How Does Resource Scheduling Reduce Flexibility in Managing Projects?

How does resource scheduling reduce flexibility in managing projects?

For resource-constrained projects, resource scheduling (leveling) reduces flexibility because (after leveling) slack is reduced and the amount of critical/near-critical activities increases; therefore, the number of CP’s may also increase. Further, scheduling complexity increases due to the fact that resource constraints are ADDED to technical constraints. The original CP concept can loose its meaning because the sequence of activities can become unclear. Activities with slack on a time-constrained network can change from critical to noncritical on a resource-constrained network; conversely, some previous critical activities can become noncritical with slack.

Present six reasons scheduling resources is an important task. 1. allows project managers to assess availability of resources: some may not be available at all times. Ex. An engineer working on several other projects will have to be scheduled for availability. 2. allows multiple projects to be worked on concurrently if they share some/all of the same resources. 3. allow project managers to control costs: for certain resource-constrained projects, money can be a resource. Ex. Lead time or shipping costs can be reduced if adequate slack is given to procurement activities. One may reduce shipping costs by requesting Ground delivery as opposed to Air Freight. 4. allow project managers to assess how much flexibility they have over certain resources. Ex. Borrowing resources from another project. 5. allow Project managers to assign work to human resources 6. allow project managers to gauge the impact of unforeseen events: Ex. Employee turnover, equipment breakdown, shipping delays 7. allow project managers the ability to create time-phased work-package budgets with dates How can outsourcing project work alleviate the three most common problems associated with multi-project resource scheduling? * reduce the number of projects the...