Resource Loading and Leveling Kathy S. Schwaig

A Roadmap of the Project Planning Process Develop project charter Establish work breakdown structure Analyze sequencing relationships Estimate “normal” activity durations Perform network calculations Validate/revise initial schedule Perform time-cost tradeoff analysis Load resources to activities Resolve any resource/workload imbalances Develop budget and cash flow plan based on analysis of direct and indirect costs Our Focus Today

What is a Resource? What’s a resource? A resource is any entity that contributes to the accomplishment of project activities Personnel Equipment Contractors Space Materials

Resource Planning Resource planning is the process of making sure resources are available as required to execute the project according to schedule Questions to ask: What type of resource is required? How much resource is required? When and how long is the resource needed? Where is the resource required?

Resource Loading Resource loading involves specifying the types and quantities of resources required to complete each activity in a project Note that resources are loaded not at the project level, but at the activity level Resources can be identified By name (if you have individual professionals with unique skills, this is a reasonable approach) By generic type (e.g., system analysts)

How Do We Quantify Resources Used? One way is to use some measure of resource usage Programmer days Staff hours Equipment hours Another way is to indicate the number of units of resource assigned Programmers Workstations

Scheduling Resources A resource requirements list can be constructed by listing each activity and the resources that will be required Example Required resources are then mapped to the activity plan to assess the distribution of resources required over the duration of the project ActivityResourceDaysNotes Design database Systems Analyst 7 F/T

Developing a Resource Profile EPS 2 DUR 4 EPC 6 LAC 11 TS 5 LAS 7 D EPS 7 DUR 4 EPC 11 LAC 12 TS 1 LAS 8 G EPS 7 DUR 1 EPC 8 LAC 12 TS 4 LAS 11 F EPS 11 DUR 3 EPC 14 LAC 15 TS 1 LAS 12 J EPS 15 DUR 0 EPC 15 LAC 15 TS 0 LAS 15 End EPS 0 DUR 2 EPC 2 LAC 7 TS 5 LAS 5 A EPS 2 DUR 8 EPC 10 LAC 10 TS 0 LAS 2 H EPS 2 DUR 5 EPC 7 LAC 8 TS 1 LAS 3 E EPS 10 DUR 5 EPC 15 LAC 15 TS 0 LAS 10 K EPS 0 DUR 2 EPC 2 LAC 2 TS 0 LAS 0 B EPS 1 DUR 3 EPC 4 LAC 10 TS 6 LAS 7 I EPS 0 DUR 0 EPC 0 LAC 0 TS 0 LAS 0 Start EPS 0 DUR 1 EPC 1 LAC 7 TS 6 LAS 6 C (0) (2) (5) (4) (3) (2) (1)(2) (0) (2) (1) (2) Numbers in ( ) show number of people needed for each activity

Developing a Resource Profile Day A B CDE F G H I K J

Developing a Resource Profile Resource Requirement (programmers) Time Period (days) Ideal profile

Resolving Workload/Resource Imbalances Request additional resources Plan to work overtime Contract out work Delay start or extend durations of non- critical activities Change the approach used to perform the work Reduce project scope or extend project deadline

Resource Leveling Scheduling resources by earliest possible start date often leads to an uneven resource profile that is more likely to call for levels of resource beyond those available By adjusting the start date of some activities and splitting others, we can achieve a more level resource profile, reducing the maximum level of demand for limited resources

Resource Leveling Allocating a resource to one activity limits the flexibility for resource allocation and scheduling of other activities Resources should be allocated to activities in some rational order The priority must always be to allocate resources to critical path activities and then to those activities that are most likely to affect others In this way, lower priority activities are made to fit around the more critical, already scheduled activities

Approaches for Prioritizing Activities Total slack priority Activities are ordered according to their to total slack, those with the smallest total slack having the highest priority Ordered list priority 1. Shortest critical activity 2. Critical activities 3. Shortest non-critical activity 4. Non-critical activity with least slack 5. Non-critical activities