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What is resource management? A guide to getting started

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Resource management is the process of planning and scheduling your team’s resources and activities—essentially anything that helps you complete a project. Developing a resource management plan can give you visibility into team member workloads. Learn how to manage resources and improve team performance.

Making sure your team doesn’t feel overworked or underutilized is a challenge you’ll often face as a leader. It's easy to lose sight of your team's workload and bandwidth. That’s where resource management comes in. 

Developing a resource management plan can give you consistent visibility into your team’s workload. It allows you to balance all your resources effectively and to see the full picture of how your team will achieve its goals.

What is resource management?

Resource management is the process of planning out and scheduling your team’s resources to optimize utilization and ensure project success. A resource can include everything from equipment and financial funds to tech tools and employee bandwidth—basically, anything that helps you complete a project.

When you’re deciding how to manage or assign your team’s resources, consider a few questions:

What is the availability of each resource?

What are the timelines for each activity?

How many resources will be required to accomplish each activity?

Who is the best person to accomplish the activity effectively?

Effectively managing your resources ensures every project is well-equipped and every team member is appropriately allocated, paving the way for successful project completion.

How to effectively manage your team’s workload

Learn how to leverage work management to distribute work more effectively.

Why is resource management important?

Resource management allows you to make sure your team members are confident with the amount of work on their plate and equipped with the tools they need to accomplish each task. When resource management is done right, you’re empowering your team to produce high-quality work at a sustainable rate. 

Benefits of resource management

[inline illustration] Benefits of resource management (infographic)

Let’s dig a little deeper into why resource management is critical to your team’s success. With effective resource management, you can:

Distribute work appropriately , ensuring all your team members are appropriately staffed—not overworked or underutilized.  

Spot potential resourcing problems in real-time and adjust accordingly, preventing staffing issues from impacting progress on projects.

Give your team clarity around their responsibilities and the responsibilities of their team members, limiting misunderstandings and promoting accountability. 

Set realistic project goals , reducing the likelihood of missing important milestones and increasing the chances of on-time project completion.

Enhance your team's profitability by optimizing resource utilization and ensuring projects are completed efficiently and within budget.

Improve future resource planning by drawing on the knowledge gained to better estimate and forecast bandwidth for upcoming projects.

Resource management techniques

Leveraging resource management techniques is all about finding the smartest ways to use your team's skills and resources. Let’s explore a few common types of resource management methods.

Resource allocation

Resource allocation is more than just allocating resources to tasks and projects; it's the process of choosing the best resource based on the project team’s skills and capacity. After all, good resource management isn’t just about making sure you have enough resources; it’s about making sure you have the right resources for the right projects. Resource allocation can help you achieve this by strategically matching your team's strengths, capabilities, and resource capacity to the specific demands of each project.

Resource utilization

Resource utilization involves using tools like utilization reports and time tracking software to identify your team’s capacity over a specific period of time. It’s a capacity planning technique that allows you to identify whether project resources are being underutilized or overallocated, so you can better manage workloads.

Resource forecasting

Resource forecasting is a resource management process that involves proactively predicting the resource requirements for future projects and initiatives. You can identify these needs by relying on past trends and project metrics, as well as your team’s current capacity and the needs of upcoming projects. Resource forecasting is typically done during the project planning stage and can help with risk management by identifying potential resource bottlenecks or gaps in your team's availability in advance.

Resource leveling

Resource leveling is a resource management solution designed to combat shortages or overallocation by leveraging underutilized resources. For example, this might mean shifting work from one team member’s plate to another who has similar skills and additional capacity. Or, it could mean taking advantage of skill sets that typically aren’t utilized, like having a website content writer create social copy.

Types of resource management

Effective resource management is pivotal in steering any organization toward its goals. This process involves a strategic approach to managing various essential resources. 

Here, we focus on three fundamental types: human, financial, and material resources. Each category plays a unique role in the broader spectrum of resource planning and is a crucial component of any resource management plan.

Human resource management (work resources)

Human resource management is the strategic approach to managing a company's most valuable assets—its employees. This involves not just recruiting and hiring but also integrating workflow and automation tools to streamline training, performance assessments, and career development planning.

Example: A software company might enhance its human resource management by using workflow automation to efficiently align its workforce with emerging technology trends. This ensures that developers are systematically trained in the latest programming languages and Agile methodologies. By automating parts of the training and development process, the company can quickly adapt to changes in the fast-paced tech industry.

Financial resource management (cost resources)

Financial resource management is the process of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling financial activities such as procurement and utilization of funds. It involves making smart decisions about allocating financial resources to various projects or departments. 

Example: Consider a multinational corporation that allocates budgets across different regions, taking into account local market conditions, operational costs, pricing strategies, and revenue projections. This strategic financial management helps to ensure high-priority initiatives receive the necessary funding and resources to thrive. These resources, such as consulting or other professional services, are instances of tactical spending that are helpful but not the main purpose of budgetary allocation.

Material resource management (material assets) 

Material resource management involves the efficient planning, sourcing, and utilization of physical resources required for business operations. It encompasses inventory management, purchasing, and supply chain optimization to support the entire project lifecycle, from initial planning to final delivery. 

Example: A manufacturing firm may use material resource management to ensure a steady supply of raw materials like metals and plastics. By doing so, the firm can avoid production delays and cost overruns, thereby maintaining product quality and meeting customer delivery timelines.

5 step resource management plan

A comprehensive resource management plan is essential for any organization looking to optimize its resources effectively. This plan involves a series of steps that ensure resources are deployed efficiently and comply with both the project lifecycle and overarching business goals. 

Below are the five key steps in developing a solid resource management plan.

Step 1: Resource planning and budgeting

The first step in effective resource management involves detailed resource planning and budgeting. This process includes forecasting resource requirements and matching them to the available budget. 

Example: A tech startup, XYZ Software, begins its journey by planning resources for its innovative project management software. They forecast the demand for qualified software engineers and marketers, set aside money for cloud infrastructure, and make sure their financial resources are distributed effectively between development and marketing.

Step 2: Identify resources (capacity planning)

Identifying the right resources is make-or-break for any project's success. This step, often referred to as capacity planning , involves understanding the availability and skills of your workforce, as well as the physical and financial resources at your disposal. It’s about decision-makers being able to match the right resources with the right tasks, ensuring that your human, financial, and material resources are aligned with your project's needs.

Example: XYZ Software conducts a thorough analysis of its team's skills and identifies the need for additional software engineers with expertise in cloud computing. The company also assesses its current financial resources to ensure sufficient funding is available for these new hires.

Step 3: Allocate resources

Once resources are identified, the next step is their effective allocation. This involves assigning resources to various tasks and projects based on their availability and suitability. Resource allocation ensures that every project gets the necessary resources without overburdening any single aspect of the business.

Example: XYZ Software allocates its existing team to initial development phases, while the newly hired cloud experts are tasked with building the cloud infrastructure. Financial resources are allocated to ensure both teams have the necessary tools and software licenses.

Step 4: Resource tracking

Tracking resources throughout the project lifecycle is essential for ensuring that everything is proceeding as planned. This involves monitoring the usage of resources, assessing if they are meeting the project's requirements, and making adjustments as needed. Effective resource tracking helps in identifying potential shortages or surpluses early, allowing for timely corrective actions.

Example: As XYZ Software's project progresses, they use project management software to track the time and resources spent on each aspect of the project. By doing so, they are able to make adjustments in real time by identifying areas where resources might be overutilized or underutilized.

Step 5: Resource optimization

The final step in the resource management plan is optimization. This involves analyzing the performance and usage of resources and making necessary adjustments to improve efficiency. 

Resource optimization might include implementing automation tools to streamline processes or revising strategies based on performance data. Using resources as efficiently as possible is the aim, which will help the organization succeed as a whole.

Example: After launching the first version of their software, XYZ Software reviews their resource usage data. They realize that automating certain testing processes can free up developer time. This enables the team to focus more on critical tasks, thereby optimizing their use of human resources for future updates.

10 resource management best practices

Follow these ten best practices to boost your team’s productivity, hit project goals, and achieve a balanced team workload. 

Use a work management platform to streamline the planning process and ensure consistent, efficient allocation of resources across projects. While traditional resource management tools, like Gantt charts or spreadsheets, are useful ways to track capacity, their limited scope can’t match the extensive capabilities offered by a comprehensive work management platform. 

Measure available resources by gauging team capacity and necessary tools. This will help you ensure realistic resource allocation and avoid rescheduling issues.

Set start and end dates so you get a realistic timeframe for how long each task will take and set realistic expectations for your team. 

Know your employees’ skill sets so you can determine the best resourcing for each task. 

Set clear, accessible project goals to help you prioritize your team's work and drive high-impact work forward.

Help your team increase their utilization rate by automating routine, low-impact tasks so your team can focus on actionable, strategic, and billable work. 

Adjust resources as necessary because tasks, project timelines, and priorities change.

Keep some team bandwidth open for new work or priorities that might come up. 

Check in on your team to ensure each team member feels their work volume is fair and achievable. 

Connect your resource management plan to your operational plan in order to effectively manage your team's time and align daily tasks with strategic objectives. 

Manage your resources more effectively with a work management platform

To ensure you’re allocating resources effectively and aligning them to your wider organizational goals, use a work management platform. By centralizing project details and team capabilities in one platform, you can ensure efficiency, clarity, and alignment at every project stage.

Resource management FAQs

Have more resource management questions? We’ve got answers.

What is a resource management plan?

A resource management plan can help you manage and assign every type of resource you need for your project. An effective plan outlines the specific resources (including human resources, financial resources, technical resources, and physical resources) and activities necessary during the course of a project or initiative. 

Why is creating and implementing a resource management plan important? 

A resource management plan will guide you by giving a holistic view of all of a project’s moving pieces: budget, staffing and workload requirements, and tech stack limitations—allowing you to easily manage, schedule, and assign every resource while maximizing resource availability. Learning how to manage resources will empower you (and your team) to run projects effectively.

Should I create a resource management plan for my project?

The short answer is yes. Resource management in project management isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have to support your team and prevent burnout. The benefits of resource scheduling far outweigh the time it takes. 

The number of projects your team can handle, along with the quality of each, depends on it. As a project leader, resource management is your opportunity to optimize efficiency, prevent overwork, and effectively manage your team’s workload.

What is a resource management plan template?

A resource management template is a reusable guide that helps you manage team bandwidth over the course of a project. It shows you everything your team is working on—so you can see how full everyone’s plate is, if they can take on additional work, or if they need help to get project tasks done by the deadline. Thanks to your template, you don’t have to waste time setting up a resource management plan for every new project. Instead, you can just copy the template, fill it in, and start working.

What are the steps to creating a resource management plan? 

To create an effective resource management plan, leverage a tool like a work management platform, which will give you easy insight into what everyone on your team is working on, what resources are available, and how to prevent team burnout. Then, follow these steps:

Define the project’s goals to gain clarity on what each project entails and make it easier to know what resources you need and how to assign them. 

Align on the project scope by meeting with project stakeholders to define how much time and resources you should dedicate to the initiative. That will give you the best sense of the project plan and help you decide what resources are best suited for the job.

Identify the types of resources you’ll need —such as bandwidth, equipment, software, and project budget—so you can then identify what resources you have available.

Identify available resources by checking each resource you previously needed against what you have already available. Depending on the project scope, you might have to adjust your resource level and deprioritize other work to avoid putting too much on your team’s plate.

Kick off your project by clearly communicating the resource plan to your team, ensuring everyone understands their roles and the resources at their disposal.

Periodically check in on project progress to see how the project is progressing and whether you need to make adjustments to your resourcing strategy.

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A straightforward guide to resource planning (according to resource planners)

Learn how to build a resource plan with practical methods and tools so your team knows what work to do (and when to do it).

Stella Inabo

Stella Inabo,   Content Writer

  • resource management

The process of planning resources helps you answer two of the most important questions a project or resource manager can ask:

  • How do I ensure the project gets finished without overworking my team?
  • How can we deliver this on time and within budget?

In this introductory guide, you’ll learn what resource planning is, its importance, what you should look for in a resource planner, and where you should get started creating your resource plan.

We wrote and updated it on the back of several conversations with Float customers who work as resource managers, project planners, and operations managers at companies ranging from 2-3 people to over 10,000 and included a quick overview of creating your resource plan based on our findings.

What is resource planning?

Resource planning is the process of determining what resources are required to deliver projects and then allocating and scheduling the work based on team capacity.

Planning your resources involves: 

  • Understanding who needs to work on what project and when 
  • Figuring out who is available to do the work 
  • Deciding what’s the best use of your team’s time 
  • Finding compromises between competing priorities (and project managers 😅)

For example, one of our customers runs weekly resource planning meetings, which involves all the project managers in the agency.

They meet to ensure the following week's schedule is clear for everyone, address any potential schedule conflicts or resource demands as a group, and make adjustments. They also ensure that team members with availability are assigned tasks and review allocations for the next week.

Once the decisions are solidified, they update Float with all the allocations so that all the team members know what they are doing and when.

Why is resource planning important?

Resource planning provides a reliable basis to start projects and improves the chance of delivering them on time and within budget . Creating a comprehensive resourcing plan before the start of a project helps you:

  • Increase efficiency, as you know what resources you need and how they’re allocated to project tasks .
  • Improve project success rates by matching the right skill sets to the right tasks.
  • Track capacity and availability so if unforeseen resource needs arise, you’ll be ready to address them.
  • Monitor progress to keep projects on budget and work on track. You can see what each person should be working on and for how long.
  • Plan and predict your resource availability for future projects, which helps your team become more organized in the long term.
  • Improve job satisfaction and retention in your team—less burnout or overwhelmed team members.

business resource planning

Michael Luchen

Director of Product at Float

Resource planning promotes focus by avoiding over-allocating projects to team members. It allows organizations to see if their current staffing is a surplus (they can take on additional projects) or if there is a shortage for the projects they want to take on—so it helps prevent over-hiring or under-staffing, optimizing the spend of a company.

Not only does it inform the re-prioritization of projects (“what’s best next?”), but it also quantifies the work so that organizations can prevent burnout.

Start resource planning with the #1 rated platform on G2

Plan your team's best work with Float's resource management software. Get an accurate view of your team's capacity to schedule tasks with confidence.

What happens when you don’t plan your resources?

Not planning your resources leads to overhiring and underutilization. Remember the former recruiter at a major tech company who shared that she and many of her colleagues had little to no work to do despite being at the company for several months—and then a few months later; there were mass layoffs and a hiring freeze? That’s a more common scenario than you’d think.  You might be wondering, “Why do these companies keep hiring and then not utilizing so many people?” 

While there are many answers to this question, one major reason could be poor resource planning. Without a process for identifying required skills and forecasting people according to an organization’s needs, there will be over-hiring, misalignment of roles, and underutilization. 

On the other hand, efficient resource planning ensures that you only hire when you need to and that your people's tasks align with their roles. When done right, these tasks don’t just provide opportunities for growth for your team: your company also saves money and focuses on activities that can improve the bottom line. 

Try the #1 rated resource management tool

More than 4,500+ of the world's top teams choose Float to plan their projects and schedule their team's time.

How to create a resource plan: 5 steps in the resource planning process

We’ve spoken to several of our customers to understand how they go about planning resources. Based on what we’ve learned and observed, we have outlined a process you can use to get started. 

Resource planning is hardly ever a one-person activity. It might require organizing a resource meeting with project or operations managers. Alternatively, you could run async planning meetings in Slack (with the help of Notion docs) as we do at Float. 

Whatever process you choose, your resource planning should look roughly like this 👇🏿

1. Lay out project tasks and the resources you have

Outline your project tasks and list your resources. Are some tasks of higher priority than others? Are there tasks that need to be frontloaded? Who is available to take on work? What resource is double booked?

For example, if you are using Float, you’d probably start by looking at your Schedule to determine availability like this:

A view of a team's schedule in Float

A schedule view of a team's projects with details about team availability

2. Assign work based on availability, skills, and interests

Match tasks to team members who can take on work using your resource management tool.  When assigning tasks, consider the skills and interests of team members. Allocations in your resource management tool should be the single source of truth so everyone knows what they should be doing and when. 

You can learn more in this post about resource allocation . 

3. Consider the future demands on resources

An important (but difficult) step is predicting what work might come and having available people to do it. You need to plan for unexpected tasks that might arise in the future and allocate some extra time or resources to ensure you have people available to handle them. 

4. Get feedback from stakeholders on proposed allocations

Unless a team member is assigned to your project exclusively, you should stay in contact with other PMs or functional leaders to keep tabs on the demands on the resource. Ideally, you should ask for feedback from the team members to avoid schedule conflicts and overbooking.  It could be as easy as sending a message before delegating a task to a shared resource.

5. Make adjustments to your resource plan when needed

You'll need to update the resource plan regularly (we recommend once a week) as the project progresses because of unexpected changes, slow approvals, unforeseen scope adjustments, etc. 

Project plans can be updated easily in Float using the drag and drop function

Do you need resource planning tools? 

Yes, you do. 

We might be a bit biased on this point because Float is a resource management software—but our answer actually comes from thousands of our customers who told us that spreadsheets and DIY solutions (including keeping it all in your head!) can do the job, they become a nightmare as your team grows. 

For example, the capacity planning team at Scholz and Friends used to plan their resources in spreadsheets. As the agency expanded, they realized the tool was inadequate. 

“Excel is great, but it can only do as much,” says Comfort Agemo, Senior Capacity and Freelance Manager at Scholz and Friends.

Comfort Agemo pointing at a monitor that displays her team's schedule in Float

Comfort Agemo is the Senior Capacity and Freelance Manager at Scholz and Friends. 

And even for smaller teams under 50 people, spreadsheets aren’t the easiest or most accurate tools to use( and often require one person who is an Excel pro to tame them). 

“I’ve planned in spreadsheets in the past and there’s a couple of big issues. Probably the biggest one is how difficult it is to move things around. Most of the time, things change and the plan needs updating. Also, typically, in spreadsheets, you edit numbers in cells - you can’t edit the allocation in context. The other big piece is that in spreadsheets, the calculations are often exposed to the user and can be accidentally edited or deleted by someone else,” says Alice Winthrop, senior product manager at Float.

Still using spreadsheets for resource planning?

Try built-for-purpose software that's easy to use and get started.

Consider the variable resource inputs you need to track over time—things like billable hours, skill sets, and ongoing tasks for each team member. Plus national holidays, personal leave, and sick leave. There are so many moving parts—and with resource planning software , you can track all that and more to have a bird's eye view of capacity whenever you need it. 

➡️ Learn how to evaluate tools and choose the best resource management software .

Once you know how to pick tools, take a look at this list of the best resource management software we curated for you, complete with comparisons of features. 

5 key features to look for in a resource planning tool

If you are considering a resource planning tool, there are some must-haves and some nice-to-haves to take into account. 

1. Multi-project organization features

You should be able to plan different projects in one tool and have a central view of how the allocations look as a whole. Ideally, the tool should provide the option to color code projects so it is easier to distinguish between them.

A schedule view of projects in Float

An overview of a team's projects in Float

2. Real-time updates

Updates should happen in real-time so that as soon as something changes  (like a team member calling in sick) and timelines change, team members are notified of the new resource plan. For example, email or chat notifications will be sent to team members once you make changes to allocations in Float.

Notification message from Float informing team member of a mention

Team members are notified by email once project plans are updated in Float

3. High-level view of teamwork schedules and resource availability 

You should be able to visualize your entire team's availability on one screen and decide how to assign (and reassign, if necessary) each task to a resource based on skill sets and capacity. For example, your system should give you an at-a-glance sense of key information like their daily schedule, job titles, and work hours.

A schedule view of a team's project in Float

The Float schedule provides an overview of all ongoing projects

4. Forecasting and budget tracking 

The resource planning tool you choose should help you track any project's performance alongside its resources' billable hours. Once you allocate more than that, the tool should clearly show you that you are over budget within your project budget report so you can take quick remedial action.

The budget report in Float

Budgets in Float are automatically updated as the project progresses.

5. Project reporting tools for smarter decision-making 

Another essential feature is a reporting dashboard where you can see precise analysis of project vitals like project budgets, utilization rates, and scheduled hours.

Report dashboard in Float showing d

The Report dashboard shows team utilization rates, capacity volumes and billable hours

How to plan your resources in Float 

We’ve been hinting (more like strongly suggesting 😉) that you use Float for your resource planning, and at this point, you’re probably wondering how it works. 

Let’s show you 👇🏿

1. Create a data repository of your people (resources)

Create a centralized repository of your people to see information about their skills, roles, capacity, and locations at a glance. This inventory will help you track resources , organize your planning, find staffing gaps , and quickly determine the best person to work with.  

Now if you are considering using a spreadsheet, we are going to have to stop you right there. Spreadsheets offer limited functionalities and are inflexible for the constant changes in projects.  

Instead, you can use a resource planning tool like Float. You can add roles, include billable rates, set custom work hours and locations, and add their skills. 

Here’s a detailed video on how to create your data repository👇🏿

2. Set up systems for managing capacity

Put systems in place that will keep you on top of your team’s capacity. Now these systems don’t require you to build something completely new or complex. For example, you can set leave policies in place to guide your team members when they need to take time off. 

This is important because capacity is often nebulous. Project managers tend to think that the team has more availability than they actually do. 

Take for example, the 40-hour work week. These hours are rarely spent on work alone. There are meetings, admin tasks, ad-hoc tasks, and in some cases, sick leave. 

“It’s important to understand your organization’s baseline capacity when it comes to planning projects,” Michael Luchen, director of product says. “Think of admin and management tasks they might have to do. For example, if the design lead has to do admin work for an hour or two a day and then meet with team members for another hour, that should be allocated on their schedule.” 

There are various systems you can set up to manage your team’s capacity. 

  • Create leave policies. Determine beforehand the specific conditions under which leave can be taken. This could be time off with pay for a limited number of days or a compulsory annual leave that must be taken every year, or sick leave when the team member falls ill. 

➡️ Learn how to schedule and manage your team’s time off .  

  • Import public holidays to your resource planning tool. At Float, we have 40+ workers across different continents. It’s quite common for team members to have a public holiday during a project. To avoid missing deadlines, we plan around holidays and don’t assign them tasks on their days off. Each team member’s holiday is set in Float and helps managers know when they’d be out before time.  

➡️ Learn how to set public and team holidays  

  • Manage PTO requests. Ensure that time off requests are reviewed before they are approved. This process should involve the manager of the team member as they would have a good idea of the person’s workload and can approve or decline the request. 

➡️ Learn about time off approvals  

  • Encourage your team to sync their calendar to your resource planning tool. Meetings often take up chunks of the team’s time without project managers noticing. Stay on top of upcoming and recurring meetings so you have a realistic idea of your team’s capacity. 

➡️ Learn how to sync your Google Calendar with Float

3. Forecast resources required and their availability  

Determine the people you need for your project based on the project requirements. What job roles are needed? What skills are needed? This will be a good time to refer to your resource repository. 

Then find out if these people are available to work on your project. Are they already allocated to another project? Do they have some time off during your project? 

➡️ Learn how to create resource breakdown structures for projects

Forecasting your resources is important because it shows you who you need on your team to complete your project. It also reveals staffing gaps and potential schedule conflicts. 

business resource planning

Unconfirmed projects can be set as tentative in Float

However, this step is very speculative because humans can’t see into the future. Consider creating a tentative project plan. This approach has helped  Georgia McGillivray , the former operations manager at MetaLab plan resources better. 

“We're able to plug tentative projects into Float and see three months into the future. That gives our executives and partnerships team a line of sight into how we'll staff future projects and our ability to take on additional projects.”

➡️ Learn how to create tentative projects in Float . 

business resource planning

Emily Feliciano

Creative Resource Manager at Atlassian

After years in the industry (both in-house and agency) and using everything from Excel spreadsheets to automated resourcing software, Float is effectively the most nimble and aesthetically appealing tool on the market. I work with creatives, and we need to look at data in a digestible way. Float makes it easy and efficient to do so. I love the customization options, tools that it integrates with, and how you can get both granular and high-level information. It’s been my top tool for years, and I always try to get new places to adopt it.

4. Match resources to tasks  

Research shows that job satisfaction increases when individuals' job roles align closely with their assigned tasks. Matching resources to tasks is an important step in your resource plan as it influences the performance and engagement of your team. 

For example, Angela Faunce Leaf, executive producer at Tilt Creation + Production ensures that she assigns her people to work that complements their skills and helps them grow. 

“Everyone has a core set of skills that may range from the remarkable to the adequate. And there are also parts of everyone’s job that they love, like, or hate. I try to build on this and get to know each team member’s preferences and priorities.”

She finds out what her team is interested in from conversations, regular check-ins with team members, performance reviews, and project post-mortems. 

She also keeps track of interests using tags in Float . 

“I also use ‘tags’ for some people to note special skills or interests. I am often surprised at how many folks have skill sets that no one knows about. I once worked with a project manager who was a food stylist in a previous job - needless to say, that fact was good to know and came in handy in a pinch.”

Team member profile with tags

Team members can be assigned multiple tags

5. Review available data on project time

Look at past project data to understand how time was spent on previous projects. This retrospective approach is especially helpful when planning resources for projects with similar tasks. It will help you know if your previous plans were accurate or if they were far off the mark. You can also spot areas of improvement. 

For example, you might notice that a bottleneck slows down the project just before the final product is delivered. When creating a new resource plan, you are better prepared to eliminate or avoid the bottleneck. 

If you’re already tracking your team’s time on Float, you can find helpful insights in your Project and People reports. 

If you have not started tracking time spent on projects, the best time to begin is now. Time tracking in Float is simple and collaborative.

➡️ Learn how Impression streamlines its resource planning and time tracking with Float

6. Review project reports regularly 

The best-laid plans might not work out as you expect, and that’s fine. 

For that reason, you should review project reports to monitor the health of your project. Are you over or under budget? Do you need to bring in a contractor to help complete specific tasks? Are any resources underutilized?

For Float users, Project and People reports will come in handy. 

To access these reports, click the Report tab. Then navigate to Projects to see the health of your project. 

The dashboard shows project information like scheduled hours, logged hours, estimated budget, and actual costs. 

Report dashboard in Float

Team member utilization levels are displayed in Float

We recommend that you try resource planning software like Float. We have several features designed to help you plan better: 

  • Use tags to add skills, notes, and departments to each resource. 
  • Gauge your team’s bandwidth using task hours and overtime indicators
  • Drag and drop an allocation to move it to another person. 
  • Budget expenses and compare actual costs with estimated costs. 
  • Resize allocations to increase the daily hours or time range. 
  • Split allocations and move one part to another team member

Resource planning made easy

If you’re still planning your projects with spreadsheets, chances are you’re not maximizing your team’s time or tracking budgets efficiently. This is exactly how project deadlines and budgets get thrown off track. 

With a tool like Float , planning your team’s time and scheduling your resources can save you up to four hours a week!

But the real win comes from keeping every team member on the same page. They will know what projects they’re working on, when they need to be finished, and what the overall project pipeline looks like. 

Try the #1 rated resource management software

Float is the #1 rated resource management software on G2 for planning projects and scheduling your team’s time.

Related reads

The ultimate guide to resource management for 2023, a practical guide to capacity planning (+ expert tips on how to do it), resource allocation: improve project efficiency in 2024.

What is Resource Planning, and Why is it Important in Project Management?

business resource planning

“How many and what resources do I need for the coming weeks, months, quarters, or years”? “Should I hire more people to meet future demands or leverage sales efforts to keep everyone occupied with work”? “How can I avoid billing loss and control project costs before it’s too late?”

These are the pertinent questions that stakeholders ask themselves on an everyday basis. To get the correct answers, we need efficient resource planning.

Without implementing the proper process and technique, making any decision will be like throwing darts in the air.

Resource planning can address these challenges in today’s dynamic business conditions. It helps plan resources intelligently from the ground up and continuously optimize your workforce. However, taking a shortcut and failing to make a timely decision will adversely affect the organization’s business objective.

This guide is curated for enterprises to gain a detailed understanding of resource planning in project management.

Let’s dive deep into it.

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Resource planning definition

Resource planning is the process of identifying, forecasting, and allocating best-fit resources , i.e., human resources, equipment, assets, facilities, and more, to the projects at the right time and cost.

It also ensures the efficient and effective utilization of resources across the organization. In other words, it’s the strategic planning process to make the best use of resources depending on their capacity/availability and deliver every project within time and budget.

Let’s take an example: your firm is an IT company, and you have a software development project in the pipeline received from a global client for a long-term horizon.

Here, project managers will look after the client’s requirements, assess the scope of the project, and will also predict and evaluate the resource demand. As a part of the process, they will request resources from resource managers to fulfill this demand.

The resource managers will now assess the new requirement, find out the gap between the demand and the available workforce, and look for different ways to fill this gap. This will include hiring a new workforce from the market or juggling resources available within the organization. Thus, the ability to forecast requirements and develop a strategy to plan, allocate, schedule, and utilize the resources and their competencies effectively is termed resource planning.

Once you know what resource planning is, let’s understand its importance in project management.

Future of Project Management with Real time Resource Planning & Optimization

Importance of resource planning in project management

According to a PMI survey , “26% of companies with a dedicated resource planning solution can estimate and allocate resources to deliver projects on time.”

Thus, resource planning is a crucial part of the project management process as it plays a key role in a project’s success.

Here is a list of the benefits and how planning resources makes a difference in the project management landscape:

Allows resource planning for pipeline projects

Creating more projects in the pipeline is desirable, but not having enough resources to execute them causes project bottlenecks, delays in meeting deadlines, and impacts the quality. An intelligent resource plan and timely forecasting help managers predict all pipeline project requirements in advance.

Thereby, resource managers can either allocate a cost-effective global resource or hire an on-demand or permanent workforce with a suitable skill set. This helps reduce last-minute hiring activities, which can lead to cost escalation and compromise quality.

Bridges the capacity gap proactively

Demand forecasting, one of the significant pillars of resource planning, identifies the excess or shortage of resources by comparing the resource demand against the existing capacity. Based on this data, managers can implement the right resourcing treatments to bridge the capacity and demand gap.

CASE I: Excess of resources

When the resource demand decreases vis-a-vis available capacity, it results in excess resources. This excess capacity can be mitigated by bringing future project work ahead, adjusting timelines, redeploying resource capacity in other projects, etc.

CASE II: Shortfall of resources

When the resource demand is higher than the capacity, there is a shortage of resources. It can be resolved by exploring two different resourcing channels.

Internal Channels:

Internal recruitment focuses on the employees already on a firm’s payroll. This includes selecting an employee from the bench based on their skills and qualifications or transferring resources from different projects.

External Channels:

If the required skill is absent in the organization’s internal network, then the resource managers hire the resources from external sources. It includes hiring resources through recommendations/networks and recruiting freelance/contingent workforce from partner vendors.

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Minimize project resource costs significantly

According to the Deloitte Global Cost Survey 2020: “Reducing project resource cost takes precedence over other business initiatives.”

Allocating the right resources to the right project ensures the timely delivery of the project within the budget. If resources are underqualified, a delay in project timelines is inevitable, and if overqualified, it can spike project costs . However, with an effective resource planner, managers can make data-driven decisions to eliminate the deployment of over/under-skilled resources on project tasks.

This will enable managers to implement suitable resourcing measures at the right time. For instance, they can allocate a cost-effective global/local resource or a benched resource to a task. Moreover, they will have enough lead time to conduct planned hiring in place of last-minute activities and create the right resource mix that suits the project budget.

Forecast and maximize profitable resource utilization

Resource planning and forecasting provide foresight into utilization within a project. A structured resource plan includes mobilizing resources from non-billable to strategic/billable projects for increased revenue based on their skill set. This prevents under or overutilization of resources and helps improve productivity and employee satisfaction.

Furthermore, an efficient resource scheduler allows managers to view the resource’s present and future allocations on one platform. They can also have a periodic check on forecast vs. actual resource utilization report and accordingly, optimize the utilization levels of the resources.

Read More: What is Resource Utilization and its Significance?

Ensures competent resource allocation across a matrix organization

Resource planning in project management helps managers gain a centralized view into all resource-related information, such as skill sets, cost rate, location, resource capacity, among others. This visibility and a systematic resource-requesting process help managers leverage the shared service model of a matrix organization. Thus, they can filter and load the appropriate resources to the project/tasks across departments.

Further, it empowers managers to allocate global resources from low-cost locations and control project costs. Moreover, the advanced resource scheduler ensures that strategic resources are not assigned to only high-priority projects but are uniformly distributed across the enterprise. This ascertains competent resource allocation in projects and allows resources to work on different assignments and improve their portfolios.

Delivers project on time and within budget

PwC Project Management Insights states that “30% of projects fail due to a lack of resources.”

The benchmark for successful delivery is meeting project deadlines and avoiding budget overruns. Efficient resource planning ensures that all project resourcing requirements are identified and fulfilled. This also involves periodically reviewing project performance throughout their lifecycle as resource demand fluctuates occasionally.

However, by using forecast vs. actual reports, resource utilization heatmap, etc., managers can monitor and control project budgets. Regular monitoring will ultimately lead to accomplishing the most critical project metrics, such as client satisfaction, higher retention, enhanced work rate, and increased brand loyalty.

Let’s gain insight into the critical elements of resource planning.

Essential components of resource planning template

A robust resource planning software will enable managers to effectively manage resources, mitigate risks, and drive projects to success. Here are some salient features that are foundational to efficient resource planning.

Multi-dimensional resource planner

Identifying the project’s resource requirements is a fundamental aspect of resource planning. This involves analyzing the quantity and type of resources required, i.e., human or non-human. Moreover, it also includes a thorough evaluation of the skills, competencies, and subsequent proficiency levels needed for accomplishing projects and subsequent tasks.

With a multidimensional resource planner, managers have visibility into resource profiles across multipe dimesions such as as team, departments, location, etc. It empowers them to allocate appropriate resources in real time to the projects. In other words, it allows managers assign the best-available-best-fit instead of the first-visible-first-fit resource, enabling competent allocation for all projects.

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Project pipeline planning

Once a pipeline project reaches a certain probability stage, the manager estimates the resource requirements and initiates the requisition process. The corresponding resource manager then begins the fulfillment of the request. But first, they must analyze if the organization possesses adequate internal resources to start the project. Therefore, the resource manager compares the existing resource capacity against the project demand from multiple perspectives such as role, department, team, skills, etc.

This meticulous evaluation helps firms identify the shortages or excesses ahead of time. Accordingly, managers can apply appropriate resourcing strategies such as training/upskilling, out-rotation and backfill strategy, or staggered hiring for niche resources. This approach minimizes wasteful hiring/firing cycles to ensure that the right resources are available for projects at the right time and cost.

Resource utilization forecasting

Resource forecasting techniques enable firms to optimize billable and strategic utilization. It allows mobilizing resources from non-billable to billable or strategic work. Resource planner helps to control project financials by comparing forecasted with actual utilization . It also detects and proactively mitigates under and over-resource utilization.

Further, managers can refer to comprehensive utilization reports, color-coded heatmaps, etc., to identify under/overutilization of resources. Consequently, they can implement resource optimization techniques such as levelling and smoothing to ensure optimal profitable utilization and productivity.

Resource capacity planning

Forward planning resource demand for current and pipeline projects is essential to avoid last-minute scuffles for competent professionals. With robust resource capacity planning, organizations can analyze the enterprise’s resource capacity vs. project demand gap. This foresight helps identify resource excess or shortage and implement corrective steps to bridge the gap.

In the case of a resource shortage, managers can facilitate proactive strategies such as re-training employees or hiring a contingent workforce. Conversely, when there is a resource excess, they can bring forward the project dates. Simultaneously, capacity resource planning helps minimize bench time by adjusting timelines or selling excess capacity at discounted rates and building an optimized project team that is future-ready.

Read More: What is Resource Capacity Planning? An Ultimate Guide for Every Project Manager

Bench management

With a resource planner, managers can gain early foresight into the workforce that will land on the bench due sudden ramp-down activities. For instance, when a project finishes and the next one begins, managers are prepared well in advance and can proactively allocate these resources to suitable project vacancies on time.

Resource managers can look into project vacancy reports and plan work for resources before they hit the bench. This will reduce bench time between projects for most resources and improve the organization’s bottom line. Additionally, with efficient bench management, managers can provide training or shadowing opportunities to selected employees to enhance their billability.

Reporting using real-time business intelligence

Modern resource planners provide real-time business intelligence reporting and analytics to fast-track decision-making in a rapidly changing business environment. These configurable dashboards and custom reports empower end-users to slice and dice relevant information effortlessly and present insights through visually intuitive graphs and reports.

Moreover, intelligent BI uses a combination of security rights, portal designs, and filters, allowing the end-user to view relevant data and prevent information overload. Additionally, it will enable managers to tailor reports to gain visibility into data matching their specific requirements. This streamlined accessibility empowers managers to make faster decisions and improves the overall resource health index.

What-if analysis for resource simulation

What-if analysis within a resource planner allows firms to build and simulate different resource scenarios in a multi-project environment. This helps managers to compare different scenarios and their potential outcomes. Accordingly, the manager can form different resource mixes, with the revenues earned, to find the most profitable project.

Thus, after deriving the best scenario, managers can apply it to the resource plan. Moreover, what-if analysis also helps prioritize profitable projects based on criteria like budget and timeline. As a result, it enables organizations to manage multiple projects’ demands with limited resources.

Creating an efficient resource plan is essential as it optimizes resource utilization, minimizes wastage, and ensures financial stability throughout the project. Here is a detailed step-by-step breakdown of the same.

How to create an efficient resource plan in 7 steps?

Here are seven distinct steps by which managers can create an efficient project resource plan:

Step 1: Understand client and resource requirements

At the outset, managers kickstart the resource planning process by thoroughly understanding both the project requirements and the resources available within the organization. This includes assessing the project scope, objectives, timelines, and budget.

Based on that, project managers can gauge the resource requirements in terms of skills, types, and number. This initial evaluation helps managers determine whether the existing skills and competency of the workforce align with the overall project goals and take appropriate corrective measures. Therefore, it helps avoid any last-minute firefighting, ensuring successful project delivery.

Step 2: Fulfill the project demand by identifying the gap

After a project manager determines the project requirements, the next step involves requesting the necessary resources from resource managers to fulfill the project demand. Resource managers play a pivotal role in assessing the capacity versus demand gap.

They meticulously analyze shortages or excesses of resources from multiple perspectives, i.e., role, skills, competency, etc. This proactive approach enables organizations to foresee resource challenges, allowing for strategic planning and resource allocation.

Step 3: Implement appropriate resource strategies to bridge the gap

After identifying the shortage and excess of resources, managers must take proactive measures to bridge resource gaps in the short or long term. This visibility into resource gaps allows sufficient lead time for the managers to initiate forward planning and take appropriate resourcing measures to bridge the gap.

For instance, in case of shortages, organizations may facilitate re-training/upskilling resources, juggling project priorities, or hiring a permanent/contingent workforce to avoid last-minute hiring/firing costs. Conversely, when the resources are in excess, managers can either bring forward project dates or sell excess capacity to optimize the utilization of every resource and ensure successful project delivery.

Step 4: Allocate the right resources to the right project

Effective resource allocation is a critical step in the planning process. By leveraging the centralized view and advanced filters, managers can strategically allocate resources based on availability, skills, competencies, and interests. This ensures that managers align the right skilled workforce with appropriate expertise to projects for optimal project success.

Managers can also create the right resource mix of senior/junior employees or contingent/permanent workforce, depending on the project requirements. It will help them control the project budget without compromising the quality of deliverables. This way, the company can consistently complete projects on time and within budget by allocating the most suitable resources.

Step 5: Consider factors that affect resourcing strategies

To effectively carry out the allocation of appropriately skilled resources to the project, managers need to consider the following factors:

  • Long-term/short-term assignment

The foremost step to consider while recruiting resources is whether a firm is filling a position for a short-term or long-term assignment. For the short term, hiring a contingent workforce or freelancer is an ideal choice. However, for a long-term assignment, focusing on permanent hiring with lead time is essential. Therefore, considering the project length when hiring helps minimize wasteful hiring/firing cycles.

  • Generic vs. niche skill

Generic skilled resources are relatively easy to plan for, as they are readily available within the organization. On the other hand, hiring resources with niche skills may require additional lead time due to their scarcity, which often results in higher costs. Additionally, once their assignment is completed, redeploying them within the organization can prove challenging.

  • Cost of the resource

It is important that the resource managers hire the right resources with a defined skill set and experience for the project. They must look into the cost rate of the resource that fits the budget of projects. Furthermore, managers should also factor onsite, offshore, and near-shore options in the recruitment strategy to minimize the overall project resource costs.

  • Attrition & succession planning

Managers need to ensure that the sudden resignation of critical resources does not jeopardize a project’s delivery. Therefore, they must implement robust succession plans to identify and train replacements for key positions within the organization. An intelligent resource planner provides a real-time competency matrix that helps managers select competent employees for leadership roles. Therefore, it not only addresses the resourcing needs of the organization but also helps monitor the resource health index.

Read More: Ten Effective Strategies to Reduce Employee Turnover

Step 6: Monitor and control project resources

Once resources have been allocated to project tasks, it’s important to regularly track and monitor the utilization of each professional to prevent instances of under/overutilization. In case of underutilization, managers can bring forth project timelines. On the other hand, managers can implement optimization techniques like resource leveling and smoothing to mitigate overloading.

Further, project managers must anticipate and plan ahead for resource related risks such as unplanned absenteeism, turnover, lower productivity, etc. They must create risk mitigation strategies to control these bottlenecks adequately and prevent them from derailing the project’s progress. This will ensure timely project delivery within the pre-defined budget and quality standards.

Step 7: Conduct a post-project analysis

Upon project completion, it is crucial for managers to conduct a thorough post-project analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of the resource plans and identify areas of achievement and improvement. This will help scrutinize whether resources were allocated efficiently, if project deadlines were met as planned, and if any unexpected circumstances arose.

With these insights, firms can refine and enhance future resource planning efforts by identifying areas of success and potential improvement. They can develop robust and efficient resource plans that align resources with project needs, minimize discrepancies, and ultimately bolster project success rates.

Finally, these are the essential components in a typical resource planning template, which can help effectively plan your workforce. Given below are some of the common mistakes of resource planning in project management. Read on:

Common mistakes of resource planning in project management

The project resource cost can blow out of proportion, and project delivery is significantly impacted without a proper resourcing strategy. This section describes some of the common mistakes made in this area.

Using silos of spreadsheets for resource planning

Despite its limitations, many organizations still use spreadsheets to plan their resources because they are easily accessible. While this software comes at a cost, it offers significant benefits over spreadsheets. Excel resource planner causes improper allocation, double booking, and creates additional work. This system is very limiting and a nightmare to maintain.

Marketwatch states that “88% of spreadsheets are prone to errors.”

Planning resources without overall visibility

Many managers continue to allocate resources without having complete visibility of their skills, competencies, and existing bookings. As a result, it becomes difficult to allocate the right resources to suitable projects at the right time. Restricted visibility also hinders identifying and leveraging quality resources from low-cost locations.

Read More: 7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Excel for Resource Planning

Lack of resource forecasting for pipeline projects

Resource planning for future projects is often taken up at the eleventh hour. The resource managers make the mistake of only taking up the planning activities when the deal is signed. Ideally, it should start after the opportunity reaches a certain probability of closure so there is sufficient lead time to address resource requirements. This results in last-minute activities that create an unbalanced pool as the quality of the resources is compromised.

Not maintaining the right mix of permanent and contingent workforce

Businesses try to fulfill project requirements using full-time employees as it is perceived to be a more cost-effective solution. However, if a niche resource is hired for a shorter duration, it becomes challenging to redeploy him after the assignment is complete. Therefore, a resource plan should maintain a judicious blend of permanent and contingent resources. For short-term assignments, a contingent workforce will be less expensive than hiring full-time resources.

Allocating under or over-skilled resources to the projects

One of the common mistakes of resource planning in project management is assigning under or overqualified resources to tasks. When resources are under-skilled for the job, it causes project delays. On the other hand, over-skilled resources spike project costs. Not assigning tasks per skills and interests leads to decreased employee engagement and loss of productivity.

Read More: Resource Allocation: A Guide on How to Apply it to Project Management

Unplanned hiring without analyzing project demands

Resource managers often resort to last-minute hiring activities to fulfill project resource requirements. This unplanned hiring compromises quality and leads to a large bench of mismatched skill sets. So, analyzing project demands with matching skill sets is a prerequisite for informed hiring decisions.

Knowing the common mistakes of project resource planning, let’s understand the responsibilities of resource and project managers.

Responsibilities of project managers and resource managers

Project managers operate on a project level with projects of different sizes and complexities. A project manager can manage single or multiple projects and ensure they are completed within a stipulated time and budget. However, resource managers operate at the organizational level and oversee allocating resources to several projects.

The project manager initiates the resource request for an open position within his project, and the resource manager’s job is to fulfill the same. Once a resource is allocated to a project for a particular period, the resource manager’s responsibility ends. However, the project manager’s job only begins to ensure that the resource carries out the delivery responsibilities.

Role of resource manager

In summary, a resource manager is responsible for the following:

  • Planning and allocation based on resource skills, previous experience, and availability.
  • Conducts capacity planning to address issues of shortfall and excesses of resources.
  • Support project managers with the project resource management plan and related activities.
  • Address resource concerns by reallocating resources, negotiating, or assigning additional staff.
  • Collate new project requirements from the business and provide them to the hiring team.
  • Certain limited HR-related functions.
  • Collaboration with other departments, e.g., HR, PMO, Sales, Learning & Development.
  • Generating reports and analytics for senior management.

Role of a project manager

The corresponding roles of a project manager are:

  • Create a project management plan and define the scope and delivery objectives of the project.
  • Capture resource requirements and request for fulfillment.
  • Streamline communications with stakeholders/ team members and customers.
  • Carry out operational reviews as per project KPIs.
  • Estimate time and cost and monitor the budget.
  • Report the project’s progress, analyze potential risks, and provide a mitigation strategy.
  • Document the project and set the expectations for various team members.
  • Work with the empaneled vendors for contingent resources.

Read More: Project Management vs. Resource Management

These are some of the significant responsibilities of resource and project managers. Now, let’s learn about some benefits of resource planning across industries.

How resource planning benefits different industries?

Resources are fundamentally the greatest asset of any organization. It means the profitability of any company is mainly reliant on intelligent resource planning. A key aspect while planning for resources is that it helps to efficiently use workforce potential to get the best possible outcome.

Let us discuss some of the specific industries where efficient resource planning could benefit significantly:

IT industry

Due to the rapid advancement in technology, computing, and automation, IT companies face widened tech skills gaps within their workforce. Technology is changing at a fast pace, and IT professionals are under constant pressure to acquire new skills throughout their professional careers. Timely forecasting and efficient resource planning will help managers predict the demand for niche skill sets well in advance. Then, managers can employ rotation/upskilling methods to gauge these gaps and create an augmented workforce.

Audit and accounting firm

Most of the audit and accounting firms are run by their partners. These firms consider billable utilization a critical KPI to ensure profitability and sustainability. So, depending on the accounting project’s needs, an effective resource planning solution helps to forecast resource requirements (Accountants, auditors, financial analysts, tax consultants, audit interns, etc.) and utilize them for productive activities. It also enables firms to hire interns regularly, give them on-the-job training, and make them billable.

Similar to audit and accounting firms, law firms are also run by their partners. Bringing in a client when the firm has inadequate staffing can be detrimental to its reputation and profitability. An effective forecasting and resource planning strategy helps assess future demands and find the right resource (lawyers, legal secretaries, etc.) at the right cost, age demographics, etc. It also enables partners to build an on-demand workforce , create a skill database, and define the total billable hours.

Engineering industry

The increased demand in manufacturing has caused skill shortages in the core engineering industry, where competition is fierce for experienced workers (automobile engineers, machinists, designers, etc.). An engineering resource planning solution helps managers provide reskilling and on-the-job learning opportunities for the employees. Thus, it helps to replenish an aging workforce, fill critical positions, and match them to the best potential projects based on talents and interests.

Read More: What Is Engineering Resource Planning?

Construction industry

Construction and infrastructure projects possess highly volatile resource demands due to changing climatic conditions and sudden increases in maintenance activities. With resource planning solutions, managers gain visibility of all construction resources and recruit skilled labor, architects, civil engineers, etc., throughout the projects. Thus, it maximizes the workforce’s productive utilization and ensures minimal resource conflicts. Therefore, efficient resource planning is key to managing construction resources effectively and preventing hiring/firing costs.

Consulting & professional service industry

The professional service industry has a unique challenge to balance resource demands across various clients. With efficient resource planning, managers can keep track of resources and their specialized skills. Since the consultants are deployed at a premium rate, keeping them engaged in client billable activities and reducing idle time for maximum profitability is crucial. At the same time, they need to be provided enough opportunities to acquire new skills and ensure no employee burnout.

Video game industry

The game development industry requires a highly competent team of niche-skilled resources. Efficient resource planning enables managers to diversify their expertise to the maximum potential and fulfill the gaming project resource demand. It also helps to identify in-demand skills and cross-train them to build an optimized workforce of game designers, level artists, programmers, QA teams, etc. Thus, effective resource planning can become a game-changer in fast-tracking the development cycle.

Read More: How can Robust Resource Management Future Proof the Gaming Industry

Now that we have learned about the benefits, let’s discuss the best practices for effective resource planning.

Best practices for effective resource planning

Enlisted below are some best practices to consider when engaging in resource planning:

Define clear project goals and objectives

Effective resource planning begins with clearly defining project goals, objectives, and deliverables. This step is crucial as it provides a solid foundation for determining the necessary resources and their allocation across multiple projects.

When the project scope is well-defined, it becomes easier to identify the skills, expertise, and types of resources required to achieve those objectives. In addition, clarity in project goals enables efficient resource planning from the outset, ensuring that resources are aligned with the project’s strategic direction.

Conduct a comprehensive resource assessment

Before scheduling and allocating resources, conducting a thorough assessment is important to determine the specific resource requirements. It involves identifying the types and quantity of resources needed, considering factors such as skills, expertise, availability, and capacity.

After assessing, managers can accurately gauge the resource demand for each project phase. This helps avoid scheduling conflicts such as staff shortages or double bookings, enabling optimal resource allocation and utilization throughout the project lifecycle.

Collaborate with stakeholders

Involving key stakeholders, such as project managers, team members, and department heads, in the resource planning process is crucial. That’s because collaborative discussions with stakeholders help understand project priorities, identify potential resource conflicts, and obtain valuable input.

Additionally, stakeholder involvement ensures that resource planning aligns with project goals and organizational objectives. Organizations can leverage stakeholders’ collective expertise and insights by fostering a collaborative approach, resulting in more informed resource-planning decisions.

Monitor and track resource utilization

Continuous monitoring and tracking of resource utilization throughout the project lifecycle are essential to facilitate effective resource planning. By regularly assessing resource allocation against actual utilization, project managers can identify potential bottlenecks, such as workload imbalances or under/overutilization of resources.

This monitoring process provides valuable insights into resource efficiency and enables timely adjustments. By having real-time visibility into resource utilization, supervisors can optimize resource assignment, ensure even work distribution, and mitigate risks associated with resource constraints.

Foster flexibility and adaptability

Resource planning should incorporate flexibility to accommodate changes that may arise during the different stages of the project. It’s essential to anticipate the need for resource adjustments and establish a process for reshuffling staff when necessary. This flexibility allows for agile resource planning, ensuring that resources can be allocated or reassigned based on evolving project requirements.

By fostering flexibility and adaptability, organizations can respond more effectively to unexpected changes or shifts in project priorities, resulting in improved project execution and better client satisfaction.

Organizations can optimize resource planning efforts and ensure successful project delivery by following these best practices. Now, let’s understand operational and strategic resource planning in project management.

Operational and strategic resource planning in project management

Planning implies thinking in advance about what we need to do to realize the business objectives. Strategic planning aims to attain long-term goals , while operational planning helps achieve the short-term objectives of an organization. Let’s understand in detail:

What is strategic resource planning?

Strategic planning is usually undertaken by top-level management to decide the future direction. It is not limited to projects within a particular department or unit but covers the entire organization. Strategic resource planning looks into the overall long-term resourcing strategy.

It can change drastically based on individual priorities. For example, If an IT firm plans to outsource a temporary requirement, i.e., the resourcing strategy will shift from FTE to contingent staff for IT infrastructure improvements. Similarly, a niche skilled resource’s out-rotation from an existing project to start a new initiative will come under strategic resource planning.

What is operational resource planning?

Operational planning addresses the day-to-day activities of a business. It also supports strategic planning to accomplish the overall organizational goals. First, we decide on the short-term objectives and then determine how to achieve them.

Operational resource planning includes regular business activities and operations as per organizational guidelines. For example, it covers pipeline project management , management of FTE and contingency resources, forecasting billable and total utilization, and more.

Read More: What Is Operational Workforce Planning and Its Importance?

Factors that can influence operational and strategic resource planning

Strategic and operational resource planning parameters are linked with an organization’s mission, vision, strategies, goals, and objectives. In addition, the following can influence strategic and operational resource planning decisions.

It defines an organization’s hiring policy for full-time resources and directly influences decisions made on a resource plan. It also covers compensation and benefits, an essential consideration for regular employees.

Hybrid delivery

The project team is created using a combination of in-house and vendor resources. An in-house workforce performs the critical positions requiring specific domain knowledge. One-time activities such as software development are accomplished using vendor resources.

Outsourcing vs. in-sourcing

Due to globalization, many businesses outsource certain functions to other organizations. Some organizations also have stricter policies that their confidential data cannot leave the company’s boundary.

Multi-locational policy

Due to the cost pressure, many projects are being executed from different locations. Therefore, project costs can be minimized using generic resources from a low-cost area. In addition, the high-skilled resources can be located based on their availability, who can take up leadership roles related to delivery.

Training and development

Full-time resources must learn new skills for their self-development and compete in a dynamically changing environment. Therefore, it may not always be practical to hire new resources. However, a new skill can be acquired by cross-training an existing employee.

Resource leveling and smoothing

The essential function of resource leveling is to optimize workforce allocation by adjusting the project schedule to resolve conflicts caused by resources’ over-allocation. On the other hand, resource smoothing optimizes distribution by adding new resources without affecting the critical path and timeline. Both of these techniques influence decisions toward a resource plan.

How to address market volatility using operational and strategic resource planning?

Effective resource planning is a critical success factor for an organization’s growth and sustainability. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus upset the world’s business model at the beginning of 2020.

Many organizations try to stay afloat in these volatile market conditions with a shrinking budget. Acute cost pressure and skill shortages have also become routine activities. Following strategies can help an organization sustain its profitability while planning for project resources.

Short-term strategy

  • Effective capacity planning and identifying the gaps between capacity and demand
  • Address the shortage of resources using a combination of FTE and contingent resources
  • Either re-train existing employees or go for new hires depending on the requirements
  • Identify new projects, adjust the project timelines, and sell services for excess capacity
  • Mobilize employees from non-billable or low-priority work to billable or high-priority projects as a routine activity.
  • Revisit our rotation/backfill policy for starting new projects with niche skills

Long-term strategy

  • Decide non-critical functions that can be outsourced
  • Identify at least two to three vendors who can work as strategic partners for outsourcing
  • Decide on a multi-locational policy to take advantage of resources from low-cost location
  • Adapt a hybrid delivery model for cost efficiency

Read More: What Is Strategic Workforce Planning and Why It Is Important?

This is how operational and strategic resource plan helps firms achieve their business goals. Listed below are some of the critical trends of resource planning in project management.

Emerging trends of resource planning in project management

Over the years, the project management landscape has undergone several changes due to technological advancements, management paradigms, etc. Therefore, organizations must embrace newer ways to manage projects successfully to keep pace with these changes. Listed below are some of the emerging trends of resource planning in project management:

Replace silos of spreadsheets with an enterprise resource plan

Silos of spreadsheets and home-grown tools are inadequate for efficient resource planning, adversely impacting business performance. Hence, companies are shifting towards enterprise-level software that centralizes resource-related information and maintains a single source of truth.

Taking resource scheduling to the next level

Today, resource scheduling is not just a simple process of allocating resources against projects. It has evolved into a full-fledged enterprise-level process that ensures maximum efficiency and utilization of resources.

Resource capacity planning for business efficiency

Resource capacity planning is not a luxury for businesses any more. It has become an essential part of the resource planner. It future-proofs your workforce against market volatility by analyzing the demand capacity gap and bridging it proactively.

Resource forecasting to maximize effective utilization

Billable and strategic utilization of the workforce is a crucial indicator of business profitability. Therefore, getting a real-time view of future utilization has become critical while planning for resources. Resource forecasting helps in taking proactive measures to improve future allocations.

Integrating resource management processes with other applications

Traditional resource plans include inefficient and time-consuming processes. Enterprise-level resource planner streamlines them using efficient workflows, alerts, and analytics. It also integrates effortlessly with multiple business applications to maintain a single source of truth across the enterprise.

Monitoring and controlling project resource cost

Enterprise-level resource planner offers various capabilities to monitor and effectively reduce project costs . Some of them are forecasting, capacity planning, resource modeling, pipeline management, bench management, etc.

These are some of the evolving trends of resource planning in project management.

An efficient resource plan fosters you to accomplish more in the same amount of time from the most valuable resources- the people.

Therefore, it is imperative to implement effective resource planning to utilize the workforce to its maximum potential. When resources are planned efficiently, it helps a business to manage risks, reduce delays, optimize resource utilization, etc.

Moreover, implementing the above-mentioned processes with the right resource management software will help you manage your resources intelligently and enhance profitability while maintaining a competitive edge.

Unlock Your Business’s Full Potential Through Strategic Resource Planning Today!

Read More: Glossary of Resource Workforce Planning, Scheduling and Management

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SAVIOM is the market leader in offering the most powerful and configurable solution for managing your enterprise resources effectively and efficiently. With over 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has created its global presence across 50 countries and helped more than 100 customers achieve their business goals. SAVIOM also has products for project portfolio management and professional service automation, and that is customizable as per business requirements.t is customizable as per business requirements.

The Ultimate Guide to an Efficient Resource Management

The Ultimate Guide to an Efficient Resource Management

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Resource Planning

This guide to resource plans is brought to you by projectmanager, the project management software trusted by 35,000+ users. build a resource plan in minutes.

ProjectManager's workload management dashboard, ideal for resource planning

What Is Resource Planning?

Resource plan key terms, stages of a resource plan, what is resource management software, desktop vs. online resource management software, benefits of online resource management software, must-have features of resource management software.

  • Execute a Resource Plan in ProjectManager
  • Creating a Resource Management Plan

Resource Management Best Practices

Resource planning organizes, identifies and lists the resources required to complete a project successfully. Resources are assets that are required to execute a project; a resource is a broad category and includes equipment, tools, supplies, materials, time and people.

A proper resource plan will map out the exact quantities of the necessary storable resources (such as cash) and non-storable resources (like machinery or labor). Considerations made during resource planning factor greatly into the scheduling and budgeting of projects.

Related: 25 Free Project Management Templates for Excel

Because it’s so important to align your resources with your budget and your project schedule, it’s best to use a project planning software to get everything organized in one tool. ProjectManager makes it easy to manage resources, budgets and project schedules in one online platform.

ProjectManager's resource planning dashboard

What Are The Components of a Resource Plan?

A resource plan aims to use resources in the most efficient manner possible, thus contributing to the overall productivity of the project. This is furthered by properly allocating your project team where their skill set will take the project the farthest. The best bet is to have a constant flow of resources and make sure you’re using them wisely and productively.

When resource planning, you should ask yourself the following questions about the most key components:

  • What are the roles of the project team?
  • What are the procurement needs of the project?
  • What types of contracts are required?
  • Are there any pre-qualification methods needed?
  • What criteria will be used to select contractors or vendors?
  • How much of the budget is allocated to resources?
  • How will performance be measured in the project?
  • What policies and procedures will be used?

To better understand how to manage your resources in projects, we should first break down different key terms that are often associated with resource management .

Remember, resources are more than just your team—they’re also your equipment, assets and office space. They’re everything, in fact, that has a cost required to complete the project.

  • Resource Plan: A detailed list of resources and the ways you will manage them throughout the project. The more detailed, the better.
  • Resources Breakdown Structure (RBS): A resources breakdown structure creates hierarchies of resources, according to the hiring organization (like a reporting structure or team hierarchy) or by geography (such as all the teams or equipment required in Asia or Africa). Include all resources on which the project funds will be spent, but it’s up to you to define which type of hierarchies are relevant to your project. Its execution is similar to a WBS.
  • Responsibility Assignment Matrix: A responsibility assignment matrix defines resources according to various levels of responsibility for completing project tasks or for the overall project. Clarify the roles and responsibilities of the entire project.
  • Resource Overallocation: Overallocation simply means when a person is given too much work, which can impact the budget and even derail a project. It’s crucial that resources are balanced, so you’re going to need a way to stay on top of your team’s workload throughout the life cycle of the project.
  • Resources Histogram: This provides a visual of the resources for anyone in the project who needs to stay in the loop. It’s a quick and easy way to view the allocation of your resources and note whether any are over- or under-allocated.
  • Resource Dependency: This refers to a theory that an organization should guard against having all their eggs in one team basket. That is, over-reliance on one team to accomplish core work (especially if it’s an external team) can lead to workload blocks and resource shortages.
  • Resource Leveling: Leveling resources is a juggling act, whereby you manage resource availability across a project or across multiple projects. It can be accomplished by extending the duration you had planned for certain tasks to be accomplished by adjusting the start and end dates, depending on whether you have the resources to complete them now or not.

Related: Free Resource Plan Template

There are four main stages to resource planning one should follow to ensure your bottom line stays firm and you are able to get the available resources when you need them. This is also called the resource management life cycle .

Before the project starts, begin to figure out the resources you’ll need to execute it. This includes the budget for those resources to make sure your project is profitable, and getting sign off from stakeholders. To start this process, the project requirements must first be decided upon. Then, you can think of filling the types and amount of roles that will be required.

1. Ascertain Resources

After you’ve evaluated the situation and determined what the objectives of the project are, you have to select the right strategy and estimate the resources that you’ll need to reach that goal. Resource forecasting must be thought through as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. These resources include labor, materials, equipment, facilities and others, such as admin, subcontractors, etc.

2. Procure Resources

You need to start to assemble your team according to the skills and experience the project requires. Equipment must be sourced, and contractors secured. Some of the aspects of this stage of resource planning include developing team roles, procurement needs, contracts, budgets, measurements to judge performance and any policies and resource optimization procedures.

3. Manage Resources

At this point, you need to define the roles and responsibilities of your team, who is doing what. Subcontractors’ roles also need to be defined. If you’re using tools and equipment that is being rented for the project, then you must make sure they’re returned in a condition that meets the requirements of the contract. Any facilities must be maintained, too.

There will be issues, of course, and when they occur you have to identify, define, investigate and analyze, solve and then review.

4. Control Resources

Somewhat different from managing resources is controlling your resources, which means monitoring the resources during execution to make sure they’re delivering the results that are expected of them. What this boils down to is something called the resource utilization rate, which measures how efficiently you use the resources.

If the utilization rate is too low, action must be taken, such as a cost-benefit analysis . You should always be evaluating outcomes to make sure you stay on track.

Resource management software is a tool that assists in the planning and scheduling of projects. It’s used to manage your team, tools, equipment, materials and so forth—all of which are crucial to your success.

Project management training video (j0c2p3ibzq)

Your resources all have costs associated with them, and are often used for a limited period. These expenses and timeframes must be managed to align with the schedule. Resource management software lets you plan with these resources in mind, then allows you to allocate them and track who’s working on what and when.

A resource management tool will help you track costs and time related to your resources in order to make sure you use them as planned and are sticking to the project budget. Microsoft Project is one of the most commonly used project management software, but it has major drawbacks that make ProjectManager better for resource management.

Desktop and online resource management software share many features. This can make it difficult to choose which is the right solution for your project. They both allow managers a high-level view of the project resources. This makes it easier to quickly view the resources needed and provide just the right amount.

You can also generate reports with both a desktop and online application. For example, project status reports are critical to make sure you’re not overspending. They’re also a communication vehicle to present to project stakeholders and keep them updated on progress.

Pros of Desktop Resource Management Software

There are big differences between the two, however, and if you’re looking for security and speed, the desktop model might be best. Desktop applications can be more secure if they don’t require an internet connection. Of course, neither desktop or online software are guaranteed to offer impenetrable security, but the desktop probably does have an edge there.

Speed is also a factor. Desktops are not at the mercy of the strength of your online connection. Of course, if your internet connection is severed, then your online tool will not function at all.

Pros of Online Resource Management Software

While desktop software might have advantages in security and speed, those gaps are rapidly closing. Advancements in two-factor authentication and Single Sign On can provide an incredibly secure experience.

Online has other advantages that desktops can never achieve. The major difference is that an online resource management tool is going to have real-time data, which is crucial when managing resources to keep the project running smoothly.

Real-time data means better decision making, but it also creates a platform on which your team can collaborate. This leads to greater productivity, meaning your resources will go further. Having features that connect teams to work through their tasks together helps with efficiency and building better teams.

Finally, an online resource management software can be accessed anywhere and at any time, if there’s online connectivity. That means teams that are distributed across the globe have access to the tool and can even work together. It also means that all your project documentation is centrally located and also available when and where you need it.

Managing resources requires real-time data to keep track of your costs and the time spent in order to maintain your budget and stay on schedule.

Online resource management software gives relevant and timely information because you don’t have the luxury of waiting when the success of your project hangs in the balance. But that’s not all you get, the following are more advantages related to using an online resource management tool:

  • Track resource costs
  • View availability of team
  • Balance team’s workload
  • Integrate resources into project plan
  • Automatic calculation of actual vs. planned costs
  • Keep updated on team’s hours with automatic timesheets

There are lots of resource management software options on the market. To choose the one that is best for your project, make sure it has these features:

Gantt Charts icon

Assign Teams & Track Resources

When building your project plan, schedules must include team assignments and the related resources they’ll need to execute their tasks. Interactive Gantt charts do all this online, giving you a tool to assign and track project resources that stay on budget and deliver on time.

Gantt Charts image

Track Your Team’s Work

Timesheets have become more than a tool for payroll. Resource management tools can have timesheets that automatically reflect your team’s status updates. This not only streamlines the process, but gives managers an invaluable view into their team’s progress.

Timesheets image

Know Who’s Working on What

To keep teams working productively, you need to know how many tasks they’ve been assigned. Having a view into their workload can help you re-allocate as needed to make sure they’re not overburdened. Balancing workload also makes sure your resources are being used efficiently.

Workload Management image

Keep Updated With Live Information

An online resource management tool collects live data to help managers make better decisions. But you also need a system in place to keep managers and their teams aware of any updates. A tool that triggers email alerts is a must, one that has in-app notifications is essential.

Alerts & Real-Time Data image

Get Easy, Flexible & Detailed Data

Reporting features collect data on the progress and performance of your project and give you insights into how to best manage your resources. Having a report that can be easily shared with stakeholders and filtered to focus in on specifics is ideal.

Reports image

See Resources Across Many Projects

Managers are often responsible for more than one project, such as a program or portfolio, and want a tool that can assign, track and report on all their projects. This allows you to find synergy between projects and have them all work together for greater efficiency.

Portfolio Management image

How to Execute a Resource Plan in ProjectManager

Resource management software assists project managers with planning and scheduling their project resources. It’s usually included as part of a suite of project management features that are designed to manage every aspect of your project.

ProjectManager is an award-winning software that’s designed to identify, organize and monitor your resources with robust online Gantt charts, real-time dashboards and one-click reporting that let you stay on top of everything. Here’s how it works:

1. List All Your Tasks

Gathering all the necessary tasks and determining the level of effort for a project is the first step needed to define your resources. You need to know what you’re doing before you can determine what you’ll need to do it!

Collect all your tasks on the task list view or Gantt chart view in our software. Add estimated start and end dates to populate the project timeline on the right side of the Gantt chart.

ProjectManager's task list view is critical for resourcemanagement

2. Add Your Resources to the Tool

Resources are your teams and the things they’ll need to execute their tasks. All of those resources must input into the software in order to manage and track their progress .

Onboard your team by inviting them to the project with the global add button in the top right corner. They will receive an email with a link. Once they follow that, they’re in and ready to start tracking their work.

3. Define Resource Costs

Calculating the cost of your resources is how you manage your budget. Keeping track of those costs is how you maintain your budget.

Add the labor rate for your resources, and set the cost by hours assigned. Our software automatically does the cost calculations for you as your team logs their hours and progresses through their tasks.

4. Schedule Resources on the Gantt

Resources (that aren’t people) need to be attached to tasks and added to your schedule to keep track of their costs throughout their life cycle in the project.

With ProjectManager’s Gantt chart you can create a resource calendar . Add your nonhuman resources the same way you onboarded your team. You can set their costs, then track them later in the project to keep on budget.

assign resources on a gantt

5. Track Time

Monitoring the hours logged by your resources is how you make sure they’re adhering to the project plan, schedule and budget.

Use timesheets to track the hours your team logs as they work. Their time updates are automatically reflected throughout the software.

Timesheet view in ProjectManager

6. Balance Resources

Once the project is executed, it’s crucial to keep your resources matched with your production capacity , making sure you have just what you need, when you need it.

Keep your resources level by checking the workload page. Here, you’ll see a color-coded chart that shows if team members have too many or too few tasks. You can then reallocate their tasks from this page.

7. Report to Stakeholders

Stakeholders are the people who are invested in the project. They will want to stay up-to-date on progress and performance.

Generate reports on workload with a single click. Filter to show the data you want, then easily print or save as a PDF to share with your stakeholders.

ProjectManager's workload features are perfect for resource management

Ready to start managing your projects, tasks and resources in one tool? Take a free trial of ProjectManager.

Creating a Resource Management Plan: An In-Depth Look

So, those are the basic terms and processes. But how can you use them to create a process, schedule your resources throughout the project cycle , and monitor those resources within the boundaries of your budget, without overburdening them and risking team burnout? Lucky for you, we’ve covered the basics of resource planning before, and it can be distilled into a super basic three-step process.

First, note all your resources, including people, equipment and materials. Next, figure out how many of those resources are needed to get the project done. Finally, make a schedule for the resources. Drilling down, however, it’s important to make sure you have all the components of a good resource plan. It should include the following.

  • All the Resources Necessary to Complete the Project: That’s everything from people to machines and even any office space you’ll need. Spend a good amount of time with this list, the more complete it is, the more accurate your schedule will be.
  • Timeframes For the Planned Effort of Each Resource: By noting the duration of time needed for each resource, you have a clearer picture of how it will fit into your overall schedule.
  • The Number of Each Resource You’ll Need Per Day/Week/Month: Again, you want to break your resource needs out on a daily, weekly and monthly rotation to better grasp what you’ll need and when.You can use a resource histogram to help you with this process.
  • Quantity of Resource Hours Required Per Day/Week/Month: You’ve figured out what you need, but how many hours for each of those resources are you going to allocate over time?
  • Assumptions and Constraints: An assumption is what you think might be true, while the constraints are the schedule, cost and scope of your project. So, you want to know what they are and how they’ll potentially impact your plan.
  • Resource Constraints: In addition to the traditional project management constraints that affect how you manage resources, there are specific resource constraints that you’ll need to be aware of.

Think strategically. Are you assuming a team will be available in three months? Do you know for a fact they won’t get assigned by another group leader for a separate project? Have you taken into account holidays and scheduling shifts?

Identifying all your assumptions is a critical component of planning your resources wisely.

That’s the makings of a solid resource management plan. Now you need to know how to actively manage your resources as your project progresses.

You can do this when you have visibility into resource availability and workload. Because work shifts from person to person, as people collaborate back and forth, work can easily end up on the shoulders of only a few key team members. This can mean others are sitting idle waiting for them to reply or toss the work back. You need to be able to monitor those workflow trends and be able to quickly reallocate idle resources.

So how do you do this? There are four ways you can keep on top of the resources workload.

1. Manage Work Schedule Calendars Actively

You need to be able to track the hourly and daily availability of individual resources, as well as track their planned holidays and vacations. Be sure to take into account global or regional time differences, as well as different global holidays that might differ from your home office holiday calendar.

2. Monitor Progress on Gantt and Dashboard

You can also consult the planned versus actual progress of your overall project to get a head’s up if there’s a problem with resources. A Gantt progress bar should tell you how much progress is being made on a specific task according to the planned effort. You should also be able to see whether progress is made on individual tasks with shading on the larger task bars.

ProjectManager’s dashboard view, which shows six key metrics on a project

You should also be able to get a view of the whole project’s progress both by looking at a rolled-up view of the Gantt tasks or on a dashboard report. If you’re falling behind, usually moving around resources is a way to get back on track.

3. Review Workload Allocation

The team’s workload is another metric you’re going to need to keep close. If all the work is being laid on the shoulders of only a few team members, while the others are idle, then you’re going to need to reallocate your resources.

Another way of looking at this is leveling your resources by ensuring that they are equally distributed across your team. Checking on workload is a daily part of keeping your resources well-allocated.

4. Get Resource Reports to Monitor Productivity

When you’re watching your resources in real-time, and the project’s success is on the line, then you’re going to need to make decisions swiftly. Use the reporting feature of your project management tool to produce reports on resource allocation, as well as task progress by an individual. It’s important to monitor resources regularly with deep dives into data to measure productivity KPIs like output and actual effort.

Remember, resource management is heavily linked to your scheduling and management of your project management schedule . These are different but complementary disciplines, and the more holistically you approach managing your resources, the more you’ll be able to act in a timely manner to keep your project moving towards success, on time and within budget.

Therefore, you want to have the right resource management tools to keep you informed of your resources while the project is in progress, whether that’s collecting data in an Excel spreadsheet or a more robust online PM tool. Using an online Gantt chart gives you a visual view of the project’s tasks, their durations, and whatever dependencies are linking one task to another, so you’re able to note bottlenecks and easily reallocated resources to get the project back on track. Try ProjectManager today to take advantage of the best resource management tools on the market.

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Resource Plan Resources

  • Resource Management Software
  • Best Resource Management Software Rankings
  • Scheduling Software
  • Gantt Chart Software
  • Timesheet Software
  • Resource Plan Template
  • Gantt Chart Template
  • Capacity Planning Template
  • Project Management Dashboard Template
  • Project Budget Template
  • Timesheet/Time Tracking Template
  • How to Make a Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS)
  • 12 Resource Allocation Tips for Managers
  • How to Calculate Resource Utilization for a Project
  • What Is Resource Loading and Why Does It Matter in Project Management?
  • 5 Tips for Better Resource Scheduling
  • Resource Leveling 101: Master this PM Technique
  • Organizational Resources Basics: Managing Company Resources
  • Resource Smoothing Steps, Templates and Tools

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COMMENTS

  1. Resource Planning: How to Build a Resource Plan

    A resource plan identifies, organizes, and lists the resources required to complete a project. Because most organizational expenses are resource related, it’s essential that they’re used as efficiently as possible. A resource plan maps out how and when company resources will be used.

  2. What is resource management? A guide to getting started

    Resource management is the process of planning out and scheduling your team’s resources to optimize utilization and ensure project success. A resource can include everything from equipment and financial funds to tech tools and employee bandwidth—basically, anything that helps you complete a project.

  3. What Is Resource Planning? A Simple Guide for 2024

    Resource planning is the process of determining what resources are required to deliver projects and then allocating and scheduling the work based on team capacity. Planning your resources involves: Understanding who needs to work on what project and when Figuring out who is available to do the work Deciding what’s the best use of your team’s time

  4. What is Resource Planning, and Why is it Important in Project

    Resource planning is the process of identifying, forecasting, and allocating best-fit resources, i.e., human resources, equipment, assets, facilities, and more, to the projects at the right time and cost. It also ensures the efficient and effective utilization of resources across the organization.

  5. Resource Plan: The Ultimate Guide to Resource Planning -

    What Is Resource Planning? Resource planning organizes, identifies and lists the resources required to complete a project successfully. Resources are assets that are required to execute a project; a resource is a broad category and includes equipment, tools, supplies, materials, time and people.