Planning Project Resources

1. Planning Project Resources Presentation to PMAG September 19, 2011

2. Planning Project Resources Comment from EPMO 2009 Survey: “Projects need to be fully resourced with the skill sets required to meet project deliverables. The PM cannot effectively be the engineer, the business analyst, architect, quality assurance, technical writer and manage the project.”

3. Planning Project Resources Human Resource Management The strategic function performed in an organization that facilitates the most effective use of people to achieve organizational and individual goals.

4. Planning Project Resources PMBok says: • Project Human Resource Management describes the processes that organize and manage the project team. • The project team is comprised of the people with assigned roles and responsibilities for completing the project. • Human Resource Planning identifies and documents project roles, responsibilities, required skills , reporting relationships and creates the staffing management plan. • Project roles can be designated for persons or groups. Those persons or groups can be from inside or outside the organization performing the project. Note: PPM Tool requires both internal and external cost estimates.

5. Planning Project Resources • Efficient and effective use of resources can often make or break a project. Resources are limited, hard to be obtain and can be expensive. • The allocation of resources can have a major influence on project schedules. • For example, limited programmers affects time, cost, quality, risk management, etc.

6. Planning Project Resources High-level planning steps: • Identify stakeholders both inside and outside the organization. The project team must understand the needs and concerns of stakeholders in order to guide the team’s actions, priorities and decisions. • Determine the deliverables of the project and the activities needed to produce them. • The next step is to estimate resources needed. A combination of resource needs and availability helps to determine the time needed for entire project.

7. Develop Work Breakdown Structure The WBS accomplishes the following: • Breaks the project down into categories (software, hardware, testing, etc.) • Ability to determine which areas will be resource intensive • Gets to work package level so activity durations can be defined • Activity durations required to develop project schedule • Early participation, awareness and buy-in by stakeholders.

8. Planning Project Resources Create a project schedule: • Define the start date for the project and the anticipated end date. • Construct a milestone schedule of interim goals in order to measure progress. • Create a completion date for each deliverable and who is accountable for the deliverable. • Create an activity schedule for all activities required to complete interim deliverables and final deliverable. • A Gantt Chart can be helpful to provide a visual overview of the project schedule.

9. Planning Project Resources

10. Planning Project Resources Items to consider: • Pre-Assignment – Do you need specific SME’s? Are there individuals with special skills that would add extra value to the project? • Negotiation – Functional Managers and politics could come into play. • Acquisition – Acquire external services to fill internal skill gaps. • Virtual Teams – Groups of people with shared goals, who fulfill goal with little or no time spent meeting face to face. • Resource Calendars – Documents time periods each team members can work on the project. • Resource Leveling – balancing the workload of primary resources • Estimating Data – research production rates and unit cost of resources.

11. Planning Project Resources The RASCI document developed by the Methodology Group can be used to help staff a specific project. R = Responsible - the person responsible for producing the deliverable A = Accountable – the person accountable for the deliverable S = Support – the person/s that assist in completing the task C = Consulted – the person/s that must be consulted before a decision can be made I = Informed – the person/s that must be informed on any decision that has been made

12. Planning Project Resources Effective Teams: • Roles must be clear • Effective team communication • Team members have a mix of skills • Need a method to monitor performance • Small team size is best (8-10 max) for the Project Management Team

13. Planning Project Resources References: • EPMO PMP Exam Class Preparation presentations “Managing Project Resources” and “Project Communications” • Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBok) • Web source – “Managing Project Resources” by Toyin Osunlaja, Gozde Kilinc & Ercin Sen • Information Technology Project Management, 4th edition, Kathy Schwalbe