Appreciate the importance of resource planning in project management. Resource planning involves determining what is required to complete a project in order to effectively distribute and protect all of these components.
If the word “resources” only makes you think of physical materials, it’s important to understand that project resources also include team members and even finances.
Before you start working on a project, you must determine absolutely everything that will be needed to complete it successfully. And then you need to make sure that you can not only find all these resources, but also get them exactly at the right time.
The Importance of Resource Planning
Take a deep breath and then exhale slowly, because we’ll now return to the very unpleasant example of finding a meeting room.
Just when your team was ready to join forces for a quick brainstorming session, you were missing an important resource: space. Everyone is ready to work, but you have nowhere to go.
As a result, the process, which should have been so simple, turned into a lot of obstacles. Let’s look at some of the common pitfalls of not properly planning resources (besides passive-aggressively staring through the glass at those occupying the meeting room).
The project plan should indicate what activities are required to complete the project and when each of these activities will be completed. It’s simply impossible to plan for these milestones if you don’t know what resources will be available.
What if, for example, your project plan said that all the graphics for a presentation should be ready by the end of this week, but you had no idea that your team’s designer would be busy with another project before the end of next month?
If you fail to estimate resource availability, the project plan may not be accurate, the deadlines given are mere guesses, and you are constantly stressed and wondering if you will be lucky enough to get what you need.
Resource scheduling also helps avoid unnecessary delays. When the same resource is needed by many people or projects at the same time, there is no guarantee that you will receive it.
You might be lucky to be the first. Or not. If you don’t win this race, the project schedule will have to be pushed back to a later date.
Just think: if you booked a conference room in advance, no one would have to wander around the office looking into meeting rooms. You would immediately start brainstorming and carry it out effectively.
In one report from the Project Management Institute (PMI), researchers found that resource dependency and resource overload were the most commonly cited reasons for project failure. The importance of these factors even outweighs problems such as the inexperience of the project manager and procrastination on the part of team members.
By planning what you’ll need, when you’ll need it—and how you can get those resources at your disposal—you and your team will have everything they need to complete projects successfully, without unnecessary stress.
The resource planning process: how to get what you need when you need it
It is impossible to predict the future, and therefore resource planning is not the easiest task. How do you even know what exactly a project will require?
Let’s boil this down to a simple formula that will help you plan and manage your resources effectively. No more wandering around looking for an empty conference room.
Start by making a list of everything you need to complete the project. For huge multifunctional projects this will be especially difficult. Take paper and pencil and start writing down the most obvious things.
Once the basics are done, think about the different phases or sections of your project. For example, a webinar being created must begin with content preparation, which means that someone from the content preparation team and an expert on the chosen topic will be required. Continue moving from one stage of the project to the next and write down what resources will be required at any given time.
Worried you’ve missed something? Ask several team members to review your list. Especially those who have previously been involved in similar projects: they will definitely notice what resources you have overlooked.
Once your big list is complete, try to bring order to it by grouping resources into the categories we wrote about above: people, software, equipment and budget.
So, here is a detailed list of everything that is required. Now it’s worth answering the question: which of these do you already have?
Let’s approach this very simply: take two markers of different colors. Let’s say green will be for what you already have on hand, and pink will be for resources that you need to find.
Start with green resources. Go through the list and highlight what you already have. You may already have a subscription to video conferencing software that can be used to host your webinar once it’s ready. Highlight in green.
What’s next? Highlight with a pink marker what you are missing. You don’t have a graphic designer to design your presentation slides.
Repeat this step until the entire list is marked in green and pink.
Now let’s take a closer look at the “pink” resources. This is something that your project requires, but is not yet available to you.
Even the most versatile teams require outside resources, and now is the time to figure out how you can get them.
You know that the team does not have a graphic designer to prepare the slides for the webinar. Should you outsource this work to a third-party agency or hire a freelancer? Or maybe take a free tool like Canva and try to solve the problem yourself? Determine in detail what you can do in a given situation, and write the solution next to your list.
It’s time to pay attention to the resources highlighted in green. The biggest mistake at this stage is to decide: “All this is already available! There is no need to worry.”
You are not the only one carrying out projects, and therefore you need to not only pay attention to the existence of the resource, but also evaluate its availability. Then you can really secure resources for your project.
The availability of resources is not always obvious. To grab what you need, you will need the following steps.
Talk to the right team members to assess their options for the future (for example, the content team won’t be able to handle your webinar until next month).
Reach out to other departments that use the same resources to figure out if and when they actually need the resources. (For example, the sales team is using video conferencing software this month to create sales materials, but next month you can use the software.)
Estimate the scope of the project and make a forecast of the resources that may be needed in the future (for example, you will need the help of the web development team to create a launch page for the webinar at the very end of the project, but it is better to put this task on their schedule now).
As with any new business, you will have to experiment with something, try and make mistakes. But the very fact that you are trying to plan resources already implies that there will be fewer difficulties along the way and in your project.
Now that you have the full picture and all the information in front of you, you can create a project plan based on the actual availability of resources. Remember that the best project plans are created using existing resources, rather than trying to fit resources into a pre-made plan.
You will definitely have to try to put this puzzle together in different ways. If you know that video conferencing software won’t be available until next month, then (at least) you won’t be able to host a webinar until then.
When you plan a particular stage of the project, write down a list of resources that will be needed at this stage. It is also useful to indicate when the resource will become available so that others can include its use in their plans.
Above we described how you can plan resources manually. Rest assured, this approach works.
However, when it comes to identifying, allocating, and using resources for maximum efficiency, look beyond markers. The software helps:
visually represent projects throughout the organization;
track intersections when using resources;
regulate project plans and resource requirements in real time;
manage the workload and employment of team members;
Access data and reports to shape project plans and resource requirements for the future.
You can choose what is more convenient for you: a file with a table, special software or a reliable notepad. But keep in mind: resource planning software offers many benefits (and eliminates the tedious writing).
Isn’t it great when teams can grab their laptops, move into a quiet conference room with a whiteboard ready, and immediately begin a collaborative brainstorming session?
And yet, time after time, you find that you have to wander around the entire office – and of all places, the only accessible place is the “dressing room” in the toilet, where people usually go with a phone for personal calls.
This is what happens when resource planning is not organized properly. Irritation grows, confusion arises all around, and often you cannot even complete the planned work because there are no resources for it.
Obviously, resource planning is vital for the timely determination and allocation of everything that is required for a project, as well as for the management of such resources.