Don’t you love those movie montages where everyone’s working together toward a big goal? Like in The Three Amigos, when the entire town of San Poco prepares to defend themselves against the arrival of the murderous villain, El Guapo. Even the elderly women come out, sewing suits to disguise themselves as Lucky Day, Dusty Bottoms, and Ned Nederlander.

Swarming in agile is the same idea. It’s when a team swarms together like a group of bees around a difficult problem, and works together to bring it over the finish line. Agile teams, fundamentally, are collaborative, and so the practice of swarming is a sign of a high-functioning agile team.

Let’s look into the characteristics of swarming, how it benefits a team, and ways an agile coach or scrum master can create a team environment that embraces the practice of swarming.

FAQs on Swarming

Have you ever been stuck on something, and all you had to do was talk it over with someone else and you figured the problem out? Swarming helps to dislodge people from looking at problems through a binary lens. It unlocks the creative brain power of a team and helps them solve conundrums and get out of stuck places.

There’s no hierarchy in swarming. Brainstorming and discussion is integral to working through tricky issues, and so everyone’s perspective is equally valued.

Here are answers to several common questions about swarming.

Are swarms scheduled?

Swarms can either be planned or unplanned.

Some teams plan swarms at the beginning of a sprint, identifying a high-ticket item for everyone to focus on and get done. Other teams routinely swarm on the last day of a sprint, around any work items left in the sprint backlog. The daily standup is another time for bringing up concerning issues and planning a swarm.

At other times, swarms happen organically. Maybe a team member reaches out during the day to ask about something he or she is stuck on, or a client calls in with an urgent problem. Then the team drops everything and figures out a way to resolve the issue. For some teams, impromptu swarms become so habitual that just by putting a “bee” emoji into a message, everyone understands what’s being asked of them.

Do swarms need to be in-person?

The Agile Manifesto emphasizes in-person conversation over messaging. One of its principles is: “The most efficient and effective methods of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.”

Ideally, then, a swarm would happen in-person. For remote teams, a video conference platform is an acceptable alternative method to use.

In order to pick up voice inflection and see body language, it’s necessary to hear and see a person’s face, and so swarms wouldn’t take place over email or messaging apps.

How long does a swarm last?

A swarm lasts as long as it takes to solve the problem. This may be thirty minutes or it can be as long as two hours.

Does the whole team participate in a swarm?

A swarm is always collaborative, so it would need to have three or more people. The whole team, however, needn’t necessarily join in. Depending on the nature of the problem, a few people may be designed to participate, while others can choose to join in. In other instances, a swarm is a whole-group effort.

Is swarming practiced in all agile methodologies?

Agile, universally, emphasizes teamwork and face-to-face conversation, and so swarming is always par for the course.

Swarming is especially common in kanban, which places work-in-process (WIP) limits at all work stages, in order to eliminate bottlenecks. When one stage reaches its WIP limit, a team swarms around it in order to maintain a fluid workflow.

The Benefits of Swarming

Swarming is all about unleashing the power of a team. It allows a team to achieve more together than each member could individually. Let’s discuss a few key benefits to swarming.

Fosters Innovative Solutions

Have you had a discussion that gave you a whole new perspective on an issue you previously thought you knew all about?

Usually, there are a myriad of ways to solve a single problem. When teams get together, they’re able to pool all their ideas, then carefully weigh and discuss each of them. Through collaborative brainstorming, they can determine the simplest solution that delivers the best value to the customer.

Creates a Fluid Workflow

For most agile teams, the “definition of done” includes a checklist of seven or more items. When these are done piecemeal, it can take quite some time to finally mark a task off as complete.

However, with swarming, everything is completed in one session. In software development, for example, the code, quality assurance, and tests all happen at the same time.

Limits Context Switching

Multi-tasking, the studies have shown, significantly reduces an individual’s work performance during the day. Swarming keeps the whole team focused on the same problem, so they’re not being drawn away from one task and having to focus on something else a few minutes later.

This concentrated focus is a more efficient way to get things done, and it increases the value of the increment the team creates.

Develops Strong Rapport

When a team routinely swarms together and helps one another out, they come to appreciate everyone’s skill set and point of view. It removes a hero mentality from the team dynamic, and instead people feel like everyone has their back.

As you can see, swarming benefits a team in so many ways. It’s no surprise that some agile teams make them a routine part of iteration planning.

The Swarm Mentality

A swarming mindset doesn’t come naturally to all team members. For some, asking for help feels like admitting you don’t know how to do your job. Others have a “ball hog” mentality, and they’re more concerned about their individual performance than the team’s performance.

But taking problems to the team is the agile way. Here are a few ideas for how a scrum master or an agile coach creates a team that’s ready and willing to swarm.

Create Psychological Safety

Some team members, particularly anyone new to a team, feel an immense pressure to perform at 100% all the time. In an agile setting, however, admitting that you’re stuck and taking something to the team is really a strength.

A coach creates an atmosphere of vulnerability and trust by routinely asking people if they need help and then acknowledging and rewarding team members who bring concerns to the team.

Cross-Train

Oftentimes team members become siloed into their individual skills and tasks. It’s hard to learn new things, and so many prefer to just keep on doing what they already know. However, swarming only works when everyone has a strong skill base and understands multiple facets of a problem.

A coach increases individual team member’s skill-sets by introducing the practice of pairing. This is when team members work together on the same task and learn from one another.

Use Team Metrics, Rather Than Individual

It’s easy for team members to pit themselves against each other, and evaluate each person’s performance against their own. However, this individualist mindset precludes the collaborative spirit that’s required of swarming.

By only presenting the team’s sprint velocity, and not individual sprint velocities, an agile coach or scrum master communicates that the team’s performance is more valuable than an individual’s performance.

In sum, swarming is a practice that won’t happen right away on many agile teams. First, it’s necessary to create an atmosphere of trust and camaraderie and train each member in a variety of skills.

Have you ever started something that should have taken thirty minutes and it ended up taking forever? Maybe you went into the kitchen to make dinner, and it was three and a half hours later before you finally sat down to eat.

When we don’t take time to plan a project, it may well end up having all sorts of inefficiencies.

Lean project management, in part, is about identifying and reducing these inefficiencies. Although lean cannot be distilled into one simple definition, a central concept is value. Lean processes are oriented around adding value to the customer, or the project’s end goal. Anything that doesn’t do this is considered waste.

Another key concept is workflow management. A lean system carefully analyzes and improves workflow to make processes fluid. This entails eliminating bottlenecks by creating a pull, as opposed to a push, system.

Without a lean approach, projects take longer and expenses increase. Plus, workloads become really uneven–one person is overworked at the same time that another stands around looking for something to do. In more instances than one, a poor manufacturing system can even lead to business failure.

And so projects certainly benefit from applying lean principles. Lean isn’t exactly a methodology, like scrum or waterfall. It’s more of a set of principles to apply to a system. It can be integrated into manufacturing, software development, and start-ups. So whether you’re using scrum, waterfall, agile, or something else entirely, you can incorporate lean into project management.

In order to understand more about lean, let’s look into its origins and fundamental characteristics. Then we’ll look at how to implement lean project management into your organization, and how it benefits the team.

Origin and Characteristics of Lean

Way back in the 1930s, Eiji Toyoda, a mechanical engineer, came to work at his cousin’s newly established automobile plant in Nagoya, Japan. As the company grew, Toyoda visited the Ford Complex in Dearborn, Michigan, to see how the big boys ran the show. At this point, his plant had made about 2,500 cars, while Ford made 8,000 cars each day.

Although Toyoda learned a lot about mass production from this visit, he also witnessed a lot of waste in Ford’s manufacturing processes. And so he didn’t seek to emulate Ford’s methods, but rather to improve upon them.

He then partnered with machinist Taiichi Ohno to develop what became known as the “Toyota Way,” a production system that emphasized the elimination of waste and continual improvement.

In the 1980s, James Womack and Daniel Jones, automobile researchers at MIT, visited the Toyota plant. In 1990, they wrote a book about their observations, called The Machine that Changed the World. Here are some key takeaways from their observations:

• A Lean System

  Womack and Jones described the processes they witnessed as “lean” because Toyota used so much less than mass production plants. They used half the space, half the tools, half the inventory and half the time. It’s the diet shake of production systems.

• Craft Production and Mass Production Combined

  Craft production is small batch and high quality, with close attention to detail. Oftentimes, it’s about creating one of a kind items. Whereas mass production is large-scale systematized manufacturing of goods. Toyota combined elements of these two systems at its plant.

• Zero Defects

  The Toyota Way had systems and processes in place to constantly review and upgrade its current way of doing things, with the ultimate objective of achieving the “perfect system.”

• Everyone is Responsible

  Toyota manufacturing plants didn’t have a traditional top-down approach, where the team follows orders from its manager. Rather, the responsibility was pushed as far down the chain of command as possible. Each employee had a lot of freedom about how they went about doing his or her work. This was a benefit for sure, but it also made the position more stressful, as they were accountable for any defects in production.

• Employees With Multiple Skills

  At Toyota, employees continually expanded and honed their skill sets, developing expertise in many areas over time. This created a knowledgeable and skilled staff without a lot of hierarchy.

In sum, Womack and Jones saw something different and revolutionary at this Toyota plant in respect to how products were made, and in the dynamics and responsibilities of team members. They eventually codified their research into five principles, which they outlined in their 1996 book, Lean Thinking. Let’s look at those next.

The Five Principles of Lean

As we discussed, the principles of lean really were developed by Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno. Womack and Jones are the researchers who studied these methods, coined the term “lean” and distilled them into these five principles.

1. Identify Value

The first principle of lean is to identify what adds value to the final product or the end goal. This is in contrast to a team working to complete a project. It entails really knowing the customers and then looking to solve their problems and needs.

A task of building a car isn’t to simply put it all together, but rather to provide the customer with safety, comfort, convenience and anything else they might need.

And so a lean system looks at its processes and asks: Is this action adding to the value we’re seeking to create?

2. Map Value Stream

After clarifying the project’s value or end goal, the next step is to identify the steps to create it. First of all, this entails looking at what is really going on within the organization right now, not what you plan to have happen or what you think should be happening.

At Toyota, this concept is known as “Genchi Genbutsu.” Literally translated, this means “real location, real thing” or “go and see.” Engineers at the Toyota plant would spend hours on the production floor, observing cars being assembled in real time.

A second step entails examining these steps, and putting them into distinct categories:

• A Process that Adds Value:

  These are steps integral to achieving the project’s ultimate objective.

• A Necessary Process that Adds No Value:

  This includes things like clerical or administrative work that may not directly impact the end goal, but cannot be taken away.

• An Unnecessary Process that Adds No Value:

  These are things like excessive documentation and long meetings; things that don’t impact the project and could be “cut away” from the process without anyone missing a beat.

As you may have guessed, the final step of mapping a value stream is to eliminate anything in this final category.

3. Create Flow

Workflow is part and parcel to lean. When you’ve looked at what really is going on, and identified what adds value and what doesn’t, the next step is about putting processes into place.

Some organizations already have an established system in place, such as scrum. In this instance, incorporating lean means adding or modifying the system. Scrumban, for example, is a modified scrum that utilizes principles of lean and kanban.

The Toyota Way creates this flow using three principles known as muri, mura and muda:

• Muri (overburden)

  Find places in the workflow with bottlenecks, and examine them closely to fix them, perhaps by adding additional labor, purchasing additional equipment or creating a more efficient process.

• Mura (inconsistency)

  Identify places where defects or inconsistencies occur and reduce them.

• Muda (waste)

  Eliminate pointless or time consuming things; tasks that don’t add any value to the customer or the product goal.

4. Establish Pull

A pull system means that you make things as they’re needed. Cory Ladas summarized this concept in his book, Scrumban: Essays on Kanban Systems for Lean Software Development: “Don’t build features that nobody needs right now. Don’t write more specs that you can code. Don’t write more code than you can test. Don’t test more code than you can deploy.”

Have you ever seen coffee cups stack up next to an espresso machine during a morning rush? This is an example of a bottleneck along a push system. A pull system only produces as things are needed further up the production chain.
It’s closely related to the theory of constraints, which means you organize work processes around whatever step is the slowest.

5. Continuous Improvement

In Toyota, this idea is known as “Kaizan,” which is a combination of the words “change” and “good.” A lean system looks at its current processes and strives for continuous improvements. Nothing is ever deemed “best,” but rather “better.” Improving means looking at the root cause of problems, so that you can keep them from happening over and over again.

In sum, these are the five principles that Womack and Jones identified after studying manufacturing plants at Toyota. They work together to create a system that’s not only efficient, but high quality as well.

Five Ways to Implement Lean

Do you ever write a report and wonder if it’s even read by anyone else on the team? And have you ever had an inbox so full of “must read” emails that it’d take you half the day to read through them all?

There’s all sorts of inefficiencies in the workplace, and these are some telltale ways that projects can incorporate lean principles. Let’s look at a few ideas here.

1. Eliminate Waste

Looking closely at all aspects of an organization usually reveals all sorts of time and energy put into needless tasks.

One of the most common is over-communication: emails that are unnecessarily copied to everyone in the office, or long meetings that discuss issues that don’t pertain to many of the attendees.

One solution here is to have meetings organized so that people know which portion they must attend, and to have a limit of just one or two weekly all-office emails, that includes everything the office needs to be briefed on for the week.

Other common areas of waste include creating duplicate reports for different stakeholders, writing documents that won’t be read, and waiting for approvals in order to get “green lit” for a project.

Identifying areas of waste is key. Bringing management on board, and cooperatively working to refine processes is an integral second step.

2. Cross Train

One of the characteristics Womack and Jones witnessed at Toyota was highly skilled employees and teams. People weren’t simply assigned to attach one widget onto another widget, day in and day out, but were trained in all areas of manufacturing.

Cross-training teams creates a strong foundation for an organization. It’s a type of succession plan of its own: if someone leaves, you’re not scrambling to replace them, because other people already know how to do the job.

One way to cross train is with the idea of pairing, which comes from extreme programming. This is when two programmers work together on the same task. This may seem wasteful, but what actually happens is they help each other with what the other doesn’t know, and then each one learns from the other. Each employee, as a result, becomes more proficient and skilled.

3. Give Teams Autonomy

Another characteristic of the Toyota Way is responsibility pushed down the chain of command. Individuals are highly responsible for their own work.

In order to create this autonomy, allow teams to select work for themselves, and decide when they’ll do the work. With freedom comes responsibility, and you’ll probably see an increase in initiative from the team.

4. Reflect on Processes

The kaizen concept of continual improvement is very similar to the agile retrospective.

Even if you’re not working in a scrum framework, schedule time periodically throughout the project to solicit feedback on the process and the team dynamic. Make sure these sessions are egalitarian and everyone feels free to share. When everyone’s said their piece, carefully consider what you’re hearing, and together look for ways to improve.

This process of continual improvement is how a team becomes strong over time.

5. Establish a Pull Workflow

A pull workflow only produces work when the next step in the process is ready for it. For example, in a coffee shop, the cashier would only take an order when the barista was ready to make another coffee.

Establishing a pull workflow requires identifying “push” systems that create bottlenecks, and then replacing them with methods that trigger a process to take place instead.

One way to establish a pull workflow is to no longer assign work to specific team members, but rather allow people to select work from a backlog.

Visualizing workflow with a kanban board and establishing work-in-process limits is a quick and easy way to identify bottlenecks.

In sum, these are a few ways to incorporate lean into your project management. But these are just ideas. Lean isn’t a process or methodology like scrum. And it doesn’t seem to have specific tools, like kanban. And so lean principles can be applied in a variety of ways.

Benefits of Lean

Now let’s look at three ways a team and organization benefits from lean.

• Delivers Value to Client

  Lean isn’t about cranking something out, but it’s about identifying how a product provides value to the customer or client. When all the processes are aligned around delivering value, then it solves the client’s problem, and they’re more likely to be satisfied.

• Motivates the Team

  A lean system gives individuals more responsibility, which in turn gives them more pride in their work.

• Reduces Costs

  Finally, when inefficiencies and waste are identified, it dramatically reduces cost for a team.

All in all, lean really benefits the individual, the client and the organization. It’s a win overall.

One of the many challenges of project management is to keep the workload evenly distributed among the team, all while adhering to designated milestones and deadlines. However, there is a method to ensure that you’re meeting these goals: resource leveling.

Resource leveling ensures that no one on the team is feeling overwhelmed, that all the organization’s resources are being used equally, and the deliverables are still being produced on time at the expected level of quality. It’s about balance, but harmonizing the process and the complexities of the various schedules involved take a significant amount of organization, flexibility, and communication.

Resource leveling is a practice that ensures the organization’s resources align with the overall goals and objectives the company has set out to achieve. It takes a skilled Project Manager to navigate through all the moving parts, while simultaneously having a crystal clear understanding of the project’s needs and deadlines. In this article, we’ll give a definition of resource leveling and explore the many ways in which this technique can benefit your organization, how it can be used in real-time, methods in which you can start to implement resource leveling for your own project management, and examples to sharpen your understanding of how resource leveling operates in the workplace.

Let’s first start with the definition of resource leveling.

What is Resource Leveling?

Resource leveling is defined as a project management process used to allocate the appropriate resources equally without over (or under) scheduling available resources to ensure the project finishes on time. This technique takes into account the team’s bandwidth, schedules, and availability to create a timeline that is realistic and achievable for any given project.

Project Managers should be diligent in their approach to resource leveling, as this process could stretch to multiple simultaneous projects using the same resources. If orchestrated correctly, timelines can be flexible enough to allow for the team’s full participation without inciting overwhelm or confusion. This means that a Project Manager can extend a due date in order to comply with the number of resources the organization has at the time or tighten the schedule to reach its anticipated goal early or on time.

It’s important to understand the types of resources available when using resource leveling in project management, and questions you or a Project Manager should be asking in order to get a better idea of the resources currently available:

1. Talent

   • Who needs to be involved?
   • How many people should be assigned to this project?
   • What level of skill is needed to deliver a successful outcome?
   • What roles need to be included to cover all aspects of the project from beginning to end?

2. Availability

   • Are the required team members available during specific time frames?
   • What does their current workload look like?
   • How many projects are they available to do?
   • Do the relevant team members have the capacity to add another project?
   • Are any of the relevant team members going on a planned vacation or break that needs to be taken into account?
   • Who can act as backup or support if unexpected circumstances were to arise?

3. Processes

   • Based on the project, what processes do we have in place to ensure smooth progression throughout the life cycle of the project?
   • Has the feedback from team members about previous processes been incorporated into the current one for optimization?
   • On average, how long does our process take to accomplish our goal?
   • What are the turnaround times for each project milestone?
   • Are they realistic turnaround times given the nature of the project and its various demands?
   • Is it clear to everyone on the team what the process is for communication?
   • How frequent should meetings be in order for the team to
   • provide any updates, identify problems, and offer room for discussion? Are meetings necessary to the project’s success?
   • Do we have processes in place that help our team fill in their availability so that our project manager can easily identify availability?

4. Software

   • What systems do we have in place that streamline our processes and bring everything together?
   • What are we missing?
   • Does this software allow us to communicate with one another when there are issues? Delayed turnaround times? Updates?
   • Do these systems help or hinder our processes?
   • Does our software provide the resources our team needs to be able to do their jobs effectively?

   

5. Budget

   • What is the budget for this project?
   • With the resources available, can we complete the project within this assigned budget?
   • Are we out of scope? If so, what can we do to return to make sure that we return to a reasonable place within the budget?
   • Do we have flexibility? If so, what are those areas where we can reallocate resources financially?

6. Materials

   • Does the team have the physical (or virtual) space and technology needed to operate efficiently?
   • What materials (if any) are absolutely necessary for project completion?
   • If we are waiting on materials, how long is the average turnaround time?
   • Did we leave ourselves enough time to account for any disruption in material delivery?
   • If during the process, we are waiting on materials for a second or third time, how will that affect the timeline?
   • Do we have room to adjust if needed?

This is quite a long list of essential considerations—and it’s easy to feel completely overwhelmed by how much goes into planning for a project! After all, there are a number of moving parts that inevitably need to come together. This is why having an organized Project Manager on your team is paramount to achieving the organization’s goals. Not only that, the team needs to know how important communication is for the project. In order to implement true resource leveling that makes an impact, all of these resources must be clearly understood so that effective decision-making can be made consistently.

When Do You Use Resource Leveling?

So now that we understand the definition of resource leveling and the various types of resources that go into a project(s), let’s discuss when you would use resource leveling in project management.

1. In the beginning stages of project planning – Resource leveling can occur at the start of a project when a project manager is just beginning to put together a timeline. At this point, they would review the budget, identify the staff needing to be involved in the process, and other resources to get the project up and moving. Using this method, in the beginning, is a smart way of setting up expectations for the whole team, clarifying processes, and staying proactive about the project’s (and team’s) needs.
2. During the process – This is the most commonly used stage where resource leveling is implemented. As we all know, projects never really go as planned. Many unexpected situations eventually turn up that have a ripple effect on all those involved in the process, which can either accelerate or slow down progression. However, this is where a project manager can skillfully use resource leveling to problem-solve most roadblocks. This would include scenarios such as delays (whether internal or external), under (or over) allocation of resources, changes in availability, or sudden time constraints. A project manager can review all the resources dedicated to that project and make adjustments from there.
3. When there are tight time constraints – There could be instances where a customer/client wants to expedite the delivery of the project. While there should definitely be guardrails in place to protect the staff’s time, as well as processes in place to gently remind the customer of expectations during the project’s life cycle, this is another opportunity where a project manager can utilize resource leveling to their advantage and get the project done. When you need to compress a schedule, there are two methods to use in order to meet an accelerated deadline.
   • Fast-tracking – Instead of pending tasks being done in sequential order, this technique in project management involves performing activities in parallel and usually does not affect the budget. This includes carefully rearranging the activities in the project timeline by removing dependencies. A project manager should review the resources currently allocated to the project and decide if this method is the best way to deliver the results in a faster way. One of the primary downsides of fast-tracking is the potential for errors and rework, so it could cost more time in the end. It’s important to weigh the pros and cons against the needs of the clients and the capacity of the team.
   • Crashing – When fast-tracking doesn’t appear to be a feasible option given the restrictions on the organization’s resources, Crashing is another technique to consider using when you need to compress your schedule. Crashing adds more resources to the project, while still trying to keep the cost low. While it’s a suitable option, the project manager (or leadership) needs to determine if the increased cost of adding additional resources is truly a benefit and if it will, in fact, save time and expedite the timing of delivery.

   Fast-tracking and Crashing are two schedule-compression techniques that can get the job done faster but are entirely situational and would need to be evaluated by the project manager after an assessment of the team’s workload.

   

4. When you need to stretch out the timeline of a project – Once in a while, you’ll have a client who is flexible on the delivery date, which means that the project manager can still construct a reasonable timeline, but can be more flexible with the staff involved in the production of the project. This doesn’t mean, however, that there should be less staff involved in the process because it could risk under-allocating the project. This could result in the assigned staff members becoming overwhelmed or putting in long hours to get the job done, hampering productivity and motivation. To amend this situation, resource leveling can be used to extend the timeline so that the staff has more time to do their part without adding in an extra layer of stress. The exact opposite is true if you have overallocated your resources. If there are too many hands, this could be an opportunity to tighten the schedule.

5. When a project starts to fall behind – Resource leveling can also be used when a project starts to fall unexpectedly behind. Depending on the resources you have dedicated to the project, you or a project manager will need to evaluate what may be impeding progress and decide what support is needed. If a project is behind because there is too few staff involved, then adding in more resources—or Crashing—could potentially be a good fix. But if the project is assigned the appropriate number of staff, then there could be additional issues at hand that need to be addressed within the team.

   Another way to keep a project moving if it falls behind is to use a method called Critical Path. The Critical Path methodology basically identifies all the “critical” tasks that need to be prioritized and completed for the project to be considered finished. This also involves a structured and sequential workflow that the team must work on based on the importance of each step, creating the critical path! Anything extraneous activities shouldn’t be included in this path—only the most necessary ones.

   So how is the Critical Path methodology used in resource leveling?

   If your team has a deadline they must adhere to, but the progress of the project hasn’t been moving at the expected rate, the Critical Path can identify what needs to be done and in the essential order. You can then allocate more resources to the project so that the team can complete their tasks on time and meet the anticipated deadline. This methodology allows for quicker delivery and can help untangle the complexities of larger projects, focusing solely on the workflow that will get the job done.

Knowing when to use resource leveling can help create effective processes, giving the team the clarity and motivation they need to continue moving forward in the process without increasing costs, losing quality, or overextending the key team members involved.

Benefits of Resource Leveling In Project Management

Resource leveling in project management can reap many workplace benefits if used appropriately:

• Foster a healthy work environment – Resource leveling can create a positive work environment, one that appreciates the employee’s time and efforts. At the same time, this process can also create true transparency in the life cycle of a project, creating a sense of trust between all the relevant team members. When done correctly, resource leveling could send the message that the organization deeply values the employee’s contributions. It can increase the efficiency of collaboration among peers and improve communication in teams. At the heart of this network is the project manager, who leads by example. Their level of soft skills such as organization, timeliness, and ability to communicate clearly and effectively is the lynchpin when coordinating all the important pieces of a project and bringing it all together to consistently meet the company’s milestones.
• Optimizes resources – Resource leveling helps optimize the resources you currently have. Each team member’s workload is given careful consideration before decisions are made about the project, ensuring that everyone can perform at their best and that workloads are even. You can get the most of your resources by providing a way to evaluate the project’s needs, identify the areas that are more flexible than others, and adhere to structured timelines.
• Stays proactive – Resource leveling also gives you an opportunity to stay proactive throughout the life cycle of the project(s). By planning ahead, you can anticipate potential project delays that could be costly to the budget and company resources, such as labor. When issues arise, it’s better to have backup plans already installed in order to have an easier time navigating the different challenges that come up in project management. Resource leveling ensures that productivity remains strong and progress moves steadily forward.
• Prevents overwhelm – Since the primary goal of resource leveling is to ensure that resources are not stretched too thin and that you have the appropriate number of staff assigned to a project, this technique can help prevent stress and overwhelm your staff may be feeling when it’s crunch time. This typically involves a certain level of communication between the project manager and team members regarding schedules and capacity to take on further projects, but once this line of communication has been developed, the project manager can then make wise decisions when it comes to the timeline and who should be assigned to specific tasks. Preventing overwhelm in the workplace is essential to building a workplace culture you can be proud of. You want people to feel motivated to come to work, be inspired by the company’s mission, and contribute their talents and expertise towards the assigned projects. Reducing the levels of stress can effectively reduce symptoms of burnout. Staff who are perpetually in a state of stress and anxiety at work tend to have this reflected in their work output. Also, the staff will not likely be open to flexibility or increasing communication channels. When a project manager exercises resource leveling, workloads are increasingly more equal among the team.
• Protects quality of outcomes – Another primary goal of resource leveling in project management is to produce the same high-level quality in services/products that the company provides its clients. When used strategically, resource leveling can tighten up schedules, maximize the talents dedicated to the project, and deliver a product in a timely fashion (or before the deadline!). If the project has too few resources, the project manager can make the decision to add more helping hands to ensure the team meets their deadlines and alleviate some pressure. Resource leveling acts as a way of providing much-needed support.
• Team members avoid working on projects they don’t have the training for – Resource leveling in project management is all about identifying the appropriate resources for the project. To avoid under (or over) allocating your resources, staff needs to be designated to the projects that need their skills and expertise. This means that the right people should be in the right seats in order to get the project completed. Resource leveling can help you avoid the scenario in which additional time is spent bringing untrained team members up to speed or teaching them new practices they may not be familiar with. You’ll have the talent needed to ensure that progress continues swiftly.
• Reduces production delays – Resource leveling in project management can decrease the frequency of production delays due to any shifts in resource availability. Because resource leveling involves a strategic level of scheduling and allocation, you can make the best decisions needed to ensure you and your team are meeting expected deadlines. Of course, circumstances within your internal team (or your clients) can make scheduling somewhat of a challenge given life’s unpredictability. But implementing resource leveling can help you see what needs to move around and stretches the flexibility with the resources you do have.
• Identifies downtime – Another important benefit of resource leveling is the identification of downtime. Having downtime in the workplace is not always a bad thing to have occasionally! These phases can allow your team well-deserved time to recharge so they feel ready to tackle bigger challenges in the future and avoid feelings of burnout. However, resource leveling can identify if downtime is happening based on an internal review of resources and utilize them in other areas to continue boosting productivity.

Now that we understand the numerous benefits of resource leveling in project management and how it can benefit your team, let’s get into how to use it effectively.

How To Implement Resource Leveling in Project Management

Technically speaking, there isn’t one “right” away to go about implementing resource leveling in your organization. Mostly, it depends on the types of projects you have and the tools you have at your disposal.

There are many options in terms of tightening up schedules or extending them in a way that fits the company’s needs and keeping track of resources.

1. Bring aboard an efficient project manager – The key to success is having a project manager that understands how to manage and coordinate several moving parts of a project. They are the central point of contact—the person who has to assess the situation and make decisions based on team capacity and resources. Without this position in place, you risk having too many hands in the pot and increasing miscommunication and confusion amongst the team members. It’s important to have one individual at the core of this matrix in order to keep processes straight and moving forward with positive and focused momentum. Project managers are integral to constructing a timeline that best works for the entire team.
2. Assess project needs – It’s important to identify the demands of the project including the appropriate number of staff and key roles that need to be involved, any budgetary restrictions, tools required to give the project its best chance for success, and time needed to get it done while still ensuring high-quality. All of these factors need to be evaluated in order to create the best approximation of the ideal timeline possible, with milestones and deadlines planted strategically to ensure expected delivery. Once you have a solid idea of what components are needed to kick off production, you’ll have a realistic preview of what a project’s life cycle will look like. This can also help you or the project manager prepare for any unexpected resource needs that pop up during the process.
3. Identify the gaps – Another area to assess is the potential gaps that your project may be facing. For example, a project may require four essential roles to be involved, however, due to schedule conflicts, you’re only able to schedule 2 or 3. This could put you at risk of under-allocating a project; however, now that you’ve identified this resource gap, you’ll be able to brainstorm ideas to get around this scenario. Maybe you bring in another team member with similar experience or consider hiring a contractor for this one project. Keeping an eye out for potential gaps is an important step in making sure that no one on the team feels overwhelmed by the lack of resources available.
4. Prioritize each step of the project – Prioritizing tasks in a project is the next step in implementing resource leveling into your project management. This is especially true if you are managing multiple projects at once with resources crossing over into each other. For example, you could be in a position where one of your leads is involved in two projects with similar deadlines. In order to avoid overburdening your lead and possibly stretching your resources too thin, it’s good practice to prioritize which project takes precedence in this situation and make a decision based on this information. If project A involves a high-profile client, while Project B has a more flexible turnaround time based on communication, then you can stretch Project B’s due date out further to allow for Project A to be done on time, while still giving your lead some breathing room to complete Project B and not sacrifice quality.
5. Monitor all allocation – When you’re using resource leveling in project management, it’s essential to keep track of what resources you are reallocating. Losing track of this can cause serious complications when managing multiple projects at once. For example, let’s say you have a gap in one of your projects involving writers. Your main writer needs to be reallocated to a different project in order to provide heavier support as there have been some challenges. It’s the project manager’s job to review the timeline, update the schedule so that the writer’s reallocated work is taken into consideration, and then review how they will be woven back into their original project, while still maintaining a reasonable turnaround time. It’s also important to communicate when certain resources are reallocated so the entire team can be kept up to speed on the latest changes in progress. Understanding what resources were reallocated can help you to monitor your internal processes and identify particular patterns arising.

The goal is to keep your team from feeling overburdened and construct achievable timelines. Whether it’s compressing a schedule due to client demands or having an abundance of resources to accelerate progression or extending the timeline to accommodate for limited resources and availability, resource leveling can be a key strategy in your project management.

Resource Leveling Versus Resource Smoothing

Resource leveling and resource smoothing are closely related, both creating effective ways to efficiently utilize resources and meet deadlines. While they are similar, they do have fundamental differences between them. First, let’s take a look at the basic features of resource leveling:

Resource leveling

• Project start and end dates are flexible and can be adjusted
• The Critical Path can be changed based on need
• The primary constraint is resource availability
• Used when there is an under or over-allocation of resources
• Dependencies in the project life cycle can be changed/delayed/accelerated if necessary

Now, let’s take a look at the primary characteristics of Resource Smoothing:

Resource Smoothing

• The project end date is not flexible and cannot be changed
• Steps along the Critical Path do not change
• The primary constraint is time
• Used typically with an uneven allocation of resources
• Utilized after resource leveling is complete

Put simply, resource leveling prioritizes your resources first. Then, you can use resource smoothing to see how your project timeline will change given the time constraints. Using these two practices in combination will help you create a project timeline that’s fair and encompasses both resources and the timing of delivery.

The manager’s task is a juggling act, and the more projects you have on your plate, the more challenging it becomes. If you’re not diligent enough to set priorities, things will start falling out from under you.

And, as a manager, you’re probably aware that when deadlines overlap or slip, it’s a ticket to disaster, resulting in a chain reaction of project failure. Unfortunately, when you’re caught up in an avalanche of failures, your company’s rhythm can be disrupted. That’s why learning to manage multiple projects effectively may be critical for you.

Multi-project scheduling is both an art and a science. You need to take into consideration what resources you have, how much time each task will realistically take, the cost of every action, and what could feasibly be done in your situation.

That may sound overwhelming at first, but don’t worry. With the right plan, multi-project scheduling can be manageable rather than a multi-tasking nightmare.

But before we take a look on how to manage multiple projects, let’s identify some of the most common reasons multi-project scheduling fails.

Most common reasons multi-project scheduling fails…

Multi-project management can be quite tricky. More often than not multi-tasking will result in multi-mistakes. The most common multi-project mistakes include:

1) Lack of prioritization

Scheduling can be quite overwhelming. But when you fail to prioritize, things tend to get worse. Without prioritizing your scheduling, you might find yourself doing the tasks that are not important first and neglecting those that require immediate attention.

There’s a difference between multi-tasking and multi-project scheduling.

Multi-tasking means doing multiple activities at the same time. Multi-project scheduling is about deciding which tasks to do first and which to leave for later, so that all of your projects stay on schedule.

2) Poor allocation of resources

Another frequent multi-project blunder is resource allocation. It’s easy to underestimate the resources it will take to complete each milestone. If you’re not careful, you might run out of time or money, or both.

3) Unrealistic deadlines

Deadlines are crucial for multi-project management. That’s why setting unrealistic deadlines is a mistake you don’t want to make. The consequences can be severe, so it’s important to set realistic deadlines that take into consideration the time needed to complete each task.

4) Not keeping yourself updated on project progress

As a manager, it is imperative you stay updated on your active projects progress. When you don’t keep yourself up-to-date, it’s likely that your projects will fail to meet their deadlines or milestones.

5) Scope changes

Changes in the middle of a project can be bad but scope changes can be devastating. A project’s success is based on scopes being established and the project manager having a clear comprehension of what needs to be done. When a project’s scope unexpectedly changes, your team loses faith in you and motivation and efficiency begin to disappear.

6) Not updating multi project schedules

Changes often happen due to factors that are out of your control. That’s why multi-project scheduling needs to be dynamic and ever evolving. If you don’t update multi project schedules when changes happen, you will lose track of how much time is left before deadlines arrive.

Skills to acquire (Overview)…

Multi-project scheduling is not rocket science, but it does require diligence, planning and thoroughness.

How to stay on top of multi-project scheduling at once:

* Prioritize. Each project must have a list of requirements that are important to its success. The importance level helps you determine your schedule for multi-project management tasks.

* Allocate resources. This means estimating what resources you need for each aspect of multi-project management, and then estimating how much time that will take.

* Put deadlines in writing. Without deadlines, multi-project scheduling is just guesswork. And without multi-project scheduling, your projects risk failing or missing out on sales opportunities. You can set up multi-project schedule templates in most multi-project management software programs.

* Keep yourself updated on progress. Set multi-project schedule reminders that’ll help you stay up-to-date on multi project scheduling tasks. This means checking your multi-project schedules every day, first thing in the morning and/or right before you leave for the day.

* Maintain multi-project schedules. The multi-project scheduling tools you choose should make multi project schedule management easy. The multi-project scheduling tool should include reminders that will help you stay on top of multi-project scheduling, assign tasks to team members and monitor their progress.

* Stay alert for changes. It’s risky to assume multi-project scheduling will stay the same. If multi-project scheduling changes, your multi project schedule needs to change too.

7 steps to successfully manage multiple projects at once…

So your business gets momentum and takes on several projects at once. To stay on top of multi-projects and multi-project scheduling you need to do the following:

1. Organize all of your projects in one location.
2. Identify what success looks like for each project.
3. Break down the overarching goal into milestones.
4. Set-aside the work that carries the most impact.
5. Recruit team members to work on tasks.
6. Identify all overlapping work.
7. Finally, create a single project plan for all of your projects.

1. Organize all of your projects in one location.

It’s very easy to lose track of each project, especially if all of your project documents are stored in several locations. That’s why finding a centralized organizational document that gives your teams access to the information they need is imperative.

This can be accomplished in several different ways from a shared google document, which is less professional but doable, or even better utilizing a management software like Teamly. Teamly, centralizes all of your key information in one place, giving you the ability to keep track of each project’s progress.

Just remember, with the right tools your team can access vital project management materials in one spot.

2. Identify what success looks like for each project.

The best way to identify a project’s success is to answer a few questions at the outset.

• When your projects are finished, what will success look like?
• How much did each project cost?
• How long did each project take?

Even if the questions appear to be simple, don’t be fooled. You must plumb into each question thoroughly, including all significant costs such as resources and personnel as well as timelines that include staff vacations.

Once you’ve answered the questions above, your projects should be much easier to manage.

3. Break down the overarching goal into milestones.

Once you’ve nailed down cost estimates and timetables for each project, it’s important to identify clear steps towards where you want to go, this is also known as milestones. Milestones are significant events or stages in project planning.

A milestone is a bigger goal that must be completed before you can continue to the next phase of a project, whereas a task is an action that must be performed in order to complete the milestone.

Note: You definitely want to consider keeping each project plan separate for now. The only thing you are trying to do, at this moment, is get a framework for what each project needs to succeed.

4. Set-aside the work that carries the most impact.

While it may be tempting to start with the simplest tasks first, don’t. Instead, rank them according to which tasks will have the most impact on your company’s objectives.

This is a multi-project scheduling tactic that can’t be stressed enough. You want to always try and get the most impactful tasks done first, this will make it easier to monitor several project schedules.

For example, your team is working on 2 new software product launches. Your software product “A” has a multi-month rollout that will impact the company’s entire sales force. But your software product “B” is a shorter multi-week rollout that will only impact the company’s sales team in your mid-western region.

You should prioritize software product “A” for scheduling purposes, because it could have the most impact. But product “B” cannot be entirely disregarded, since doing so would overlook any potential advantages or hazards involved.

5. Recruit team members to work on tasks.

Once you have a team capable of getting the work done, it’s time to assign them to specific projects or tasks.

In some cases, team members might be working on several projects at once. Especially if the tasks in each project are related. For example if you have a person who oversees all customer service, it’s likely that this person would be involved in various projects such as updating your customer database or training for all customer service staff.

But if you have a skilled programmer that is able to code in multiple languages, splitting up the projects makes it easier for this person to focus on completing specific tasks.

This creates a more efficient system where everyone knows what their responsibilities are and when they need to be completed by. Your team will depend on you keeping them organized in this way, so don’t shirk your responsibility.

It also must be noted that defining clear expectations for team members will help increase your chances of success.

6. Identify all overlapping work.

Sometimes different projects will have to share resources, this is okay as long as you are conscious of the potential problems that could arise.

Otherwise, if overlooked, it can create miscommunication and/or resentment amongst your team members who may feel they’re being overworked.

To avoid these types of issues, try creating a list of all shared tasks that exist between projects. This will help ensure everyone is on the same page about who is doing what, when.

7. Finally, create a single project plan for all of your projects.

Once you have completed steps one to six, it’s time to develop a master plan for each project in one consolidated document/plan. This will make it easier for all parties to keep track of what’s going on and where they need to be.

When you consolidate your project plan, keep in mind that you’ll have to update your tasks as necessary. For example, if one of your projects encounters a setback and needs to be delayed, all of the other projects should be adjusted accordingly.

You can use Teamly to help you stay on top of it all. Teamly allows you to manage your entire team, estimate the duration of their tasks, and stay organized as new tasks are assigned.

It’s an all-in-one management tool that uses the power of technology to help your team collaborate and stay on top of everything.

Developed back in the 1960s, it soon became a widely used technique among project managers. What made it so popular was the combination of two important characteristics – it was simple yet powerful. More importantly, you didn’t have to be an expert to use it!

The technique, known as SWOT analysis, was designed by Albert Humphrey – an American business consultant. Since its creation, SWOT analysis has helped project managers develop an organized list of four critical factors that have an impact on their businesses. Humphrey realized that a successful examination of those factors could help make sound business decisions and assist with project management efforts.

What is SWOT analysis?

SWOT analysis is a technique used to analyze the current situation and come up with a strategic plan.

A thoughtful implementation of this tool allows you to assess areas that work well and identify the pitfalls that need your attention.

SWOT analysis is also a potent process for strategic goal-setting because it helps a team pave a clear path to action.

In this article, you’ll learn about the purpose of SWOT analysis in project management, get helpful tips, and take a specific example to guide your own process of planning.

But first, it’s helpful to learn what SWOT stands for.

What does SWOT stand for?

SWOT analysis involves outlining the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a project, product, or service. Hence, the acronym. Below is an overview of what each means for your strategic plan.

Strengths include any characteristics that make the project likely to succeed (positive work culture, experienced team, unique expertise in a field, hard-to-imitate customer service, etc.). Strengths are integral to your company and give you a competitive advantage by setting your business up for success. As these are internal factors, you have more control over them.

Weaknesses are internal factors that create disadvantages to your business and may hinder a project’s implementation. Typically, these are the areas for improvement. You may find weaknesses in your procedures, systems, use of technology, employee expertise, etc. The good news is – done successfully, the SWOT analysis can help you turn your weaknesses into an operational goal, a hiring plan, or other initiatives.

Opportunities are favorable external factors (outside of your control) that can help you gain an advantage or allow your project to succeed. A recently launched software tool, a special offer, or an easing of covid restrictions – all can be considered to be opportunities you’ll want to use to your benefit. Remember, opportunities are your growth goals.

Threats: These are external factors you can’t directly control. They could harm your project if they were to take place. As with opportunities, threats can be current or future. For example, the Covid pandemic caused massive supply chain disruptions that have posed challenges to workflow, budgeting, delivery, scheduling, employment, and more aspects of project management.

What is SWOT analysis in project management?

If business owners use the SWOT analysis to assess different areas of their companies, project managers use the same tool to identify actionable goals for their projects. Think of it as the first step in planning when you need to account for potential risks, address limitations, and identify the strengths you can rely on.

Who is involved in conducting a SWOT analysis?

To make accurate decisions, you’ll need a precise assessment of all four aspects of your project. Consequently, it’s essential to have a diverse and representative team working on the SWOT analysis. For example, you’ll get better information from a group that includes folks from customer service, sales, and marketing departments than if you involve only the marketing team in this process.

From a project management perspective, it’s vital to collect complete and unbiased information. Questions may arise that aren’t clear enough and require additional input. To ensure nothing is overlooked, you can think of including viewpoints from customers, sponsors, service providers, and other stakeholders, too.

Strategic planning is an important part of project management. When you involve all interested parties, you also promote transparency, collaboration, and teamwork – something you want to maintain across time and projects.

How to do the SWOT analysis?

SWOT analysis starts with identifying and analyzing the forces that affect your project. At this stage, you may want to create a SWOT matrix or a document with four columns to help you with the planning.

Source: Professional Academy

It’s useful to gain an insight into the process steps, so let’s delve in.

• Brainstorm: Great planning starts with creating a systematized view of your current state. Come together with your team and brainstorm a list for each of the four categories above (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). Ask your teammates to come prepared to share ideas and ask questions.
• Prioritize: Time to organize the factors into a priority list. The most critical points in each section should go first, while the least important ones should be placed at the bottom. Keep all the points from your brainstorming session, but note that you can’t possibly address every single factor on the chart. Prioritization will help to determine which factors need your immediate attention, which ones require your constant input, and which ones can wait up until a more suitable time.
• Create an action plan: Now that you’ve analyzed your strengths and weaknesses as well as outlined the opportunities and threats, it’s time to create your action plan. A carefully boiled-down SWOT plan is the best way to balance priorities and give you a good starting point in managing your project.
• Review and assess: Although a SWOT analysis is part of your strategic planning and won’t be subject to constant changes, there are certain things you’ll have to watch out for. If you’re performing a SWOT analysis in project management, review the analysis after the project is complete. Maybe you weren’t successful at mitigating some of the threats. Maybe some weaknesses have changed into strengths! Recognize those changes and use them to your advantage.

A pro tip before we proceed: researchers Laurence Minsky and David Aron have found that it’s more effective to start with the external factors: you first collect information about opportunities and threats and only then turn to the internal ones.

A SWOT project management example

Time to put everything into practice.

Let’s suppose you’re trying to develop a SWOT analysis for your next marketing project for your jewelry brand. Your competitor has introduced a new product to the market that’s outperforming your own.

Here’s your completed SWOT matrix after the brainstorming session:

Strengths

• You have people with unique expertise in traditional design.
• You have a good reputation in the marketplace.
• You offer top-class customer service.
• You have good technology.
• You have a good location in the city center that draws in foot traffic.
• Your product stands out with its unique traditional design.
• You effectively use social media channels to generate buzz about your brand.

Weaknesses

• Your website visibility is low due to a lack of budget.
• You can’t handle too many projects at a time; tight deadlines are always a challenge for your team.
• You lack funding to launch a big, conceptually complete product.
• Underused option of online ordering.

Opportunities

• Your competitor is not as effective on social media as you are.
• There is an untapped market targeting women over age 50.
• The jewelry industry is expected to grow in the upcoming 2-3 years because of local events and festivals. A good presence by the time these events start could help to expand the brand’s reach among locals and tourists.

Threats

• The competitor’s product is out there, and you can’t take it away!
• You have team members who are basically irreplaceable. You can’t lose them.
• Due to the evolving covid situation, you may (again) witness supply chain disruptions.
• Supply chain disruptions may also affect raw material prices.
• The competitor may copy or imitate the design.
• There can be new competitors coming into the market.

Congratulations! The brainstorming session has been quite effective! Project SWOT analysis examples like this should help you build on your strengths, reinforce your weaknesses, invest in opportunities, and keep track of the threats.

The action plan for your project

Be careful. The SWOT analysis is not your plan; you’re going to use the SWOT analysis to create the action plan for your project. Based on the analysis above, we proceed with creating the action plan. Here’s an example:

• To invest in a new product line targeting women over age 50.
• To run a patent for colors and ornaments before releasing the product line.
• Meet with department stakeholders to explore the opportunities of obtaining capital from interested investors.
• Build relationships with distributors to mitigate the risk of supply chain disruptions.
• Use a brand face for the new product line.
• Run ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram.
• Attend an upcoming fashion and design conference to get inspiration and fresh ideas.

That’s it. Your team is now ready to go!