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Project Resource Management

Project Resource Management. Agenda Aims of project resource management Strategic and tactical resource planning Scenario planning and management Availability and capability assessment Skills matching and resource selection Resource assignment Time and cost tracking

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Project Resource Management

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  1. Project Resource Management

  2. Agenda • Aims of project resource management • Strategic and tactical resource planning • Scenario planning and management • Availability and capability assessment • Skills matching and resource selection • Resource assignment • Time and cost tracking • Availability management A wide ranging topic to cover..

  3. Aims of project resource management • Optimise the allocation of resources to projects • In short and long term • Through peaks and troughs of demand • Manage resource costs • Balance internal and external resources • Develop staff capabilities • Allocate staff to work they have the skills for • Provide staff with interesting and challenging work A balancing act..

  4. Benefits of good project resource management • Deliver more projects with the same or fewer resources • Increase resource utilisation • Deliver more projects to schedule • Reduce requirements for external staff • Reduce uncertainty in staff scheduling • Understand strategic delivery capability • Identify skill and resource shortfalls earlier Some real benefits to be achieved..

  5. Strategic and tactical resource planning Resource demands can be both long-term and short-term: • Do we have enough resources to do all this year’s projects? • What will the impact on current projects be if we reduce our costs/ staffing levels by 10%? by 20%? • A new project is required ‘out of the blue’ – how can we resource it? • We have two projects starting next week – have the project teams been confirmed? • A project has been cancelled – where can we best redeploy the team?

  6. Strategic and tactical resource planning We can view resource planning and deployment like a production timeline: Long term demand Medium term demand Short term demand Long term supply Medium term supply Short term supply DAYS YEARS MONTHS

  7. Short term (day-to-day) planning Team calendar Daily ‘grid’

  8. Medium term (monthly) planning Planner views

  9. Long term (yearly) planning ‘Timechart’ views

  10. Long term (yearly) planning Team availability grids

  11. Scenario planning and management Typical scenarios: • Resourcing business as usual activity, priority projects, nice-to-have projects • Which projects can we deliver next year with our current resources? With +10% / -10% resources? • After resourcing our strategic projects, what spare capacity do we have to achieve some ‘quick wins’? • A new project has arisen at short notice. Can we deliver it with our existing resources? What will the impact be on other projects? • A project has been cancelled unexpectedly, freeing up skilled resources. How best can we deploy them?

  12. Scenario Resourcing ‘Forecaster’ view:

  13. Availability and capability assessment Measuring capability and availability • Capability – skills, qualification, certification, experience, grade, location, mobility, fit with rest of team and the customer • Availability – for the duration of the work, for the required hours per day, uninterrupted by other activities? • Capability can be driven by availability – a resource can become capable once trained or certified • Cost may also be a factor – the ‘right’ resource is often the most expensive

  14. Availability and capability assessment Which is key – capability or availability? • It is rare that a resource will declare themselves available • Searching for the next available resource with the relevant skills may lead to a very long wait.. • Managers should generally look for the most capable internal resources to do the job, and identify and prioritise existing commitments Task A Priority 1 Resource 1 Task B Priority 3 Task X (not resourced) Task C Priority 1 Resource 2 Priority 2 Task D Priority 5

  15. Resource requests Typical data requirements for a resource request: • Task reference/ name • Resource requestor (e.g. Project Manager)? • Date of request • Start date and end date for work (and if either or both are fixed) • Total hours/ hours per day/ % of time • Loading curve • Skills/ capabilities/ grade required • Named resource requested • Budget cost • Location of the work • Task status/ priority • Decision date for resource allocation ?

  16. Notional resources Notional or ‘virtual’ resources can be a useful concept: • Resource requests are allocated first to virtual resources • The type of virtual resource (e.g. Business Analyst 1) indicates the main skills and capabilities required • The allocation of virtual resources clearly identifies the demand for a particular type of resource • When planning years ahead we can’t predict real resources • To identify planned changes to the resource pool • Virtual resources can be assigned and reassigned without having to communicate these reassignments to real people

  17. Notional resources • At an appropriate (short-term) stage the virtual resource can be replaced by the assignment of a real person: Assignment from virtual to real resources Resource pool increases by one person • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 Fred BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 Julie Julie • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 Mike Mike • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • BA 1 • Jan • Feb • Mar • Apr • May • Jun • July • Aug TODAY

  18. Skills matching and resource selection • Skills may be identified and matched to requirements through: • job title/ grading • specific skills and qualifications recorded in a database • requests by staff/ line managers for specific work • CV search • searching for similar tasks done previously and identifying who has carried them out • word of mouth – asking around.. • Besides capability and availability, resources are often selected according to ‘fuzzier’ criteria: • have worked with the requestor/ project team before • want to do the work (or not) • will do this work on condition they do/ do not get assigned to some other wanted/ unwanted task

  19. Resource assignment A typical resource assignment process: • The resource manager offers a named resource to the ‘resource requestor’, perhaps with the offer being provisional or with some conditions attached • The resource requestor accepts or rejects the offered resource, typically after some discussion with the resource manager and maybe also with the resource. • If the resource is accepted then the resource is advised of their new commitment and schedule. • If all resources offered are rejected then the task may not proceed as planned and the resourcing request may be escalated to a higher level of management .

  20. Managing the pipeline of requests A typical assignment request pipeline: • Possible work • No resource Work planned FUTURE • Possible work • Virtual resource Resource (type) requested • Possible work • Virtual resource • Possible work • Virtual resource • Definite work Virtual resource Work approved • Definite work • Potential resource Resource offered • Definite work • Definite resource Resource agreed • Definite work • Definite resource NOW

  21. Time and cost tracking • Having carefully established the resource allocation to meet our project needs, we can re-use this data to: • Remind team members what they should be working on • Produce cost projections for project work • Create draft timesheets based on planned work

  22. Availability management • In monitoring the availability of project staff, it is important to take account of changes in legislation and trends relating to human resources: • Flexible working patterns • Home working • 9-day fortnight • Outsourcing/ Offshoring • The EC working time directive • Another factor, often overlooked, is the need to carefully track annual leave. Legislation now inhibits staff and employers from carrying forward annual leave. Annual leave which has yet to be taken can have a significant impact on overall team availability as year end approaches.

  23. Resource Management in action …SmartCore • SmartCore’s flexibility and scalability supports a wide range of applications: • programme management • project portfolio management • resource management • risk and cost management • help desk and call tracking • test planning and management • marketing and campaign management • technical inventory and configuration management • event and diary management • environmental management and reporting

  24. Resource Management in action …SmartCore • SmartCore has been deployed across a wide range of sectors: • aerospace & defence • broadcasting and media • energy and environment • government agencies • legal and professional services • local government • medical and life sciences • retail and investment banking • software and technology • transport

  25. SmartCore customers include..

  26. SmartCore Process Adaptive Technology 0207 403 4433 jon.lewis@ninthwave.co.uk www.ninthwave.co.uk 0207 403 4433 jon.lewis@ninthwave.co.uk www.ninthwave.co.uk Project Resource Management from Ninth Wave Project Resource Management from Ninth Wave

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