How Resource Leveling Is Calculated
Resource leveling smooths a project’s demand profile by shifting work so it no longer exceeds available capacity. This tool reports three values:
- Leveling needed — the gap between peak and average demand (peak − average). This is how many units of resource you need to re-schedule to bring the peak in line with the mean.
- Smoothness index — 1 − (peak − average) ÷ peak, i.e. the ratio of average to peak demand. A value of 1.00 means demand is perfectly flat; lower values mean more leveling is required.
- Total effort — average demand × the number of days (average × days), in person-days.
Assumptions and Limitations
This is the exact logic of the original tool: a single-period, aggregate view. It assumes demand is uniform within the period and does not model task dependencies, floats, or per-day scheduling — for per-person balancing across a team use the Workload Balancer instead. If the average exceeds the peak, the inputs are inconsistent and the smoothness index will exceed 1.00; a zero peak yields a smoothness of 0 because there is no demand to level.
Why It Matters
A demand profile with a sharp peak forces either overtime, staffing up, or scope delays. Knowing how much leveling is needed lets you decide early whether the plan is achievable with the team you have.