A Guide To Managing Your Resources: Project Resource Management

Luc Nguyen

Oct 29, 2023

4 min read

By: Luc Nguyen

Whenever there is a project that needs to be completed, you want to make sure everything is utilized efficiently. By doing so, you will be on the roadmap to success. If you're having trouble implementing this, maybe you should take a look into project resource management. It's a great way to break down all the resources that go into a project and see how each component affects the project. Don't know how to implement it? This guide will help showcase what is project resource management so that you can a deeper understanding of it.

What Is Project Resource Management?

For starters, let's define project resource management. It is essentially the process that you can take both physical and human resources and make the most out of them within a project. There are four processes to consider when implementing project resource management:

Planning Resource Management

As a project manager, you need to decide on how to estimate, obtain, overlook and utilize project resources. You will need to show judgement, represent data, organize your thoughts and hold many meetings as a project manager. After planning, you should be able to come out with a resource management plan, project document updates and a team charter (these concepts will be explained later).

Estimating Activity Resources

This process involves estimating the physical and human resources that go into the project in order for it to be completed. You can use methods such as bottom-up estimating, analogous estimating, and parametric estimating as you are analyzing your data to create your estimations. The end result of this process should give you resource requirements, a resource breakdown, and basis of estimates.

Acquiring Resources

After you estimate what resources you will need, it's time to actually get them! This can including getting team facilities, team members, materials, equipment and other resources that may be required. This is also the point where you will make a lot of decision making based on team and interpersonal skills. By making these decisions, you'll be able to allocate where you can plan team members and resources the best to maximize your efficiency. By the end of this, you should have some team assignments, a resource calendar, requests, and any updates to existing documentation.

Developing The Project Team

The processes where improvement can happen for creating both team and individual skills related to the project. Many consider team-building skills as a challenge as it can be difficult to bring in everyone on the same page. However, with in-depth communication, recognition, training and assessments, you'll be able to create a well built team for your project.

A Critical Piece: The Resource Management Plan

*Example of a Resource Management Plan Template in Sheets

As mentioned earlier, having a resource management plan will allow you to navigate through project resource management easily. Think of it as a roadmap that project managers, like yourself, can use in order to control resources to your advantage to complete a project. When creating a resource management plan, make sure to include these key components:

Responsibility Assignments

Each team member has their own niche and talent. There's a reason as to why you drafted each member in order to create the team. Assign each member to their own strong suit. This can eliminate a lot of conflict and confusion on who needs to work on what. Keep an eye on each team member, this includes their work, time and the tools they use. Keeping track of this will ensure you are following any budget or policies placed on the project.

Resource Estimates

This step is similar to one of the processes mentioned for project resource management: estimation. As you are delegating team assignments to your team members, it's always a good practice to make estimates. The resource management plan will include details of any tasks given to team members, so make sure to consider any dependencies.

Project Dependencies

Sometimes, things can't happen or function without having another thing happen or being present. As a project manager, you should always be considering any dependencies within your project and development team. Let's say you know you need specific software you need to purchase in order to continue the development of the project. If you know you are going to implement future installations, you should consider the cost and resource management of that software that is required.

Alternative Plans

You shouldn't cut corners in order to complete a project. However, as a project manager, if there are other viable options you can consider and implement, there's no harm in doing so. It can be difficult meeting a deadline, but if you can switch things around that can cause the deadline to be met, those are options that should definitely be considered.

Consider a Team Charter

A team charter is a document that defines the working principles of a development team. It acts as a guide on how teams will interact personally, as well as how they will function individually and as a unit. A team charter should include a team's goals, values and expectations throughout the development of the project. It will help out with communication and goal-oriented activities, as well as promoting accountability and clarity with any stakeholders.