What is Project Resource Management?

In the simplest sense, Project Resource Management is the process of evaluating data to coordinate WHO is (or who will be) working on WHAT and WHEN.

Project Resource Management Definition

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines Project Resource Management as the processes involved in identifying, acquiring, and managing the resources needed for the successful completion of a project. It includes both human resources (people) and physical resources (materials, equipment, facilities) required to deliver the project’s objectives.

From PMI’s PMBOK® Guide

Why Does Project Resource Management Matter?

Project Resource Management provides the structure for success.

1. Create Transparency:
WHAT should we be working on?

Project Resource Management best practices support transparent sharing of necessary information. This ensures everyone understands the value of project goals and status. Make data-backed decisions, confident that you’re working on the right projects!

2. Increase Effective Decision Making:
WHO is working and WHEN?

Informed leaders can evaluate resource allocation patterns and make effective decisions, to efficiently assign the right people at the right time.

3. Enhance Project Outcomes:
HOW did it turn out? HOW can we improve?

Best practices in Project Resource Management empower leaders to plan and evaluate project success.

Project Resource Management Challenges

1. Overthinking the “Perfect” Allocation

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of success. Resource Managers often get stuck trying to balance a specific metric such as, “Resources must be allotted 7.25 hours.”

“Allocations are your best guess at what a resource will work on at a given time. Don’t over think them. Know you can always adjust allocations as you move forward.”

– Project Resource Management expert Crystal Lape
Clarity PPM Functional Lead, Clarity by Rego

2. Limited Visibility of Resource Availability

Tracking resource availability is complex but essential to prevent scheduling gaps.

In a recent poll of Project Management Office (PMO) leaders, we identified 52% of organizations do not have processes in place to identify and address critical resource capacity gaps.

“It is important to know what your resources are working so that you get a full picture of their availability. Meet with them on a regular cadence to check in on how their workload is going. This helps you stay current with what is going on, and helps build a connection with your resources.”

– Project Resource Management expert Crystal Lape
Clarity PPM Functional Lead, Clarity by Rego

3. Lack of Communication

Resource Managers need to communicate effectively with a variety of stakeholders, including project managers, executives, and customers. When challenges arise, Resource Managers may be hesitant to reach out to their manager or stakeholders. However, not communicating their needs or risks makes the situation worse.

Poor communication can cause many problems, including resource misallocation, bottlenecks and workflow interruptions, team or department conflicts, obscure accountability, ineffective decision-making, morale decline, missed opportunities, budget overruns, and stakeholder dissatisfaction.

Top 10 Project Resource Management Best Practices

It can be very challenging to adopt major changes, especially if they’re rolled out all at once. The “Crawl, Walk, Run” approach will help you build effective businesses processes in a strategic and incremental way.

The “Crawl” phase.

Set up initial framework and policies, focusing on adoption and simple data analysis.

• Begin data analysis by understanding your resources’ roles, skillsets, allocations, and actuals.
• Establish an initial set of processes, policies, and reports around allocations and capacity/demand forecasting. Focus on making projects simple for everyone involved.
• To increase effectiveness, communicate and train end users with the end-goal in mind.
  • Pro Tip: consider sending your team email updates, instructive “quick reference cards,” and/or targeted training videos.

The “Walk” stage.

Formalize processes, ensure data integrity, and provide ongoing support and training.

• Formalize any aspects of the Crawl stage that are still ad hoc.
• Focus on data integrity for informed decisions.
• Establish ongoing support and an end-user training or mentoring program.

The “Run” stage.

Establish a continual improvement cycle, expand adoption, and address any issues that arise.

• Establish and prioritize a continual improvement cycle to capture feedback.
• Use this cycle as a mechanism to address any issues that arise.
• Expand adoption and integrity efforts to include time tracking and/or vendor management.

For more information on the Four A’s, check out this resource: Mastering Resource Management: The Four A’s for Project Success

Everyone’s success depends on accurate and timely communication. And, communication can always be improved. Remember that a lack of communication leads to resource misallocation, workflow disruptions, and stakeholder dissatisfaction.

Successful organizations ensure teams have the right information to prioritize high-value tasks. Here’s how they do it:

• Share clear, accurate, and timely updates.
• Encourage collaborative communication. Consider:
  • “Do project managers and resource managers have healthy communication?”
  • “How can we improve communication?”
• Ask stakeholders how they prefer to get updates; some people prefer emails, reports, or even instant messages. Personalized communication fosters a sense of value and builds a positive team atmosphere.
• Avoid overloading stakeholders with too many notifications. Send only when action is needed. Examples of helpful notifications include:
  • Allocations sent to individual resources.
  • Exceptions (over/under allocation) sent to booking managers.
  • Automate essential communications using a PPM tool like Clarity by Rego, to schedule and send key reports (such as Over/Under Allocation by Resource) to resource managers and division managers.

Organizations are unified by their agreed-upon guidelines. Guidelines provide streamlined focus, efficiency, and communication to reduce risks and successfully complete projects.

Focus your processes on the most important things:

People:

• What is the key to empowering our team?
• Are things changing rapidly?
• Are we able to plan resource assignments three months ahead?
• Are resources assigned to three or fewer projects, to avoid context switching?

Process:

• Is there constant change?
• What guidelines are in place to support staffing?
• Are they aligned with our organization’s culture and goals?
• Is prioritization considered when planning?

Tools:

• Do we have a single source of truth for project information?
• What is one small thing we can do to improve a current data challenge?
• See: Best Practice #9: Tools for Success.

Project management processes must evolve to meet organizational needs. Utilize this graphic to evaluate your current status and increase your maturity.

Organizations must plan ahead to have the right resources to deliver on their commitments.

“We all get busy in our day-to-day responsibilities, meetings, and emails. It is essential to set aside time on your calendar – at least once a month – to review resource allocations.”

– Project Resource Management expert Crystal Lape
Clarity PPM Functional Lead, Rego Clarity by Rego

In a recent poll of PMO leaders, we identified that only 3.4% of organizations have mostly productive resource capacity planning processes! 59% utilize a blend of proactive and reactive processes, and 38% are mostly reactive.

Improve proactive strategies:

• Begin by establishing processes and tools to:
  • Manage demand and capacity for labor resources.
  • Analyze demand and utilization data to identify potential concerns and solutions.
  • Work with project and resource managers to resolve scheduling conflicts.
• Consider the entire project priority, timeline, and needs. Confirm roles, dates, budgets, and activities with the resource manager and/or resources.
• Plan for flexibility. Adjustments will be necessary, so leave margins for unplanned work.

  Allocating resources more often than monthly is an act of diminishing returns.

 Use 25%, 50%, 75% when allocating tasks to resources.

• Simple percentages strike the right balance between detailed planning and usability, making it easy for everyone to understand and apply them to real work. (Exact figures like 13.2%, 4.65%, etc. take much more time and brain power to comprehend.)

  Utilize the starting guideline of

• 75% allocation to specific projects
• 25% to unallocated general tasks.
• Avoid allocating less than 10%, to avoid tedious analysis paralysis.

These simplified approaches reduce the number of decisions required and makes reporting more straightforward.

• To reduce risks and boost productivity, review allocations at least once a month.
  • Pro tip: Set a reoccurring calendar reminder for this task.
• As you review recent actuals regularly, your forecasting can improve.

Data that is accurate and up-to-date will help your resource managers make the best decisions possible. Without it, you are essentially flying blind.

Although it is clearly important to keep resource management records up-to-date, it can be hard to maintain. The best practice is to maintain a regular cadence for updates.

Customize your reminders to your style – the right one is the one you act on! Visual learners may like calendar alerts or sticky notes, while others may prefer verbal prompts.

• Regardless of your method, keep your goals front and center. This will keep you on task and help you succeed.

The best tools for project resource management utilize real-time data to support key job responsibilities with:

You can learn more about what to look for in a good PPM solution here.

Once your project is established, and at a regular cadence, evaluate project status in the following areas:

Remember to act on each of your findings. This will improve data-backed decision making, increase accountability and efficiency, and improve overall project outcomes.

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