Resource Planning in Project Management:
The goal is to get resource forecasting correct, and that requires time and effort. It’s a tough job to estimate all the moving variables, and it’s an unreachable objective to get it right every time.
1. Understanding of the skills needed for the project
It’s different from human resource management. Resources must be forecasted at a more granular level on a project.
You must assess the skills necessary to finish every job on the project. To complete the job, you must assess the skills required and then build a profile for the resources you need.
Whether you’re recruiting for yourself or working with HR, you must depict the talent you want for your project. Without doing this, you can’t comprehensively complete capacity resource planning in project management.
2. Knowledge strengths and weaknesses of your team members
When assigning people to tasks, consider the amount of time you have in each sprint or milestone of the entire project.
Make sure you do not use a person’s job title to assign them to a deliverable, just because they have the right title. Select the quality level you desire; don’t just stick a name next to a deliverable just because they have the right job title.
Check their performance on previous projects, using heuristics like skill level, quality of output, and speed of work. If you do not have all the skills you need (for example, proficiency with a certain type of software), you should decide whether you want to train them or recruit someone else.
Quality enterprise resource planning allows you to search for resources by skill level, which is a good way to put together a great group. Don’t be afraid to ask managers and other PMs for feedback on the performance of resources they have used in the past.
3. Past Projects Analysis to Ascertain how Resources were Under or Over-Utilized.
A PM may staff a project believing that every detail will be accounted for, but as weekly resource tracking efforts move on, some individuals are discovered to be spread too papery, while others have worked very little.
The skills that might have been valuable are wasted, while their counterparts burn out under the pressure of too many areas of responsibility.
Prior to beginning a new project, you can identify who needs to be on the team for the entire duration, who needs to join as needed, and which tasks may require multiple Full-Time Equivalents (FTEs) by reviewing the lessons learned and resource utilization patterns of previous efforts.
To avoid wasting time when a resource departs, plan for the fluctuations of work, and build in buffers for lost time.
Do teams perform better after a sprint if they review how they performed to identify areas for improvement? Or, do they perform better if they review how they performed to identify areas for improvement?
A retrospective is a post-iteration meeting during which project teams reflect on their performance and identify any mistakes they made that would have affected productivity, teamwork, or output quality.
Further, the team can use the findings from the retrospective to identify resource needs or performance issues in the next sprint or project, which they can then resolve.
4. Tone with the Right Resources to the Right Assignments.
Prior to beginning a project, you can assess the entire team and decide which skills are required and which resources are strongest in each area.
Your snapshot can help you identify potential issues and mitigate some of the more common resource management risks, such as:
Assigning deliverables Incorrectly
PMs have frequently made the error of believing that certain skills are associated with job titles or work experience.
You may assign the wrong tasks to a person if you assume they have those skills, resulting in issues that will become evident.
You must do your research to ensure you assign the proper tasks to the right individuals by using a resource planning tool. For example, you may send the incorrect person to the incorrect training if you do not do your research.
Time Negligence
You may add cost, negatively impact other deliverables, and risk losing the project if you do not understand the time it will take to finish a job or if you do not leave sufficient time around your resources’ time estimates.
Make sure you identify the most skilled and experienced resources for each job. They are more likely to understand the time required and potential issues since they have the greatest expertise and experience. Always leave time for unforeseen events.
5. Project Risk Analysis
A project crashing or lacking significant resources at crucial times may result from a lack of resource forecasting expertise.
In order to prevent mishaps, you must be prepared for losses, especially attrition. It may seem that there is no method to anticipate attrition since you don’t know what individuals will do, but you may use past trends to assist you in dealing with it properly.
