In
project management
Project management is the process of supervising the work of a Project team, team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project initiation documentation, project documentation, crea ...
, resource smoothing is defined by ''
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge'' (''PMBOK Guide'') as a "resource optimization technique in which free and total float are used without affecting the
critical path" of a
project
A project is a type of assignment, typically involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a specific objective.
An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be ...
.
Resource smoothing as a resource optimization technique has only been introduced in the Sixth Edition of the PMBOK Guide (since 2017) and did not exist in its previous revisions. It is posed as an alternative and a distinct resource optimization technique beside
resource leveling In project management, resource leveling is defined by '' A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge'' (''PMBOK Guide'') as "A technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource limitation with the goal of balancing d ...
.
The main difference between resource leveling and resource smoothing is that while resource leveling uses the available
float, thus may affect a critical path, resource smoothing uses free and total float without affecting any of the critical paths. Thus, while resource leveling can be considered a constraint in order to adjust with certain resource supply limitation, for example, not to over-work some human resources, resource smoothing can be considered a useful method to solve the problem of a more flexible constraint if time of a deadline is a stronger constraint.
Just like resource leveling, a resource smoothing problem could be formulated as an
optimization
Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...
problem. The problem could be solved by different
optimization algorithm
Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...
s such as exact algorithms or
metaheuristics.
See also
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Resource allocation
In economics, resource allocation is the assignment of available resources to various uses. In the context of an entire economy, resources can be allocated by various means, such as markets, or planning.
In project management, resource allocatio ...
*
Resource leveling In project management, resource leveling is defined by '' A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge'' (''PMBOK Guide'') as "A technique in which start and finish dates are adjusted based on resource limitation with the goal of balancing d ...
References
Further reading
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{{Refend
Schedule (project management)