Resource Leveling

Resource leveling is the process of adjusting a project schedule to resolve situations where a resource — a person, piece of equipment, or material — is assigned more work than they can handle in a given time period. When two tasks assigned to the same resource overlap and their combined effort exceeds the resource's available hours, the resource is over-allocated. Leveling delays one or more of those tasks until the conflict is resolved, even if this pushes the project end date later.

Leveling vs. Smoothing

Resource leveling allows the project end date to move. Tasks are delayed as needed — potentially past the current scheduled finish — to eliminate every over-allocation conflict. The result is a schedule that is actually achievable, but the end date may slip.

Resource smoothing keeps the project end date fixed and uses only available float to shift tasks within their existing windows. Over-allocation conflicts that cannot be resolved within float are accepted — the schedule remains constrained by the end date even if some resources remain over-allocated.

Leveling prioritizes achievability. Smoothing prioritizes the deadline.

Why Over-Allocation Matters

A project schedule with over-allocated resources is not achievable as written. The task bars may look correct on a Gantt chart, but the underlying plan assumes a resource can perform more work than physically possible. Resource leveling turns a theoretical schedule into a realistic one by confronting those conflicts explicitly.

Resource Leveling in Maverick

Maverick's resource allocation bar chart displays each resource's workload over time with color-coded bars: green for correctly allocated, amber for under-allocated, and red for over-allocated. Over-allocation conflicts are visible at a glance without running a separate report. Resolve them by adjusting task dates or resource assignments manually in the schedule, or ask Maverick's AI chat to suggest a leveled arrangement — "which tasks can I shift to resolve Sarah's over-allocation in the first two weeks?"

For a guide to reading and acting on the allocation chart, see: Resource Allocation Bar Chart.

Related Terms

Task Dependency  ·  Float  ·  Work Breakdown Structure  ·  Project Baseline  ·  Project Schedule