What is Resource Management?
- What Is Resource Management Pdf
- Chapter 9 Project Human Resource Management Pdf
- Project Human Resource Management Pdf Notes
Resource Management is a facet of project management that deals with the human, financial, distribution and demands of project resources. Careful management of human resources leads to the path of project success.However, mismanagement of resources can lead to project failure, overtime, budget overages, and other unfortunate events.Below, I outline the key elements of resource management.
Preliminaries:
Before diving into the key elements, three statements must be made defining some of the important terms involved with resource management.
- The Resources Themselves – Before one can manage a resource, one must know what a resource is.A resource may be a human resource (employee), a financial resource, a product to be sold or obtained, skills, technology, information, or elements for production.
- Having the Proper Data – The data required for effective resource management includes demand for resources, available resources, and how the resources will fit into the demands (what is required of the resources).
- Utilization/Allocation – Resources must be used to the maximum capacity for the minimum amount of cost.Tasks should be allocated (assigned or distributed) to resources in a fair and balanced manner.
What are the Key Elements of Resource Management?
Among crucial elements of resource management, the following are the most key:
Resource Plan – Every project plan should have a resource plan as its component.The resource plan should contain all aspects of your project from beginning to end that pertain to resources required.
Resource Breakdown Structure – Here, you will break down the resources required to complete the project in a hierarchy – as you would in a work breakdown structure or an organizational breakdown structure.
Responsibility Assignment Matrix – this is where the resource or organizational breakdown structure meets up with the work breakdown structure to assign responsibilities to the various branches in the hierarchy. Windows 8.1 pro 9600 key.
Resource Overallocation – Overallocation of a resource is when a resource has been assigned more work than can be completed during normal work hours.Resource allocation often leads to overtime and overspending on financial resources.
Resource Histogram –This graphic representation can cue project managers whether there are any resources being overallocated.
Resource Dependency – If two tasks require the same resource to complete them, then these tasks are resource dependent.If a task can only be completed by one resource, it is resource-dependent.A resource dependent task has particular constraints linking it to a particular resource.
Resource Leveling – Leveling resources involves redistributing an imbalance of allocated work.It assists project team members by keeping them from becoming overwhelmed, working overtime, or running into project burnout.
More Information
For more information on working with resources in your project, check out the following companion articles:
Project 2007: Leveling Resources — A step-by-step guide to leveling resources in Microsoft Project.
Leveling Your Resources to Avoid Overtime — This article by Ronda Roberts discusses the importance of leveling resources, who benefits from leveling resources and manual vs. automatic leveling of resources.
Project 2007: How to Display the Resource Histogram — Use Project 2007 to display the Resource Histogram and other related resource management views.
Easy-to-use Resource Planning Tools— This article looks at five of the best, easy-to-use tools for resource planning.
Planning Your Project’s Resource Capacity — Great resource management is a vital part of managing a project. A good project manager must know how to delegate resources to effectively run and complete a project. In this article, we will learn about effective resource management and some ways that a project manager may manage this.
Project 2007: Creating Resource Calendars — A step-by-step guide to creating resource calendars in Microsoft Project 2007.
There are many reasons why managing people in a project environment are different from managing them in a departmental setting. These differences make the this aspect of the project manager's job more complex than his or her departmental equivalent even though they may be responsible for similar numbers of people. This means that a good project manager requires all of the people skills of a line manger together with an appreciation of the additional issues that exist in the project environment.
This area of project management involves ensuring that the project has sufficient human resources, with the correct skill sets and experience, for the project to be successfully completed.
This plan details the project roles, responsibilities, required skills and reporting relationships required for project success. It includes project organization charts and the timetable for staff acquisition and release, and may also include identification of training needs, team-building strategies, recognition programs, compliance considerations and safety issues.
The process of acquiring a project team takes place within the executing process group and is concerned with confirming human resource availability and obtaining the personnel needed to complete project assignments. Acquiring the project team is often complicated by the fact that the project management team will not usually have direct control over everyone they would like to have involved in the project. They may need to negotiate with others who are in a position to provide the right number of individuals with the appropriate level of knowledge skills and experience.
Team performance can be developed by using open and effective communication, developing trust among team members, managing conflicts in a constructive manner, and encouraging collaborative problem-solving and decision-making. This involves tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and managing changes to optimize project performance. Managing human resources is probably one of the most complex areas as people can be unpredictable, can give rise to an expected conflict, the level of their morale can go up or down, and also of course for either personal or professional reasons, some may leave the project in an unplanned manner.
There are two principal conflicts that human resource management seeks to address. The first is the conflict between getting the work of the project done as quickly as possible and the need to develop the skills and competencies of the project team members. The second conflict is between selecting and managing people according to the skills required by the project and managing them as individuals with their own personal and career requirements.
The project manager will spend at least half of their working day communicating with project team members and other stakeholders. Communication skills are every bit as important as planning skills and the other technical skills of project management. Unlike technical areas, for example estimating and risk assessment; communication is something that the project manager has to take direct personal responsibility for. The lack of a communication plan is often the biggest single mistake the project manager can make because completing a complex project successfully requires teamwork, and teamwork requires good communication.
This involves understanding the different communication methods available and selecting those most appropriate to the project. There are many ways to communicate, including unscheduled and informal face-to-face meetings, periodic reports, project Wikis, collaborative software, video-conferencing and email.
While all projects share the need to communicate project information, the informational needs and methods of distribution vary widely. Identifying the information needs of the stakeholders and determining a suitable means of meeting those needs are important factors for project success. A poor communications plan will lead to serious problems because required information will be delivered late, people will be sent information that is not relevant to their needs and sensitive information may be sent to people who should not receive it.
This process identifies people, groups, or organizations that could impact or be impacted by a decision, activity, or outcome of the project. It analyzes and documents their interests in and influence on the project. A stakeholder is defined as anyone with an interest in the project, irrespective of whether that interest is positive or negative. They may be individuals or organizations that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be affected by the execution or completion of the project.
The purpose of this process is to keep the various stakeholders informed on the progress of the project. This is done according to the communications management plan. It involves the periodic collection and analysis of baseline versus actual data to understand and communicate the project progress as well as to forecast future performance based on performance to date. The reports themselves can take any format from a simple status report, specifying the percentage of each activity complete to more elaborate reports that include an analysis of past performance, the current status of risks and issues, and other relevant information that could be of interest. The important thing is that there is sufficient information to allow the project manager to use it in other monitoring and management processes and that it is provided in a timely manner.
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There is nothing more important to the success of a project than the people who make up the project team.
Putting together a project team is one of the very first steps of setting up a new project. Without the people to compose a quality team, you won't be able to make very much progress at all into the work that needs to be done.
• Using people who are already within the organization is beneficial because they likely have knowledge relevant to the purpose of the project, even if the project is venturing into a new area for the company.
• Many of the skills that they currently use on a regular basis will likely transfer to the project tasks that they take on.
• Additionally, they are already on the payroll and won't cause you to incur some of the other expenses associated with bringing on new talent.
However, looking outside the organization is necessary at times depending on what skills will be required.
• Need specialist skills during the project
• One way to have sufficient quantity of a scare resource.
• You are venturing into a new area that isn't normally dealt with in your organization, bringing in new people who are experienced within that field is almost required for success.
What Is Resource Management Pdf
Even if you are able to assemble a 'perfect' team for your project, there is still work to be done in terms of bringing that team together. Since you are starting up a project that is new to your organization, you will need to mold the team to precisely fit what you are trying to accomplish. As project manager there are several ways you can enhance the performance of your team they are:
• Open & effective communication
• Develop trust amongst members
• Constructive management of conflicts
• Encourage collaborative problem-solving
• Encourage collaborative decision-making.
As any experienced leader can attest, expecting a team of people to work together seamlessly from the start of a project to the end is likely unrealistic. Teams are made up of individuals who have their own personalities, feelings, backgrounds, and more.
Chapter 9 Project Human Resource Management Pdf
One of the first steps toward successful project communications management is deciding who needs to receive information. These are often referred to as stakeholders, because they have a stake in the final outcome of the project. In many organizations, the people who initiated the project are going to be those with the most interest in its progress and outcome.
This might just be the most difficult point of all related to project communications management. Passing along information at the right time is important to keeping everybody informed - but not overwhelmed.
• Your direct supervisor / project sponsor every Friday.
• Board of directors on the first Friday of every month.