On the surface, resource leveling looks appealing. It offers the ability to spread work out so that an employee never has too little and never has too much. Sounds good, right? Maybe not… Read on and let me know what you think.
The problem I have stems from the term resource itself. Some of my customers won’t even use the word because it turns employees into machines. Are “resources” human beings? No, they are just “things” to be used.
I don’t go that far with my interpretation. I’m okay with the word “resource.” I know what it means, and what it doesn’t mean. But still, when software attempts to tell the employee when to work, something is wrong. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Spreading work around (as is in resource leveling) removes the human element from the project. It turns employees into machines who crank out project hours, task after task after task with no regard to content. One task is the same as another, right?
I’m sorry; people don’t work that way. Machines do. They love steady work. Give them something to do, and they will churn it out day after day. People work differently; they are diven by passions and love for the job. They get excited about one task, and then another. They schedule them in order of passion for the task at hand. No passion – no work.
As soon as you allow software to tell your people when to come and go, the passion is gone. Make sense?
–ray