Resource Leveling
Resource leveling is a scheduling technique that adjusts task start and finish dates to resolve resource overallocation — when a person or team is assigned more work than they can complete in the available time. It typically extends the project timeline because tasks are delayed until the overloaded resource has capacity.
Key Points
Resource leveling prioritizes resource constraints over schedule constraints — the end date may slip
Resource smoothing is the alternative: it adjusts schedules only within float (slack) without extending the end date
The most common trigger: two parallel tasks assigned to the same person with overlapping dates
Leveling should be re-run whenever major schedule changes occur — a one-time leveling becomes stale quickly
How Vizually.AI Uses This
On a Vizually.AI canvas, resource overallocation is visible when one person's name appears on multiple concurrent cards in the In Progress zone. The AI Health Check flags individuals assigned to more tasks than the team average. While automated leveling isn't built in, the visual canvas makes it easy to spot conflicts and drag tasks to later time slots manually.