Resource Planning
By Cynthia K. West, Ph.D., V.P. Project Insight ( www.projectinsight.net )
Resource Planning – Getting Started The resources of an organization consist of people, materials, equipment, knowledge and time. Organizations typically have limited resources, therefore tradeoffs are made every day within organizations on what resources are expended and when. A resource plan is an important tool in the effective management of scarce resources. Projects use the resources of an organization. The timing of the need for those resources can be and should be determined within the project schedules. A resource plan, which describes the type of resource needed and the timing of that need, is critical to effective resource management. As the project schedule changes, the resource plan must also be flexible enough to adjust as these changes occur.
Dealing with unknownsIn developing resource plans, there is little chance that the project manager will have all of the necessary resources assigned to the project at its start. The fact is, when starting a project, the details of that project are typically unknown, therefore knowing the types and duration of resources necessary is not always possible. Known knowns are events that can be planned for. In building the schedule, some deliverables can be decomposed in sufficient detail creating tasks, while other deliverables will only be known at the highest level. When details of a deliverable are not sufficiently known, a planning package should be used. The details of the deliverables defined within planning packages can be considered known unknowns, or risks. In these instances, the work has not been fully decomposed. Known planning events, as well as planning packages, can be assigned individual resources and durations that have been established by the people doing the work. The only difference is in planning packages, the duration and resource estimates are typically less accurate. The use of historical information or industry standards can provide a higher degree of confidence in estimates, when available. It is not necessary to have all deliverables decomposed and assigned to individuals prior to beginning work on a project. In fact, it is very common to set a baseline schedule and resource plan based on planning package estimates. As the project progresses, these known unknowns become clearer to the project team warranting changes within the project schedule and resource plan. Events that cannot be planned for are called unknown unknowns. These events are not known in the realm of possibilities, yet could occur. An example is a warehouse fire that destroys inventory and delays the project completion. This would not normally be factored in as a known event during the project planning, so it is an unknown unknown. Since projects are unique and temporary endeavors, project managers will always work in a world of unknowns. Therefore resource management and planning should continue throughout the project life cycle.
What makes a good resource planA good resource plan consists of a schedule that is as detailed as possible for the information known, and the types of resources needed for each task. A good resource plan will have a single task owner on each task. There are two types of resource plans. One is hypothetical based on resource type set without any resource constraints. Resource type refers to the skill set that a task requires for completion. The other is an actual resource plan based on actual resource availability. A hypothetical schedule based only on the resource types needed produces a hypothetical resource plan. [For image click on link at bottom of article.] In our example activity list above, the resource types were identified and duration was converted into a network schedule and Gantt chart.
Assigning workAs mentioned earlier, the initial schedule and resource plan should be developed and analyzed based on resource type or skill set required, without considering resource availability. Assignments will be made as a second step. Assigning work is as much about psychology as it is about executing the project. Most individuals prefer to have a clear understanding of the work that needs to be performed. Resources require focused attention to the task in order to deliver the highest quality work. Studies have shown that if an individual is juggling more than three tasks simultaneously, the efficiency of his/her work is significantly hampered. In addition, without clear prioritization of tasks, it is human nature for people to work on tasks that they feel most comfortable with and not necessarily the ones that are most important to complete. As the project manager, understanding basic human tendencies is critical in effective execution of a plan. Again, since projects are unique events and it is inevitable that schedule changes will occur and the assignment of work will be modified. Therefore smaller, more regular assignments to individuals will minimize confusion and produce better results. It is the role of the project manager to make sure that team members understand project and task priorities. Many teams use status meetings to review these priorities; others use software solutions in tandem.
How much detail should be providedProjects will always include team members with a variety of expertise and knowledge. In fact the Project Management Institute (PMI) found that 52% of all project teams are a mix of professional project managers and non-project managers. When assigning work to the resource pool, the project manager must also determine how much ‘instruction’ needs to be provided. If working within an organization where projects follow a standard process with well-defined templates and expectations of key deliverables, the need to provide detailed instructions on how the team member should perform their tasks is minimized. When working in a less structured environment, the project manager will have to use a different kind of judgment on how much instruction to provide. The level of detailed instruction in this environment will be based upon the resource expertise and knowledge. Successor task owners are the best source of instruction for a preceding task. Ask the recipient of the task what and how they need in order to perform the successor task. If you need to provide detailed descriptions as to the deliverable, then add the description to the description field in your schedule. Many software solutions allow you to set up project templates with these detailed descriptions which will carry over into subsequent projects. This helps to minimize the duplication of effort of explaining tasks to new team members. Alternatively, a project manager may opt to attach a file with lengthy description or scope to a particular task. SummaryOnce you have detailed descriptions of what each task requires, and the resource type or skill set needed, you can then start to make resource assignments based on this knowledge. Many project teams use white boards, Excel sheets, or other manual processes to identify who is booked on what projects at a high level. However, more project teams are starting to deploy collaborative project and resource management solutions that provide a centralized place for all resource information. Depending on your project load, these solutions can assist you with making final assignments and task start dates which are based on real-time resource information. See it at:http://www.projectmanagerplanet.com/leadership/article.php/12156_3755016_2
About CynthiaWest
I've worked in information technology since 1991. Highlights include:
-6th year at Project Insight
-Spent 1990s in Silicon Valley
-Worked at 3 start ups
-Part of management team that took one company public, another company M&A
-Specialty: setting up sales and marketing processes for new companies and divisions.
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