Project Resource Management: Best Practices and Tailoring Considerations

Do you often face issues with planning your resources? Or your well-planned scheduled project fails just because your professionals were not available?

One of the reasons for project failure is the lack of resources.

Although resources are crucial to complete a project, planning resources is the last priority for managers. Managers plan their tasks, sub-tasks, and deadlines, but fail to consider the resources during planning phases. Ultimately, leading to project failure and often results in burdening and sharing of the resources.

Unplanned resources can affect in many ways than imagined.

1) The absence of a central database that tracks the utilization and time of resources leads to underutilization. Resources like machines or professionals remain under-utilized, due to a lack of effective coordination.

2) Lack of resource visibility or incorrect resource allocation causes project delays.

3) Professionals with various talents are involved in the completion of multiple projects. Lack of recognizing the right talent may lead to hiring additional professionals. This increases the project budget and delays the work as the new hire buys time to adjust to the company and project.

4) Companies with large employees cannot figure the utilization of employees working on various projects.

5) Resource profiling finds the right qualified professional using attributes, but lacks resource management.

As we now know lack of resource planning leads to project disaster, we’ll look into the ways to plan your resources before time.

How to work on resource management?

Let us understand Project Resource Management.

Process resource management includes the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources needed for the successful completion of the project.

The resource management methods are the dynamics that are associated with various resources from machines, tools, or professionals.

1) Project-based resources:

Acquire the resources based on what kind of projects we are doing. Human resources or professionals are common for all projects whether it is IT or construction projects.

The dynamic of human resources changes based on the kind of experience, capabilities, responsibility, and roles based on projects.

Quantifying the resources, acquiring them, and utilizing them is very essential. It is good to understand the dynamics of resources while you handle your project to them.

For Human resources, EI plays an important role. EI in the industry requires the project manager to pretend and display certain leadership qualities based on resources. These qualities come in handy when the leaders engage themselves with professionals, customers, clients, or sponsors.

The self-organizing team is essential in Agile Project management methodology however, the changing needs of business required quick response for the value realization of the customer. The experience of the user leads to value realizations.

For the perfect value realization, enable teams or self-organizing teams that own the product rather than an individual or specialist from the team.

2) Virtual Teams/ Distributed teams:

Technology has enabled teams to work virtually. This convenience comes with challenges, as teams are not with project managers. A specific approach is required by the manager to manage these resources.

Tailoring considerations for resource management:

Tailoring considerations for mainly understanding

1) Diversity:

The diversity of resources is understood based on various capabilities, skills, experiences and geographical locations.

2) Physical Location:

Physical location is important along with the cultural background of resources.

3) Industry-specific resources:

As per the industry and resources, the dynamics change, also the management requirement of the resources will differ.

4) Acquisition of Team members:

As the project starts you clamp up the team members. Identification of right skills, capabilities, defining roles and responsibilities, project organization structure, and acquire team members accordingly.

Interestingly if you don’t get the resource that is tailored-made for the project, you can train the resource and induct them into the project.

5) Management of team:

As the project proceeds, this team needs to be managed, engaged, and mentored for the timely delivery of tasks or projects. Schedule and cost need to be ensured by managers.

6) Life cycle approaches:

We all know a product has a life cycle that is bigger than the project life cycle. The project introduces a change in the product and has a specific start and end date. The manager needs to deal with resources according to the project’s start and end date.

Resource Management Process:

1) Plan resource management:

Performed only once, it defines the process of estimating, acquiring, managing, and using physical and human resources. This process defines the type and complexity of the project.

2) Estimate activity resource:

The details of activities are captured in schedule management, but resource with what quantity is required is measured in this category. The type of resource, tools are quantified throughout the project lifecycle.

This is crucial to pinpoint what type of resource the project needs? When it is required? Till what time?

3) Acquire resource:

This process deals with collecting the process groups, software, tools required to deliver the project. Professionals identified, are onboard and assigning to specific activities and tasks.

By this time you know the location and time of your resources that are assigned to various tasks and projects.

4) Develop team:

As the professionals are acquired, they need to be educated with requirements and expectations from them. Their expectations, role, individual that have specific skills and capabilities needs to be considered. This process concentrates on team bonding. Assigning, rewarding, working for future opportunities and visibility in career development is encouraged.

This will help in overall performance by improving team members’ competencies, interactions, and the environment. This process performed throughout the life cycle improves the interpersonal skills of individuals motivates the team and reduces attritions.

Take away:

Neglecting the resource management techniques will cost the budget and project. We have seen the outcomes of neglecting the resources. Tools like TeamBoard keeps track of resources and time allocated for resources. For a better perspective, one can go with tailoring management strategies while they allocate and assign resources to their project.

We have walked you through the best practices of resource management and tools popularly used for resource management.

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