Project resource management is the way to describe a key function of most project managers - the collection of team members, equipment and other materials (also known as resources) needed to get the job done.
The following is a list of steps in project resource management:
Step 1: Resource Planning
In order to determine the resource requirements to complete a project, you first need to understand the work. What are the expected outputs of this project? What staff competencies are needed? What is the timeline for the project? What are the milestones? What are the dependencies? This requires listening to what your stakeholders say they want, but also what they are not saying.
Clearly defining project requirements will help you assess which skills are needed to get the job done. At the end of the planning step, you should be able to draw up relevant job descriptions and make purchase requisitions for any supplies that may be required.
Step 2: Estimate Resources/Resource Allocation
Once you've determined the type of resources you need, you need to look more closely at resource allocation. How much time will these people dedicate to project delivery?
You can estimate project resources in two main ways:
● Bottom-up: Estimate the number of hours required to complete each requirement, and how many hours each person needs to contribute to each deliverable
● Top-down: If you have A fixed budget based on the project management plan, starting from this constraint, then allocates human resources according to the most critical roles required for project success.
If you're not sure which roles are key, interview colleagues who have executed similar projects in the past.
Finally, remember that humans are notoriously terrible at estimation. Give yourself a contingency buffer of at least 10% in case of unforeseen risks or delays.
Step 3: Acquiring Resources
Now that you have estimated and allocated project resources based on project tasks, you now need to bring in the appropriate resources. There are two main ways to staff your project:
● Internal recruitment. If you've been taking the time to cultivate strong relationships within your organization, it may create opportunities for people who are looking for new roles.
● Recruit from outside. Work with the recruiting department to advertise job descriptions for full-time positions. Employee referrals can be a great way to attract new employees, as long as your referral program is structured to reduce bias. If you don't need full-time staff, consider contract positions or work with third-party agencies to fill vacancies.
In this step, you also source the materials needed for the project. Request quotes from multiple suppliers and negotiate to find the best price.
Step 4: Develop and manage the team
If you think project planning, estimating, and acquiring resources are challenging, that's nothing compared to the difficulty of developing and managing the team. How to do a good job at this stage? Here are some tips:
-Create a psychologically safe environment to foster trust
-Find out what excites people to help them stay motivated and avoid burnout
-Cultivate a culture of feedback
You need to set clear expectations for people's job responsibilities, provide opportunities for on-the-job training or mentoring, and find ways to gather information about project progress without being overburdening. Celebrate wins and be transparent about mistakes so your team members can continually learn from and improve from their mistakes.
Step 5: Evaluate resources on an ongoing basis.
Every new project starts positively, but when you get deep into it and get requests from stakeholders from all angles, it can be hard to think about lessons learned and metrics.
To make sure you don't overlook performance, schedule regular project health checks before your work begins. As part of your health check, you will:
● Review how actual hours/costs compare to estimated hours/costs
● If you notice overallocation of staff and do not see a way to correct them, inform your client of resource utilization, Then there will be no surprises in the future. In the meantime, share your thoughts on how you can reduce expenses to get back on track.
● Engage regularly with your project team to make sure they are aligned with the work they deem valuable.
● Keep an eye out for work that has deviated from plan. Identify opportunities for more cost-effective substitutions, increasing employee motivation while reducing project costs.
● Conduct agile reviews regularly, modify and update the project process according to the knowledge learned.
Professional project resource management tools
Effective use of project management software can greatly enhance project resource management and make project resource management throughout the project life cycle easier.
PM project management software combines resource scheduling, working hours tracking, leave management and custom reports, covering the entire process of project resource management. With a powerful real-time audit trail, PM gives you a real-time, complete view of all resources:
Planning and Scheduling: Know what resources are available
and when they are available Skills Available and Required: Assess everyone's skills and whether additional skills need to be added (or people)
● Resource Utilization: Understand where resources have been invested and whether these allocations are appropriate
● Resource Capacity: Understanding real work capacity, recognizing that not all time is available
● Resource Prioritization and Allocation: Identifying those priority programs that require the most attention and expertise
In addition to supporting the above functions, 8Manage Resource Management also ensures that project managers And resource managers gain on-demand, real-time visibility into human and non-human resources, improving their ability to handle resource conflicts and control delivery.
Many businesses today deliver products and services directly to customers through projects and/or organize work into projects (for example, research, product development, and IT system implementation). Therefore, resource management must be able to be linked to project management, operations management (including non-project tasks) and financial management. PM is a comprehensive real-time project management software . Resources, progress, time, cost, risk, customers, and finance can all be managed in an integrated manner in this system, meeting your needs for managing different types of projects and greatly improving business management efficiency.
Resource management often changes dynamically during the course of a project, making it nearly impossible to manage adequately without powerful real-time resource management tools.
Source of this article: Gaoya Technology 8Manage, which focuses on providing project management/purchasing management/CRM/ERP solutions for various enterprises.