Resource Management - So what is resource management?

Resource management is the process of pre-

planning, scheduling, and allocating your resources to maximize efficiency. Resource management is
centered around optimization and efficiency.

Resource Management Plan- This plan is essential for determining which specific resources are required,
in what amounts, and when, in order to complete the project scope. You can successfully comprehend
how to plan resources efficiently after you know what you need to make a project succeed. When a
resource management plan is properly implemented, it aids project progress while also saving you a
significant amount of time and energy. Having a defined resource management plan for your project is
incredibly important—teams and workers need resource and utilization management to be successful.

Resource Management Plan- A resource plan describes how people and physical resources will be
estimated, acquired, developed, managed, and controlled. People are developed and managed whereas
materials are controlled after they are estimated and acquired.

Team Management Plan- Working with your team to help them collaborate and be more productive is
what team management is all about. It also encompasses the activities and tools that enable teams to
collaborate more effectively. This entails juggling tasks, timetables, workload, and other factors. To
effectively manage teams, you must establish clear objectives, assist with teamwork facilitation,
maintain open lines of communication, and monitor performance, all while modifying workload as
needed to get the most out of your resources. This also entails identifying and addressing concerns
before they escalate into problems that derail the project.

Why Team Management Is Important:

A team is a fuel that drives a project. They take tasks, and with expertise and experience, complete them
according to your plan—on time and within budget. To do this requires thorough administering and
coordinating.

That’s easier said than done. There are objectives to meet, communication channels to create,
collaboration to foster, and being able to appraise your team’s performance all while in the midst of
running the larger project.

It helps to bring your project in successfully. But there are more benefits that might not be as evident
like Team Building, Productivity, Education, Morale, and Performance.

Physical Resource Management Plan-

Physical Resources are Equipment, Materials, Supplies, Facilities, and Infrastructure that are utilized by
your project, or become a part of your project deliverable. People are developed and managed whereas
materials are controlled after they are estimated and acquired. This is also important to ensure you have
the right Physical Resources at the right place at the right time, in order for your project to proceed as
planned.
Components:

1. Resources- A resource is anything that is needed to execute a task or project — this can be the skill
sets of employees or the adoption of software. Resources are people, equipment, place, money, or
anything else that you need to do all of the activities that you planned for. In any organization, there is
the need to utilize available resources for better performance. It refers to optimizing resource utilization
of such resources as assets, information, human and financial resources. Before you can allocate
resources, you have to have resources. So, make a list then make sure it fits within the budget allotted
for the project.

2. Timeframes- Your resources all have costs associated with them, and are often used for a limited
period. By noting the duration of time needed for each resource, you have a clearer picture of how it will
fit into your overall schedule. These expenses and timeframes must be managed to align with the
schedule. Like in Human Resources Provide full visibility into how team members are scheduled,
especially employees who work on multiple projects across different teams so that he doesn't get
confused about what he is going to do and you don't run out of individuals in your company.

3. Quantity- Before you can assign resources to your project, you need to know their availability.
Determining which resources are required to fulfill the project. This information can come from project
and resource knowledge, such as understanding the project's goals and tasks and comparing them to
resource skillsets, or from prior successful doppelganger initiatives. Using a template from previous
successful projects not only helps to eliminate upfront project management labor, but also helps to
better forecast future success.

Quantity – You will also need an idea of what resources will be needed at a given time, and the quantity
of the same, to effectively plan the schedule of a project.

4. Assumptions and Constraints- Assumptions and Constraints are identified at the beginning of the
project. An assumption includes the availability of employees, assumptions about work commitments,
etc. It is a part of the risk management process. These are anticipated events or circumstances that are
expected during the project’s life cycle, if any of the assumptions above turn out differently, your project
will be radically affected. While the Constraints are limitations imposed on the project, like the budget,
schedule, or resources. Therefore, you must identify all of them and develop your plan accordingly.
These two Throughout the project life cycle will be refined and re-analyzed. The project management
plan needs to change if constraints change or assumptions are proven wrong.

5. Roles and Responsibilities- Who will do the work? This may be one or more people. It is good when
you Assign available employees with projects by their skillsets, previous experience, and availability
because injects vitality into the structure and instill personal accountability for action. Agree on a
process for assigning people to their responsibilities, because accurately assigning tasks to team
members can help your projects succeed and stay on track.
7 Steps to Create & Present a Resource Management Plan

1. Determine the Resources Needed for the Project

- The first stage in the resource management plan is determining which resources are required to fulfill
the project. If you estimate the project's resource requirements, the procedure requires both a general
evaluation of the quantity of each resource category and detailed identification of talents,
responsibilities, and specifics. This information can help in terms of a project and resource knowledge,
such as understanding the project's objectives and tasks and comparing them to resource skillsets, or
from prior successful doppelganger initiatives. Using a template from prior successful projects not only
helps to minimize upfront project management labor but also helps to better forecast future success.

2. Match the Right Resources to the Right Tasks

- Picking the right resources for the right job. Allocating resources and assigning tasks, to track progress
at every step along the way. If we poorly constructed the resources it can be disastrous for any
assignment, regardless of how effective and skilled your project is. Individual members may lack the
expertise needed to execute on critical technical aspects, causing costly delays and potentially creating a
knowledge gap that’s too vast to bridge. As a result, ensure the tasks you assign are compatible with the
resource's skillsets and that the resource has enough time to accomplish the project.

3. Budget the Right Amount of Time for Each Resource.

- It's critical to develop precise estimates for all of the project's resources and to arrange precisely the
correct amount of time for different chores to be performed, it needs particular expertise. They must
avoid overscheduling their resources; otherwise, deadlines will be missed, and job quality will suffer. The
Departments should institute a schedule of flexible working hours for their office/service and
employees, provided it does not increase staffing costs or decrease departmental efficiency.

4. Schedule Resources Based on Projected Availability

Resource scheduling gives team leaders a smarter, more efficient way to assign tasks to their team
based on their capability and availability. Not only does this process allow you to monitor a project from
start to finish to make sure it goes smoothly, but it also gives project leaders a way to utilize your people
so they're working more efficiently. In return, team members are always working on an optimized
schedule (without being pushed to their limits), and project managers have greater flexibility should
something go awry.

5. Keep a Pulse on Project Progress

You need to actively monitor progress to keep your team on the right path. It includes regular check-ups
to make sure things are running well and small issues get resolved before major problems can surface.
This is one of the good reasons why you need to check their assigned project. Must have a constant
pulse on how the progress is tracking and have a real-time way to capture, track, manage, and report on
their project status.
6. Expect to Make Adjustments

When thinking about your team's project, think about if you'll need to make any adjustments to be able
to operate efficiently. To be clear, when we say "adjustments," we don't mean "change the goal";
rather, we mean "expect that not everything will happen as planned." It entails altering expectations as
necessary. Changes to the physical environment or changes to work practices are the most prevalent
workplace adjustments. Keep in mind that simple solutions can often be found by thinking outside the
square and exploring the possibilities.

7. Perform Post-Project Analysis

It is a process to evaluate whether the objectives of the project were met. After organizing and
implementing a project, managers can use the review to analyze the team's process to make suggestions
for future projects. In the review, team members compare the planned results with the actual results.
They can use this information to create the next steps and refine their business strategy. You can also
use it to see how effective the project was managed and helps to avoid making similar mistakes with
future projects and learn how to run the project better.

4 Resource Management Planning Tips:

1. Don’t Overcommit Your Resources

The problem is that most companies overcommit their limited resources by approving more ideas than
they execute. They do it because they lack a clear view of their resource capacity. Managing employees,
finances and customers is stressful enough. The problem with that mindset is that overcommitment has
consequences, and none of them are good. If we continually overcommit, we put ourselves under
unrelenting pressure and stress. That Over-commitments impact is more than just your job. They’ll
impact your ability to do the stuff that helps you feel and perform better, not just physically but also
psychologically too. Therefore, If you have control of your boundaries, Set time boundaries, and have a
clearer direction for time management, you will soon feel a lot more in control.

2. Set Incremental Deliverables

Iterative and incremental development is a process that combines the iterative design method with the
incremental build model. It is used by software developers to help manage projects. The project
management team may break a larger project into smaller pieces when delivering, delighting, and
getting customer feedback are important. Therefore, for any big project, you consider breaking it down
using the Incremental Build model so you can divide and conquer it and delight and deliver to your
customer. It can be useful to your progress to set incremental deliverables when creating a resource
management plan. This can help create a better sense of progress with your client as well as help keep
the project on track internally.

3. Monitor Unplanned Work

No matter how much you plan, there’s always going to be some level of uncertainty. Unplanned work
could refer to anything from Unexpected projects that can impact the team’s ability to deliver on the
roadmap, to unplanned work that can lead to unsustainable work practices and unhealthy culture. In
order for your team to better manage their unplanned work, they must monitor and expedite items
entering their process. They have effectively reduced the impact of the expedited work items in their
workflow by keeping the demand aligned with their capacity.

4. Limit Multitasking

Limiting work in progress and stopping multitasking is the best advice you can give to any team or
individuals. This is an illustrated attempt to convince you to limit your work in progress and stop
multitasking. Multitasking also lowers your work quality. They said More Tasks = More Mistakes. Try to
limit the number of paralleled tasks, and your resources will perform better.

Resource Management Process

4 Stages:

1. Resource Planning – is a process of allocating tasks to team members based on their capacity, skill
sets, and the best fit for the job. Organizes identifies and lists the resources required to complete a
project successfully.

The process of allocating and controlling project resources, as well as evaluating resource availability
and assigning tasks, is known as resource planning. So Resource planning is no different, helping project
managers to align projects’ deliverables with available resources. You can't fully control the project's
delivery, timing, or budget unless you have it. Because people are the most valuable resource for most
creative and service-based businesses, resource planning is a method for determining which team
members you'll need for your project and when they'll be needed.

1. Determine required resources.

If you understand what resources you need, it will help you decide what services you are able to
provide. If these are beyond your budget, you could look at partnering with other organizations and
pooling resources. So Identifying what types of resources will be needed for a project, their quantities,
and periods of requirement will help with budgeting appropriately for all inputs required throughout a
project.

2. Acquire resources.

Acquiring resources is the process of securing team members, equipment, materials, or other resources
required to deliver the assigned project. Defining the materials and supplies, along with the human
resources we've already outlined, will help us estimate the costs of the project and determine a budget.
After defining the materials list, you'll also be able to decide where the resources will come from—will
you buy them, lease them, or contract them?. And the importance of this, the Acquire Resources
process comes from the fact that not having resources may impact the project schedule, budget,
customer satisfaction, quality, and other areas. Not just that, insufficient resources or capabilities also
decrease the probability of success.

3. Manage resources.

The key is ensuring that your resources are working on projects aligned to strategic corporate goals, that
match their skill sets and where they have adequate bandwidth. So if you manage your resources
properly, it aids project progress while also saving you a significant amount of time and energy.

4. Control resources usage.

This is all about controlling and monitoring the project's physical resource consumption and usage.
Servers, tools, equipment, infrastructure, machinery, materials, facilities, and so on are examples of
physical resources. We have managed the team process for taking care of people. This process ensures
that intended physical resources are available, monitors them against the plan, and takes corrective
action as needed. This ensures that the necessary resources are available to the project at the proper
time and location and that they are released when they are no longer needed.

Importance of Resource Planning:

What’s important, resource plans may change and should be adjusted regularly to reflect changes in the
scope, employees’ availability, etc, so that your schedule project is always up-to-date. Not only will
knowing how to effectively organize your resources make it easier for you to discover and assign the
finest resources for the project. It will also assist you in budgeting. Keeping track of your resources and
deploying them in accordance with the project plan will thus not only improve the delivery of your
project but also provide a profit margin for your business.

Resource Plan Key Terms

1. Resource Plan:

This plan is essential for determining which specific resources are required, in what amounts, and when,
in order to complete the project scope. You can successfully comprehend how to plan resources
efficiently after you know what you need to make a project succeed. First, identify the different types of
resources needed to complete the project. You then need to quantify the amount of each type of
resource required. And finally, you need to schedule the consumption of each resource within the
project.

2. Resources Breakdown Structure (RBS):

Your goal is to ensure that everyone on your team understands their roles and responsibilities so that
they can contribute effectively to the project. The information you're gathering will be used by people
outside of your organization who will also require it. As a result, create a hierarchical overview of the
materials you'll need to complete your job. It is commonly used by project managers to develop a
comprehensive list of resources required, as well as to estimate costs and timelines. The RBS's goal is to
provide project managers with a full understanding of their project's resource requirements before it
begins, allowing them to avoid resource-related risks once the project is in progress.

3. Responsibility Assignment Matrix: 

A responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) is a chart used to identify and define the various people and
organizations and outline each of their roles in working on tasks or delivering a part of the project. The
most important resource you’ll employ to deliver the project is people. They have to fit into the
schedule and maintain the project budget. Defining what their roles and responsibilities are when
executing tasks and delivering on the project goals is an important part of controlling the project. This
assists with reducing confusion on expectations, in turn, increasing project efficiency and improving
deliverables. In this context, decisions are made more quickly, accountability is clear and workload is
evenly distributed.

4. Resource Overallocation: 

The practice of scheduling and booking resources for the right project tasks is known as resource
allocation. It must be cohesive and compatible with resource capacities in order to achieve overall
efficiency. Many managers, whether due to poor planning or an inability to say no, over-allocate their
resources, which is counterproductive. When resources are overloaded with various duties, they
become burnt out, lose productivity, and the quality of their work decreases. Re-examine your resource
strategy and utilize it to evenly distribute the resources you have for the project.

5. Resources Histogram: 

Histograms can be used as a means of comprehensive support for a resource planning project.
Important conclusions can be drawn from the charts – both in the multi-project view and for individual
departments or projects – with regard to constraints, capacities, requirements, and priorities. The
resource histogram allows us to look at the individual resources in a schedule at the same time. The
resource histogram will change to reflect the changes made in the schedule, which makes it relatively
easy to make an optimum schedule using real people. They give you a visual overview while highlighting
your strengths in the context of resource planning and simulation

A resource histogram is a tool that is often used by the project management team and or as a means of
providing a visual representation to the team and all of those interested parties. Specifically speaking,
the resource histogram is specifically a bar chart that is used to display the specific amounts of time that
a particular resource is scheduled to be worked on over a predetermined and specific period.

6. Resource Scheduling:
Scheduling resources is a complicated and time-consuming procedure, yet it's an essential component of
completing tasks. You risk burning out your team or assigning them to work, they are not prepared if
you don't use an effective resource scheduling approach that considers what they're capable of
accomplishing with their time and expertise. Teams use this to arrange and plan their employees' work
so that assignments are scheduled depending on availability and capability. Team leaders can use this
method to allocate and assign duties to their members without overburdening (or unburdening) their
schedules.

7. Resource Allocation: Resource allocation is an ongoing process that can be simply defined as picking
the right resources at the right time to achieve project tasks. For example, there are critical tasks that
need to be prioritized when creating the resource schedule.

When it comes to running a successful project you want to make sure that you have the right tools,
financials, and individuals to help you get the project done. This means that you need adequate
resource allocation to ensure that every stage of a particular project is completed in the right amount of
time. Once you allocate resources to your project that means those resources can’t be taken away from
you (or at least, they shouldn’t be). That’s going to make it much easier for you to accomplish the task.
Since you are done assigning the right people to work on the tasks necessary to complete a project.