Guide to Resource Planning in Project Management — Backlsh

One thing you need to know either you are a Rookie or a Professional Project Manager is: “How are you going to deliver the project on time and a budget?”

Your success will depend on the people, i.e. your resources. Effectively managing your team will help you do more, at the right time and in the right budget.

In this guide, you will get to know Resource Planning, what is a resource plan, the importance of resource planning in project management, how to use Resource Planning tools.

Use the below section to jump to the right section.

What is Resource Planning?

Resource planning is a systematic process to achieve the best use of human and non-human resources of an organization. For most organizations, resource planning is allocating their personnel for projects.

A Resource Manager or Project Manager should know about identifying team members for the project, designate them jobs, and when they are going to need them.

A Resource Planner should balance things between HR planning and business costs. It is all about confirming individual projects have enough resources and business still makes a profit.

A Resource Plan

A Resource Plan is made before the start of the project, it is a part of project planning.

Just like a map helps you through road trips, a resource plan will help you identify all the physical resources required for the project.

Your business’s success will be determined by your employees: their skills, knowledge, and relationship with customers, this is why planning Human Resource Management is important.

Resource plan involves the following steps:

● Identify Resources: list all the available resources for the project, their name, and designation.

● Cost of resources: list the cost of all resources to you and clients as well.

● Availability of resources: ensure availability of all resources throughout the project, list their planned holidays and any specific requirements they have.

● Project Responsibilities: particularize in detail what work each resource is expected in the project.

Types of Resources in Project Management

Some common resources that you may consider when starting a project:

● Budget: Approving the budget from the client will help in working accordingly. A Project Manager can find suitable resources when the budget is clear.

● Materials: Price out the materials that would be best under the given budget.

● Team Membe r: Assign a Project team for various tasks.

● Hours: Make a deadline as per the clients’ need (when they want it.)

Looking for a resource planning tool? More than 7,000 People use Backlsh to plan their projects and schedule their team’s time. Try it out.

Whiteboards and Spreadsheets will always be easy to go at first, but as your team expands, as your company moves towards growth, planning in this way can become impossible. And that is when the resource planning tool will come to your rescue.

32% of companies that worked and are working with us increased their profitability after using Backlsh.

With Resource Planning Software, your project is kept under a budget, your teams’ schedule is less likely to pull up and you can also look at what everyone’s working on.

Why is Resource Planning Prime?

Resource planning and management are important for all businesses either large or small. When you over-allocate resources they result in wasting time and drain profits. On the other side, under-allocating resources will result in critical points and a drop in the output.

Apart from allocating resources, a project manager has to consider that they are allocating the right task to the right person.

The Project Manager has to inspect the skills of each team member, their previous experiences and assign them tasks accordingly.

Resource Planning is important for the better use of your people. Reasons for prioritizing resource planning are:

● Prevent Underutilisation: to make more money from the same resources is either to get resources to work more or charge more for each resource.

● Prevent Over-allocation of resources: resource planning can help to prevent over-optimization of resources. If everyone is working at 95–100% capacity, any ‘breakdown’ may lead to the collapse of the project, as no one will be available to cover the work.

● Boost Project Profitability: When you allocate the right person the right task it increases the profits of the organization.

● Clarifies Roles and Responsibilities: this ensures that everyone’s skills are used effectively. Your goal is to assign a person a project that is best suited for them, this will save everyone’s time and effort.

Steps for Proper Resource Planning

Step 1: Assess your Project Resources

Before starting any project, you should always be acknowledged of the resources you have. Either you’re building a house, a website, or an app; you need to know the steps to follow and the resources that you will need.

To assess your projects you may:

● Use a spreadsheet or a project management tool and list your team and their tasks in the project.

● Check-in and identify areas to focus on for growth and development.

● Identify each of your resource’s performances, strengths, and effectiveness.

Step 2: Create a Timeline and Schedule

Creating a Project Plan is an important part of any project. This will help you run a smooth functioning. After making a project plan you can follow an order to get things done.

Using a Project Management tool and a Time Tracking app will help you manage the resources over various projects, and handle scheduling like a professional.

Step 3: Allocate tasks

● Assign tasks to your team members based on their previous experiences and strengths, that will be more effective.

● Assign tasks on the Availability of the worker.

● Assign tasks with clear guidelines and expectations so that there are no doubts and your team knows what is expected from them.

Step 4: Share with your team and start working

Explain the plan to your team clear and straight.

Stick with the plan you made, a slight change to your project can also put an end to the project. Just believe in the plan and go with it.

Wrap up

Resource Planning is the foundation to your success as a Business and Project Manager. How well you manage resources and your team decides whether you can complete your projects on time and under budget.

Use this guide to get you started with resource management and get better results.

Originally published at https://www.backlsh.in on February 5, 2021.