Answering: What is Resource Smoothing

Resource Smoothing is performing of Resource Leveling, while also making some further adjustments so as to ensure that:

• Activities are adjusted only within their available float. (Utilize the float time)

• Critical Path is not affected. 

• Resources remain under their limits, e.g: 8 hours/day. And/or their utilization is further optimized e.g: Resource is available for 10 hours but we want him to work 7 hours, so as to give some breathing space. 

Resource smoothing is more beneficial than resource smoothing as we learnt above, your activities will not be harmed since these will be adjusted withing available float. Further, the critical path will also be not affected, which is quite an important consideration. Further, the resources are leveled within lcertain limits. This is also important since we might not want our resource to be fully utilized all the time or perhaps resources should not work more than 40 horus a day, or may they are not available during a weekend. Hence, adjusting a resource's hours within limits is in best interest of a resource as well as project.