Managing Project Resources – Optimization to Harmonization

In project management (PM), people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition are required for the completion of activities. However, the lack of these necessary resources can be a constraint on the completion of project activity.

People resources, with their capabilities and availabilities, are often trickiest to manage. Their scheduling and optimization is vital to successful project and resource management. Since the people providing their skills are increasingly in short-supply, creating optimized, flexible scheduling is necessity.

Two realities compound the commotion:

1. Virtual project teams – by creating a network of virtual workers, organizations can assemble teams of experts who can effectively resolve a particular project's challenges. Sounds great, but managing teams of professionals who rarely (if ever) meet in person poses numerous problems for Project Managers.

2. The multiple project dilemma – chances of multiple project failures. Resource non-availability is often the main reason for failures in multiple project environments. People are unsure of their deliverables. Confusion breeds inactivity.

One answer will do: a Cloud-based project management system provides collaboration capabilities to the disconnected virtual folks, while providing standardized procedures for access to and submission of all related documentation. Personnel and project visibility is achieved – everyone’s always together in a single (virtual) room that’s much easier to manage.

Those wresting resources among competing projects need to provide their people with clarity. Through Cloud-based automation, each team member’s project allocation is mapped and assigned to the fraction of an hour, recorded on a permission-based viewable calendar for resource optimization. One person can play on multiple teams; they’re content and motivated fully realizing their responsibilities, while PM’s all the better for it.

Give the people harmony, and there will be the peace.

Back to Mastering Project Resource Management.