When planning a project, you always have to think about the resources that are needed to complete it. Creating a list of roles and skills that are required for the project’s delivery, looking for appropriate people in your company, managing their schedule and workload – all these are involved in resource management. How to do it successfully? This blog post will provide you with some best practices for managing resources within a project-based environment.
What will you get thank this article:
Note: A resource could be a person with certain qualifications, a piece of equipment, or even some amount of time or money. In this article, however, we will focus exclusively on resource management understood as project team management.
The latest PMBOK® guide states it nicely, saying:
Project Resource Management includes the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project. These processes help ensure that the right resources will be available to the project manager and project team at the right time and place.
As such, project resource management requires you to navigate different processes: from defining project needs and obtaining appropriate resources to managing your team throughout the project and measuring their performance.
Effective resource management entails that the project is delivered successfully: on time, within budget, and according to the requirements. That’s not an easy feat to accomplish. Luckily, there are several steps you can take on different stages of the project lifecycle in order to increase the chances of completing the job. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at some of the best practices of successful resource management.
As a project manager or resource manager, you need to be quite curious about the project itself. What’s the business goal behind it? Which user needs are you trying to fulfill? What’s the ultimate goal for the client? Having answered these questions, you’ll have a better understanding of the project beyond just knowing its scope (which is necessary as well, of course). The extra effort you put into preparing at this stage may pay off later: for starters, you’ll have more arguments when discussing different scenarios with the client, but keep in mind that a well-informed PM is also extremely helpful for the team.
Try to gain a lot of intel about the clients/stakeholders as well. Perhaps some of your colleagues have already collaborated with them? The more you know about what to expect in terms of preferred processes, tools, work ethics, the better equipped you are to handle challenges in the future.
Finally, inquire about potential constraints as well. Being aware of timeline or budget considerations will help you make better decisions along the way.
Once you have a good idea of what the project is about, you’re ready to start creating project estimates. You have to come up with a list of resources (e.g., roles) needed to deliver project tasks. Then, you’ll need to estimate the capacity in which they’re needed.
Granted, you’ll be able to benefit from your PM experience here and contribute to creating the estimates. However, don’t be afraid to ask other people to participate in this process and provide their expert judgment.
This is where things may get a little bit overwhelming. Why? Well, depending on the size and structure of your company, you might need to explore a pool of hundreds or thousands of employees.
Fortunately, this part of the process is also relatively easy to handle using resource management software. Imagine having a list of resources, together with their capacity, availability, and competencies. All you have to do is book these resources that fit your project’s demands. Resource scheduling software, our own Teamdeck being one of them, do just that.
You get to filter your organization’s resources by skills/office locations/seniority or any other custom dimensions you need. From the pool of appropriate people, you just pick the ones that are available during the period you have in mind for the project. Done deal!
Teamdeck allows you to filter available resources by job titles or project rates. It dramatically simplifies resource allocation.
When deciding on whom to assign to the project, you might want to take the following considerations into account:
Saying that you only have one chance to make a good first impression might be a cliché, but in effective resource management, the project kickoff phase is absolutely crucial. This is when you get to know your team and establish your presence. Make sure to cover the following points:
Take a look at this list of resources you may find helpful throughout the project lifecycle, but especially at the beginning of a new project:
If you’re operating in an agile project management methodology, you’re probably not afraid of project changes. A healthy dose of flexibility is an integral part of the job and reacting to, say, incoming user feedback is what ultimately influences the success of the project.
However, other changes are certainly not as welcomed: resource capacity planning would be a good example here. People get sick, change jobs, break their legs, etc. You have to be prepared for allocating new resources to your team or changing the capacity in which the current team members are involved.
Flexible project planning will also be of use here: if you’re creating generous estimates based on the worst/best-case scenarios, you probably have the much-needed wiggle room when change occurs.
Data-driven project management will probably be getting much traction in the near future projects, for the simple reason that it makes PMs more effective in what they do. Data is the source of information and patterns about your team. It may also confirm or debunk your hunches. Finally, there is no better argument when trying to make a point. If you’re able to support your decisions with data, you’ll feel much more comfortable executing it.
On the other hand, collecting data without knowing what to measure and how puts you at risk of getting lost in the noise. For starters, you may want to gather data that allows you to measure the performance of your project resources (BTW all of these reports can be easily built with Teamdeck):
With the height of bars signifying the level of utilization, you can quickly spot people who could be better utilized.
Effective resource planning and management involve understanding the project really well and actively monitoring the progress, not just in terms of tasks getting done, but also in maintaining optimal workload and team utilization. It’s a multi-faceted process, but you can navigate that complexity successfully with the right technology.
Teamdeck’s mission is to make effective resource management possible – to make it a whole lot easier for teams of different sizes. We’re extremely proud that our app is used to put together teams that work on ambitious construction projects, pushing the boundaries of creativity or literally changing the world for the better with impactful non-profit campaigns.
If you want to streamline your resource allocation and avoid scheduling conflicts, Teamdeck might just be the right tool for you – sign up today. We’ll be more than happy to welcome you into our roster of clients.
Save time and money with project resource planning software and increase the effectiveness of resource management processes
Resource calendar (or project management calendar, or project planning calendar, resource planning software) allows you to plan and manage and allocate resources more effectively and efficiently – especially if Microsoft Excel had a leading role in your...
What’s the ultimate goal of project managers? Delivering their projects successfully. PMs themselves admit that this doesn’t happen very often: according to the latest Pulse of the Profession survey, less than 60% of projects are completed either...
Capacity management is a strategy utilized by businesses to make the best use of production efficiency with respect to the demand for a service or a product. The eventual goal of capacity management is to: Identify and...