources to complete all project activities.
• It generally involves approximation and development of costing
alternatives to plan, perform or work, deliver, or give project.
• Two perspectives are generally required to derive project plans i.e.
 Forward Looking
 Backward Looking
Forward-Looking :

• The Forward-Looking approach is also known as Top-Down approach. This

approach generally starts with describing and explaining various project tasks
that involve starting with project aim or end deliverable and breaking it all down
into smaller planning chunks.
• Top-down budgeting also refers to a method of budgeting where project
managers prepare a high-level budget for organization.
• It generally takes less time and effort than bottom-up estimate. With help of
software cost estimation model, an estimation of overall effort and schedule is
done.
• They also divide schedule into major milestones dates. At this stage, sub-project
managers are simply given responsibility for decomposing every element of
WBS into lower levels with help of various allocations of top-level, staffing
profile, and, major milestones dates as constraints
Backward-Looking :

• Backward-Looking approach is also known as Bottom-up

approach.
• In this approach, project team breaks requirements of clients
down, determining lowest level appropriate to develop a range of
estimates, covering overall scope of project based on available
definition of task.
• Overall elements of lowest level WBS are generally explained
into detailed tasks, for which WBS element manager is
responsible for estimating budget and schedule.
• All of these estimates are joined and integrated into higher-level
WBS budgets and milestones.
 Elements of cost estimation in project management

• There are two key types of costs addressed by the cost estimation
process:

1. Direct costs: Costs associated with a single area, such as a

department or the project itself. Examples of direct costs include
fixed labor, materials, and equipment.

2. Indirect costs: Costs incurred by the organization at large, such

as utilities and quality control.
Some typical elements that a cost estimation
will take into account:
• Labor: The cost of team members working on the project,
both in terms of wages and time
• Materials and equipment: The cost of resources required
for the project, from physical tools to software to legal
permits
• Facilities: The cost of using any working spaces not owned
by the organization.
• Vendors: The cost of hiring third-party vendors or
contractors.
• Risk: The cost of any contingency plans implemented to
reduce risk.
 Cost escalation

• Cost escalation can be defined as changes in the cost or price of

specific goods or services in a given economy over a period.

• Cost Escalation is an increase or decrease in the cost of an

product, service or commodity over time.

• Escalation is the provision in a cost estimate for increases in

the cost of labor, equipment, material due to continuing
price changes over time.

• Escalation is used to estimate the future cost of a project or to

bring historical costs to the present.
 Several reasons for cost escalation:-

• Changes in Requirements or Design

• Economic and Social Factors
• Inefficiency, Poor Communication, and Lack of
Control
 System Life Cycle costs
• Life cycle costs (LCC) represent all the costs of a system, facility,
or product throughout its life cycle, cradle to grave.
• LCC include costs for the other phases of the system life cycle—
the operation phase and eventual disposal of the end-item, and,
sometimes, the conception phase too (initiation and feasibility).
• The LCC similarly affect decisions regarding development
projects, and feasibility studies should consider all costs for
acquisition, operation, maintenance, and disposal of the system or
product.
• The LCC should also account for the time necessary to develop,
build, and install the end-item—i.e., the time before the facility or
system becomes operational or the product is “launched” to
market.