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# Strategic and tactical resource planning
# Scenario planning and management
# Availability and capability assessment
# Skills matching and resource selection
# Resource assignment
# Time and cost tracking.
2. 2 Project Resource Management
Agenda
• Aims of project resource management
• Strategic and tactical resource planning
• Scenario planning and management
• Availability and capability assessment
• Skills matching and resource selection
• Resource assignment
• Time and cost tracking
• Availability management
A wide ranging topic to cover..
3. 3 Project Resource Management
Aims of project resource management
• Optimise the allocation of resources to projects
• In short and long term
• Through peaks and troughs of demand
• Manage resource costs
• Balance internal and external resources
• Develop staff capabilities
• Allocate staff to work they have the skills for
• Provide staff with interesting and challenging work
A balancing act..
4. 4 Project Resource Management
Benefits of good project resource management
• Deliver more projects with the same or fewer resources
• Increase resource utilisation
• Deliver more projects to schedule
• Reduce requirements for external staff
• Reduce uncertainty in staff scheduling
• Understand strategic delivery capability
• Identify skill and resource shortfalls earlier
Some real benefits to be achieved..
5. 5 Project Resource Management
Strategic and tactical resource planning
Resource demands can be both long-term and short-term:
• Do we have enough resources to do all this year’s projects?
• What will the impact on current projects be if we reduce our
costs/ staffing levels by 10%? by 20%?
• A new project is required ‘out of the blue’ – how can we
resource it?
• We have two projects starting next week – have the project
teams been confirmed?
• A project has been cancelled – where can we best redeploy the
team?
6. 6 Project Resource Management
Strategic and tactical resource planning
We can view resource planning and deployment like a production
timeline:
Long term demand Medium term demand Short term demand
Long term supply Medium term supply Short term supply
YEARS MONTHS DAYS
7. 7 Project Resource Management
Short term (day-to-day) planning
Team calendar
Daily ‘grid’
8. 8 Project Resource Management
Medium term (monthly) planning
Planner views
9. 9 Project Resource Management
Long term (yearly) planning
‘Timechart’ views
10. 10 Project Resource Management
Long term (yearly) planning
Team availability grid
11. 11 Project Resource Management
Scenario planning and management
Typical scenarios:
• Resourcing business as usual activity, priority projects, nice-
to-have projects
• Which projects can we deliver next year with our current
resources? With +10% / -10% resources?
• After resourcing our strategic projects, what spare capacity do
we have to achieve some ‘quick wins’?
• A new project has arisen at short notice. Can we deliver it with
our existing resources? What will the impact be on other
projects?
• A project has been cancelled unexpectedly, freeing up skilled
resources. How best can we deploy them?
12. 12 Project Resource Management
Availability and capability assessment
Measuring capability and availability
• Capability – skills, qualification, certification, experience,
grade, location, mobility, fit with rest of team and the customer
• Availability – for the duration of the work, for the required
hours per day, uninterrupted by other activities?
• Capability can be driven by availability – a resource can
become capable once trained or certified
• Cost may also be a factor – the ‘right’ resource is often the
most expensive
13. 13 Project Resource Management
Availability and capability assessment
Which is key – capability or availability?
• It is rare that a resource will declare themselves available
• Searching for the next available resource with the relevant
skills may lead to a very long wait..
• Managers should generally look for the most capable internal
resources to do the job, and identify and prioritise existing
commitments
Task A Priority 1
Resource 1 Task B Priority 3
Task X
(not
Task C Priority 1
resourced)
Priority 2 Resource 2
Task D Priority 5
14. 14 Project Resource Management
Resource requests
Typical data requirements for a resource request:
• Task reference/ name
• Resource requestor (e.g. Project Manager)?
• Date of request
• Start date and end date for work (and if either or both are fixed)
• Total hours/ hours per day/ % of time
• Loading curve
• Skills/ capabilities/ grade required
• Named resource requested
• Budget cost
• Location of the work
•
•
Task status/ priority
Decision date for resource allocation
?
15. 15 Project Resource Management
Notional resources
Notional or ‘virtual’ resources can be a useful concept:
• Resource requests are allocated first to virtual resources
• The type of virtual resource (e.g. Business Analyst 1) indicates
the main skills and capabilities required
• The allocation of virtual resources clearly identifies the
demand for a particular type of resource
• When planning years ahead we can’t predict real resources
• To identify planned changes to the resource pool
• Virtual resources can be assigned and reassigned without
having to communicate these reassignments to real people
16. 16 Project Resource Management
Notional resources
At an appropriate (short-term) stage the virtual resource can be
replaced by the assignment of a real person:
Assignment from virtual to real resources Resource pool increases by one person
BA 1 BA 1 BA 1
Fred BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1
Julie Julie BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1
Mike Mike BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1 BA 1
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug
TODAY
17. 17 Project Resource Management
Skills matching and resource selection
Skills may be identified and matched to requirements through:
• job title/ grading
• specific skills and qualifications recorded in a database
• requests by staff/ line managers for specific work
• CV search
• searching for similar tasks done previously and identifying
who has carried them out
• word of mouth – asking around..
Besides capability and availability, resources are often selected
according to ‘fuzzier’ criteria:
• have worked with the requestor/ project team before
• want to do the work (or not)
• will do this work on condition they do/ do not get assigned to
some other wanted/ unwanted task
18. 18 Project Resource Management
Resource assignment
A typical resource assignment process:
• The resource manager offers a named resource to the
‘resource requestor’, perhaps with the offer being provisional
or with some conditions attached
• The resource requestor accepts or rejects the offered
resource, typically after some discussion with the resource
manager and maybe also with the resource.
• If the resource is accepted then the resource is advised of their
new commitment and schedule.
• If all resources offered are rejected then the task may not
proceed as planned and the resourcing request may be
escalated to a higher level of management .
19. 19 Project Resource Management
Managing the pipeline of requests
A typical assignment request pipeline:
FUTURE Possible work No resource Work planned
Possible work Virtual resource Resource (type) requested
Possible work Virtual resource
Possible work Virtual resource
Definite work Virtual resource Work approved
Definite work Potential resource Resource offered
Definite work Definite resource Resource agreed
NOW Definite work Definite resource
20. 20 Project Resource Management
Time and cost tracking
Having carefully established the resource allocation to meet our
project needs, we can re-use this data to:
•Remind team members what they should be working on
•Produce cost projections for project work
•Create draft timesheets based on planned work
21. 21 Project Resource Management
Availability management
In monitoring the availability of project staff, it is important to take
account of changes in legislation and trends relating to human
resources:
•Flexible working patterns
•Home working
•9-day fortnight
•Outsourcing/ Offshoring
•The EC working time directive
Another factor, often overlooked, is the need to carefully track
annual leave. Legislation now inhibits staff and employers from
carrying forward annual leave. Annual leave which has yet to be
taken can have a significant impact on overall team availability as
year end approaches.
22. 22 Project Resource Management
Resource Management in action …PAT
PAT’s flexibility and scalability supports a wide range of
applications:
• programme management
• project portfolio management
• resource management
• risk and cost management
• help desk and call tracking
• test planning and management
• marketing and campaign management
• technical inventory and configuration management
• event and diary management
• environmental management and reporting
23. 23 Project Resource Management
Resource Management in action …PAT
PAT has been deployed across a wide range of sectors:
• aerospace & defence
• broadcasting and media
• energy and environment
• government agencies
• legal and professional services
• local government
• medical and life sciences
• retail and investment banking
• software and technology
• transport
