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Project resource management – a key foundation for project success in the company
Managing project resources is a crucial element that impacts the efficiency and success of projects in any organization. In an era of increasing competition and dynamic market changes, the ability to optimally allocate resources—both human and material—becomes essential for achieving success. In this article, we will discuss how effective resource management can contribute to better project execution and what key principles should be implemented in a company to achieve desired goals.
Introduction to project resource management
Let’s start with some obvious truth, and that is the statement that people implement projects in companies. Human labor costs money, and the better we manage this labor, the cheaper we will achieve the desired results. Business-wise, this is precisely the point. Let’s also agree that people are the most valuable asset of most organizations. It is worth making an effort to ensure that employees are properly motivated to work on projects. Considering all this, the human resources that carry out projects should be managed wisely. Let’s look at the practice in many organizations and how dedicated project management systems help solve many project resource management problems.
Challenges in project implementation
Often, there are situations in which a company’s management expects the organization to carry out projects beyond those currently underway. Employees defend themselves from launching further projects because they know fully that the ones underway already involve them. They say, “We can’t do it,” management believes this is due to their unwillingness to take on more responsibility and become more involved in the business. There is a lack of unequivocal proof to show what the situation is. In this case, the solution is relatively simple – we need to have some IT tool to support project resource planning and clearly show what “spare capacity” is still available in the organization. Let’s look at the screenshot below, which shows every month where the organization still has spare capacity.
The role of IT tools in resource management
Looking at this picture, you can see which employees are overburdened with work and which can still take on more responsibilities. Of course, it is worth making such a summary in large organizations by displaying and analyzing specific types of resources, such as engineers or programmers. Appropriately positioning the projects in the organization on the roadmap is worth bringing all the colors to blue.
To get a report showing the commitment of organizational resources to projects, you should do some work, and for each project, think about who, when, and to what extent should be involved in the project to get it done in the best possible way and make optimal use of available resources. The allocation of a specific person to projects is shown in the figure below.
This screen shows Daniel Labert’s involvement in the three projects she is currently assigned to.
What I have shown above are pretty basic activities that make up project resource management in an organization. In larger organizations, resource owners release resources to projects when project managers demand those resources. A resource owner is an additional “filter” that keeps an eye on the optimal use of resources in the organization. When we manage multiple projects in an organization, dedicated IT systems can help us assess what the commitment of resources to ongoing projects looks like and put a filter on this situation with the projects we want to launch. Then, by appropriately shifting projects in time on the project roadmap, we try to create optimal resource utilization.
The problems and solutions described above can significantly improve an organization. I especially emphasize the importance of the IT tool, as it helps to solve this problem significantly.
AUTHOR
Włodzimierz Makowski
CEO FlexiProject
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