Effective management of workflow and project resources is a prerequisite for successful project delivery.
When you run multiple concurrent projects with a shared pool of resources, the significance of wise resource management increases exponentially: you need to know the right techniques and tools to facilitate fruitful work on all the initiatives.
So, what helps you ensure that the right people work on the right task at the right time? Read further to learn more.
What is resource management, and why is it important?
According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, project resource management involves the identification, acquisition, and management of resources required for successful project completion.
Effective management of project resources is important for the following reasons.
- It helps ensure that all projects running in a company are staffed with the required people, which reduces the possibility of resource shortages.
- It makes it possible to assign employees to tasks that correspond to their skill levels.
- It helps balance team members’ workloads so that they are neither overworked nor idle.
- It contributes to increasing team members’ productivity.
- It makes it possible to deliver multiple projects successfully even when resources are limited.
To achieve these results, you need to apply a variety of resource management techniques and the right resource management software. Let’s examine them in the sections below.
What are the main resource management techniques?
To ensure that the right people work on the right tasks at the right time, you will require the following resource management techniques.
Resource capacity planning
Resource capacity planning aims to determine the number of employees required to meet the resource demand of current and upcoming projects. It involves the analysis of project needs, and available capacity, determining whether there’s a gap between them, and finding ways to bridge it.
As a result, resource capacity planning makes it possible to:
- Prevent the workflow from unexpected resource shortages;
- Optimize employees’ workload;
- Avoid project delays resulting from the unavailability of employees;
- Prevent cost overruns caused by last-minute hiring and/or delays.
Capacity planning is a basic resource management technique that is most important for project-based organizations with a limited number of resources.
Resource allocation
Resource allocation involves assigning team members to project tasks based on their competencies, availability, and capacity as well as the distribution of material resources required for project delivery (e.g., equipment, facilities, tools) across project tasks.
Efficient resource allocation facilitates more efficient resource utilization, contributes to balancing employees’ workload, and increases their productivity: when they aren’t overloaded and stressed and work on the tasks that match their competencies, they are much more efficient.
One of the resource allocation methods is resource scheduling – determining the start and finish dates for each task in accordance with the availability of resources.
Resource scheduling contributes to more clarity regarding project timeline, and succession of activities as well as better predictability of the workflow. At the same time, it has certain disadvantages – such a deterministic approach doesn’t take uncertainty into account and is not flexible enough.
Also, it can negatively affect employee productivity – establishing strict task deadlines may lead to student syndrome (when people start work on a task as late as possible) and Parkinson’s law (when the work expands as much as to fill all the time allotted for its completion).
Workload management
Workload management involves keeping track of employees’ workload and ensuring that it corresponds to their availability and capacity. The main function of proper workload management is to prevent team members from two major productivity enemies – overload and idleness.
The first phenomenon leads to stress, making mistakes, and the need for rework.
In addition, an overworked employee can become a bottleneck for the whole project environment when he or she cannot timely cope with their work: while overloaded resources are struggling to complete their tasks, the other employees are idle because they need input from the overloaded group. As a result, overall productivity reduces.
Effective workload management prevents this from happening – if people have a balanced workload, they are productive and engaged, which contributes to better project outcomes.
Resource optimization techniques
In some cases, the workload can be distributed unevenly or a critical employee is required for several projects/tasks at the same time. This is when a resource manager can apply resource optimization techniques – resource leveling and resource smoothing.
You can apply resource leveling when you need to bridge the resource demand with the available supply, e.g., when you won’t be able to complete the required scope of work without over allocating employees.
Basically, resource leveling involves adjusting the project timeline, but other methods can also be applied: assigning alternative resources, eliminating less important tasks, splitting the tasks up, etc.
In contrast to resource leveling which is based on the resource constraint, resource smoothing is based on the time constraint – you cannot change the project timeline.
You can apply it to adjust the uneven distribution of resources and balance peaks and troughs in the resource demand.
In addition to the application of the above-mentioned techniques, a resource manager should leverage specific resource management software tools – they can not only automate and simplify routine activities but also increase the efficiency of the resource management process.
Let’s consider their contribution through the example of Epicflow, a resource management solution designed for work in a multi-project environment. The section below describes its resource management functionality in more detail.
A resource management solution: How does it help?
Epicflow is designed to ensure the successful orchestration of multiple concurrent projects and efficient management of their shared resources. Here are some of the system’s essential resource management capabilities.
It helps manage team members’ competencies. Epicflow keeps the data on employees’ skill levels, availability, and capacity. In addition, it has a resource allocation advisor who analyzes the above-mentioned information and suggests a perfect candidate for completing a task.
It keeps track of team members’ performance. Monitoring resource performance is essential: if employees cope with their work well, it will create a seamless flow of project work. In Epicflow, you can not only have an idea of the output produced by the teams but analyze it in relation to people’s capacity within a certain time period.
It detects resource bottlenecks. Epicflow can timely identify overworked and idle resource groups and even specify the reasons for their overload. As a result, a project/resource manager can take necessary measures before the bottleneck results in problems for the workflow – delays cost overrun, etc.
It improves resource management decisions. If there’s a bottleneck and you aren’t sure about the best way to address the situation, Epicflow’s simulations will help you. For example, if you have an overloaded resource group, you can check what will happen if you make certain decisions (add employees from other groups, hire new people, move milestones, etc.), and choose the most reasonable one.
These were just some of the examples of Epicflow’s resource management functionality; you can find more useful information on its website.
Key takeaways
- Effective resource management aims to ensure that the right people work on the right projects/tasks at the right time.
- Resource management involves the application of the following techniques:
- Resource capacity planning is used to ensure that all current and upcoming projects are staffed with required employees;
- Resource allocation is aimed at assigning employees to tasks based on their skills and capacity;
- Workload management ensures that team members’ workload corresponds to their capacity: they are neither overloaded nor idle;
- Resource optimization techniques are applied when the work is distributed unevenly and/or the same employee is required for several tasks at the same time.
- Resource management software (e.g., Epicflow) helps automate some of the resource management activities and significantly increases the efficiency of the resource management processes.