Resource smoothing


In project management, resource smoothing is defined by A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge as a "resource optimization technique in which free and total float are used without affecting the critical path" of a project. Resource smoothing as a resource optimization technique has only been introduced in the Sixth Edition of the PMBOK Guide and did not exist in its previous revisions. It is posed as an alternative and a distinct resource optimization technique beside resource leveling.
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 problem. The problem could be solved by different optimization algorithms such as exact algorithms or metaheuristics.