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146 RESOURCE LEVELING, GAMES OF CHANCE

concepts for utilizing resources more efficiently. When the first CPM systems
emerged, in the late 1950s, it didn’t take long for tool developers to add re-
source scheduling functionality.

A most interesting trend can be observed at the current time. It relates to new
practitioners of project management and new users of project management soft-
ware. Businesses are realizing that the work that they are doing is centered
around projects. For those of us who have been immersed in the project manage-
ment scene for a while, this is no major revelation. But what is happening is that a
project orientation is more of a normal modus operandi, today, rather than a spe-
cial situation. Hence, there has been a growth in interest in project management
and in computer-based systems to help them plan and schedule this work.

That they are looking to project management software for this purpose is es-
sentially good! But wait! There’s more (why keep it simple?). These businesses
are also realizing that a key item to be planned and managed is the assignment
and use of resources on these projects. Again, businesses are looking to project
management software, as well they should. There can be no doubt that traditional
project management software packages can be excellent tools to support this im-
portant function.

In our model project environment, we need to do critical path scheduling,
and adjust the schedules for resource limitations. We need software that will al-
low us to:

• Identify the project workscope.
• Organize the identified work (outlines and work breakdown structures).
• Schedule the work.
• Identify available resources.
• Assign resources to the work.
• Evaluate and adjust the schedule and resource assignments.
• Analyze and report schedule and resource information, oriented by project

and by resource structures.

These are all functions that are fully supported by project management soft-
ware, and I would recommend the use of such software for most applications.
However, traditional project management software may not be the ideal solution
for every application. There are certain plusses and minuses that must be consid-
ered, especially when alternative software choices exist.

The strong point of project management software is its ability to do critical
path scheduling. These tools are optimized to produce and display schedules of
the work, based on defined task durations, dependencies, and date constraints
(and, optionally, resource constraints). They are designed to analyze and display