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What is resource allocation? Learn how to allocate resources

Julia Martins contributor headshot

Project managers and teams can struggle to make balanced resource allocation decisions, often opting for too much or too little. But the key to navigating this delicate balance is continuous adjustment and real-time responsiveness to project needs. This approach ensures that resources are optimally utilized, preventing both surplus and shortfall and steering towards project success with precision and efficiency.

When you think of the most important elements of project planning, what comes to mind? You probably think of the project’s main objectives, the timeline for achieving those objectives, and the scope of what you can accomplish within the project. 

But achieving any of these elements hinges on one thing: the resources available for your project. 

If you’ve never created a resource allocation plan before, this article is for you. We’ll walk you through five steps to allocate resources effectively. Then, get a preview of common resource allocation challenges and what you can do to get ahead of them.

What is resource allocation? 

Resource allocation is the process of identifying and assigning available resources to an initiative. Effective allocation of resources helps maximize the impact of project resources while still supporting your team’s goals. To create a resource allocation plan, identify the right resources—including team members, tools, budget, and more—you need to accomplish your project deliverables .

What is a resource? 

A resource is anything that helps you complete a project. This can include:

Team members

Project timelines

Ideas, intellectual property, or specific skill sets

Tools or software

Automated processes that reduce work about work

Who is responsible for allocating resources? 

The person responsible for resource allocation varies based on the size of your organization, but it’s usually the individual in charge of the project’s decision-making. For smaller companies, the project manager or team leader typically manages the budget, resource scheduling, and project work. 

Alternatively, at larger companies, the project manager and project budget owner are often different people. As a result, you may need approval from important project stakeholders or your project sponsor before allocating resources. 

If you aren’t sure who should be allocating resources, ask yourself these two questions and identify who is best equipped to answer them:

What is the budget, and who is approving it? You’ll need a budget for tools, technology, freelancers, and equipment. 

What are the team’s priorities, and who has time to work on this initiative? Before you allocate human resources, think through each team member’s capacity and priorities. How can you help team members do their best work and have the highest impact?

If you aren’t sure what’s on everyone’s plate, use a workload management tool to view team member capacity, get ahead of upcoming projects, and spot burnout before it happens. 

Benefits of resource allocation

Effective resource allocation is more than just a task; it's a strategic approach that can improve project management by ensuring resources are used efficiently and judiciously. This leads to better alignment of tasks with available resources, smoother workflows, and more effective handling of project constraints. 

As a result, projects are more likely to be completed on time, within budget, and to the desired quality standards, directly contributing to the overall success of the project.

Streamlined workflow: Proper allocation of resources leads to a more streamlined workflow . It ensures that each phase of the project aligns with the necessary project requirements, reducing delays and increasing efficiency.

Mitigation of bottlenecks: By anticipating and planning resource usage, bottlenecks can be identified and mitigated before they impact the project timeline. This proactive approach keeps projects on track, enhancing client satisfaction.

Simplified project management: Merging the use of dashboards with automation transcends traditional methods like spreadsheets. Dashboards provide a visual and intuitive overview of resource distribution and utilization, while automation streamlines the tracking and allocation process. This combination enhances overall project management efficiency, allowing for real-time adjustments and more informed decision-making.

Resource optimization: A well-crafted resource allocation strategy is key for project success. It ensures the best resources are utilized where they are most needed, aligning with the project's goals and timelines. By optimally using both physical and human resources, projects are more likely to meet their objectives and satisfy client expectations.

How to allocate resources effectively

An effective allocation strategy identifies the project’s goals and priorities and collects resources to fit your needs throughout the project's lifecycle. Resource allocation should be an early project consideration—ideally, aim to allocate resources during the project planning phase.  

1. Start with the end in mind

In order to understand your project’s priorities, how important it is, and how it should be resourced, you first need to outline the project’s objectives. This is the first step to any project. Project objectives are attainable, time-bound, specific goals you plan to achieve by the end of your project.

If you haven’t already, align on:

The project’s main goals and objectives

The project’s key deliverables

Relevant milestones

A high-level timeline or project roadmap

2. Identify available resources

In resource allocation, a resource is anything that helps you achieve your project objectives. Depending on your project’s needs, this includes the project team and any tools, budget, equipment, or skills you need to hit your project deliverables. 

Before you actually allocate resources, understand what’s available. There are a few dependencies to look out for, including:

What is the project’s priority level? This influences how it should be resourced. Is this an all-hands-on-deck project that’s contributing to a company OKR , or is it a lower priority initiative? Come up with an internal tier system for project priority to guide how you’ll staff each project. 

Who is available to work on this project? Take a look at your team’s capacity to understand what they’re working on. If this project is more important than their current work, try resource leveling . See if there’s anything you can deprioritize or reschedule to accommodate this new work. 

What budget or tools are available? Does this project have a budget? Are there additional tools you need to invest in or develop in order to complete this work? 

What additional resources do we need? Do you need any cross-functional team members to work on this project? Alternatively, are there unconventional resources—like very unique skill sets or new equipment—you need for this project to succeed?

Who needs to approve the resource allocation plan? If someone other than you is in charge of budget, tooling, or team workload, check in with them to make sure this resource allocation plan looks good. Are there any additional project stakeholders who need to be looped in during the resource allocation process? 

3. Align on project scope

To scope a new project, you first need to understand the project’s goals, deadlines, and project deliverables. This helps you get a sense of your project needs so you can hit your goals on time and on budget. 

A clear project scope also helps you avoid scope creep , which is what happens when the asks and deliverables exceed the pre-set project scope.

4. Create and share a project plan

Now that you have a sense of your available resources, surface that information to the larger team. Invite your project team to a project kickoff meeting , and share:

Your project plan

Relevant project milestones

The project schedule

Any task dependencies to keep an eye on

Track all of this work with work management software . It’s important for your project team to know which resources are available for this project—and also to have a central source of truth for this information in case it changes. With a centralized work management system, you can clarify project priorities so everyone understands the context of the work. That way, if something does change, you can reprioritize based on the highest-impact work. 

5. Monitor project progress

Once your project is underway, monitor project progress in case of any unexpected resource allocation developments. No matter how well planned your project is, things can change. Team members go on vacation, a client might be delayed in getting back to you, or your business goals might change. Track project progress in real time so you can adjust if necessary.

Common challenges of resource allocation

When done correctly, resource allocation can help you hit your goals, increase your impact, and maximize your resource utilization. You’ll get better at allocating resources as you go, but if you’re just getting started, here are some common challenges—and how to avoid them. 

Problem: Burnout and over-allocation

The biggest issue to avoid during resource allocation is overwork and burnout. Team members get overworked when they work too hard, too much, or too long. Prolonged overwork can lead to burnout, which the World Health Organization defines as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress.

Without visibility into what everyone is working on—especially if you’re managing work across multiple projects —it’s easy to assume team members have the time and bandwidth to work on your specific project. This lack of clarity can lead to accidental over-allocation and, eventually, burnout.

To prevent overwork and burnout, proactively evaluate team members workload. With capacity planning , you can get ahead of burnout and make sure team members aren’t overwhelmed or underworked. This is critical because, according to the Anatomy of Work , 71% of knowledge workers reported experiencing burnout at least once in 2020. With proactive resource management software , you can promote balance—instead of burnout.

Problem: Resource dependencies

Sometimes, things change after you identify and allocate available resources. You might be waiting on a team member to finish a project before getting started on your initiative—but what happens if that project gets extended? 

Even the most effective resource allocation can’t predict every business contingency . To avoid unpleasant surprises, use resource management tools, such as project management software , to automate resource tracking in real-time. That way, you can immediately see resource shortages and project delays and pivot your own work accordingly. 

Problem: Low resource utilization

The average knowledge worker spends 60% of their time on “work about work”—things like searching for documents, chasing approvals, switching between apps, and following up on the status of work. That leaves only 40% of each day for skilled work and strategic planning . More often than not, we take this time-consuming “stuff” for granted as part of work, but it doesn’t have to be. That’s where resource utilization comes in. Resource utilization describes the percentage of a team member’s time that is spent on billable work or tasks that contribute to overall profitability.

High resource utilization isn’t about squeezing out the maximum amount of productivity from any given team member. Rather, the key to maximizing utilization is impact. When team members understand the relative priority between different tasks, they can spend their time where it’s most effective —and have the highest impact as a result.

Tips for effective resource allocation

Many teams that are new to making resource allocation decisions often struggle to identify and deploy the best resources in a manner that streamlines operations and keeps the project on its critical path . This can lead to bottlenecks and setbacks, potentially jeopardizing the success of the project. 

The following tips offer strategies to transform these initial stumbling blocks into stepping stones for a successful project.

Align location decisions with availability of resources

Deciding where to locate your project requires careful consideration of both its geographic requirements and the availability of resources . 

Consider a construction project where materials are sourced from the closest suppliers to reduce transit time and costs. To optimize their resource allocation strategy, the team could continually assess supply chain dynamics and foster relationships with local suppliers that can lead to quicker turnaround times and better material quality.

Such strategic location decisions not only ensure that resources are used where they are most needed but also aid in developing a more efficient project structure.

Leverage automation and project management tools

Incorporating automation into your resource allocation strategy can improve the management of project tasks and ensure smoother project progression and timely completion. 

For example, a software development team might use a tool like Asana to automate task assignments based on team members' current workload and expertise. Automation tools can help with scheduling, resource leveling , and identifying potential issues before they become problematic. 

By automating routine tasks, project managers can focus more on critical aspects of project management, such as client satisfaction and ensuring project success.

Use real-time data in decision-making

The foundation of effective resource allocation lies in harnessing real-time data . For instance, a marketing agency might use dashboards to monitor ongoing campaigns, adjusting team assignments and resources based on real-time performance metrics. 

Employing tools that provide insights into the work breakdown structure and relevant metrics , project managers can make adjustments that keep their resource allocation strategies on track.

Effective resource allocation leads to better projects

Resource allocation can help you set your project up for success from day one. Manage resource availability early during the resource planning process to know exactly what you can support and how you’ll hit your project goals.  

Resource allocation is crucial to reducing miscommunications and getting more work done, faster—especially when you can automate it. In Asana, you can identify resources, track and update them, and assign related tasks—all from one central platform.

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What Is Resource Allocation In Project Management?

Jitesh Patil

Resource allocation in project management deals with finding and assigning the right resources to the right tasks at the right time. Allocating the right resources at the right time could be the difference between project success and failure.

No wonder, according to this Wellingtone report , resource management is the third biggest challenge for project managers.

Resource management is one of the top project management challenges.

In this article, you’ll learn:

  • What resource allocation in project management is
  • Who’s responsible for allocating resources
  • Why is it important
  • The resource allocation process
  • And common resource allocation challenges faced by project managers

Ready to dive in and deliver successful projects, stress-free?

Let’s get started.

What is resource allocation in project management?

Resource allocation is a process in project management that helps project managers identify the right resources, and assign them to project tasks in order to meet project objectives.

Project resources can be material, equipment, financial, or human resources.

Typically, resource allocation is done during the early stages of a project’s lifecycle. Specifically, it’s a step in resource planning , which, in turn, is a step in the project planning phase in project management.

A project manager needs to consider the following factors during resource allocation:

  • Skills: the skills that can help achieve the project objectives
  • Capacity: the number of theoretical hours a resource can work during the project schedule
  • Availability: the number of available resource hours, after excluding time off and culture hours from capacity
  • Utilization: the number of productive hours a resource can put in, typically 80% of available hours

Resource planning tools make it easy to identify available resources and allocate them to a project.

Who is responsible for allocating resources in project management?

A project manager is responsible for resource allocation in project management. In larger organizations, resource managers are responsible to allocate resources from the resource pool.

Before a project manager resource planning and allocation, they must:

  • Get a sign-off on the project scope.
  • Identify all critical project tasks using Work Breakdown Structure ( WBS ).
  • Create a project schedule and a project timeline .

During resource allocation, the project manager must work closely with:

  • project stakeholders, including the customers and the project team members
  • other project managers, in cases where multiple projects share the same resources
  • identified resources to determine if their capacity and availability are in line with project objectives

Large organizations often have dedicated resource management teams. In such cases, the project manager needs to work closely with resource managers to ensure that resource requirements are met.

Why is resource allocation important in project management?

The benefits of following the right resource allocation process in project management include:

Efficient resource utilization

Assigning resources the right way ensures that limited resources are used in the best possible way to achieve the project’s goals. It helps make the most effective use of the team’s capacity among different projects and tasks.

Mitigate resource risks

Proper allocation of resources helps identify resource constraints that can cause project delays. It enables managers to anticipate potential risks and take remedial measures. Thus improving the chances of project success.

Reduces scheduling conflicts

Time off and shared resources across multiple projects often result in scheduling conflicts. Planned resource scheduling ensures that the project timelines don’t conflict with resource availability. In addition, it takes care to minimize resource dependencies while ensuring that the project stays on track.

Improved cost management

Deliberate resource allocation helps project managers track progress, and manage resource costs, which leads to better cost management. As a result, it reduces the possibility of the project budget going overboard.

Better project outcomes

Effective resource management leads to fewer project failures. When the right resources are assigned to the right tasks, it results in better project outcomes. As a result, project goals are met within the timeline and budget.

Improved project team productivity

Done right, resource assignment ensures optimum resources are allocated and avoid overallocation. This, in turn, prevents overwork, stress, and burnout. As a result, team productivity improves.

3 resource allocation strategies in project management

A resource allocation strategy is a method by which a project manager ensures the right resources are assigned to a project and its tasks. Three popular resource allocation strategies include:

Critical Path Method (CPM)

Using this resource allocation strategy, a project manager identifies tasks that cannot be delayed without delaying the project schedule. Then the project manager prioritizes the best available resources for these critical tasks.

The biggest advantage of CPM is that it ensures the project’s time constraints are met.

However, it does not allow multi-tasking. As a result, while time constraints are met, resources need to be allocated for a longer duration than necessary.

Critical Chain Method (CCM)

The Critical Chain Method is a newer resource allocation technique. Its focuses on resource constraints instead of time constraints like in CPM.

Considering resource availability and constraints, a buffer time is added to the initial project estimate . This allows project teams enough time to complete the project on time.

Some managers use CCM along with CPM.

Resource leveling and smoothing

Things don’t always go according to the resource allocation plan—An emergency means a team member is no longer available. A task takes much longer than estimated. Or something else happens that throws your project timeline off.

In such situations, a project manager can do little else but change the initial project plans.

In resource leveling, a project manager changes the project schedule, including the start and end dates, to account for resource availability.

However, that’s not possible with all projects. In such cases, the project manager uses resource smoothing—They change the resource schedule and allocation plan, or in extreme cases, bring in more resources.

How to allocate project resources effectively?

The project resource allocation process involves identifying and assigning the necessary resources to complete a project successfully. Here are the steps involved:

Step 1: Identify project requirements

Start by identifying the project requirements , including the scope, objectives, and deliverables. This is the first step to identifying resource requirements.

Step 2: Map out the project schedule on a timeline

Next, identify the major tasks needed to complete the project. The Work Breakdown Structure, or WBS in short, is a reliable framework for breaking down a project into deliverables and tasks.

Once you know all the tasks, identify dependencies and estimate how long each task will take.

Based on the estimates and the project requirements, make a project schedule and map it on a timeline.

This may seem like a lot of work. But, creating a project timeline with Toggl Plan is really easy. You can import all your tasks in a CSV file and then simply drag and drop the imported tasks to create a beautiful-looking timeline.

Toggl Plan's Project Timeline makes it easy quickly create a visual project schedule.

Step 3: Define resource requirements

Now that you know what tasks must be done to deliver the project, you’re ready to define the resource requirements.

You need to identify both, the quality and quantity of resources needed. The quality of human resources can be judged based on skills, experience, and certifications. While quantity simply means the number of people or other resources needed to deliver a task or a project.

Step 4: Allocate resources

Armed with the information in the first three steps, you’re now ready to dip into the resource pool. The resource pool is where you’ll find all the available resources within your company.

For effective resource allocation, look out for resources that:

  • Aren’t on other assignments,
  • Aren’t on an absence such as a holiday,
  • And meet any time zone restrictions the project may have.

Some team members (for example, designers in a web design agency) often work on multiple projects at the same time. In such cases, you want to reevaluate resource availability based on their allocation to other projects.

Just like the Project timeline, Toggl Plan also has a team timeline .

This makes it really easy to identify available resources. On the team timeline, you can see what each team member’s schedule looks like, across projects and their time off plans.

Get a quick overview of resource availability across projects using Toggl Plan's Team Timeline.

Step 5: Monitor resource utilization

In spite of all the planning, things could still go wrong. Project scope changes, emergency time off, or task delays can throw your best project resource plan off.

That’s why you must constantly monitor resource utilization to identify over or under-utilized resources. Monitoring helps you:

  • Release unused or under-allocated resources
  • Use resource leveling or smoothing to get over the resource crunch

It also helps to have a backup resource allocation plan when nothing else works. For example, you could hire freelancers or outsource work to partners.

Today, most project management software comes with features to track resource utilization. Alternatively, you can use a resource loading chart.

Common resource allocation challenges and solutions

We live in a world where change is constant. And, to deliver projects on time, you need to adapt your plan constantly. That’s what makes resource allocation so difficult.

Here are some common problems that can trip you.

Changes in project scope

Workloads can change at any moment. Scope changes will undoubtedly lead to your resource requirements changing, so you need a resource allocation plan that’s flexible.

Solution: Fully assess scope changes before they’re approved. Then identify if the current resource allocations remain sufficient or whether changes are required.

Changes in resource availability

Resource allocation is rarely static and there are many scenarios that bring changes. Whether that’s a team member off sick or a late supplier delivery, try to factor contingency into the resource allocation process.

Solution: When building your initial project plan, try to factor in some resource contingency. This will give you room to maneuver for minor changes. If the consequence is major, take immediate action to source replacements.

Task delays

No piece of work is without its dependencies. That’s why a delay in one task has a cascading effect on other tasks, sometimes across projects. Because of this, you lose your resource availability window.

Solution: When building your initial project plan, identify key dependencies and make contingency plans for those resources.

Level up your project management with efficient resource allocation

Every one in four projects fails, because of resource dependencies.

Understanding how to allocate resources and planning project resources can be the difference between a successful and a failed project. That’s why resource allocation becomes so critical.

Also, allocating resources is not a one-time planning phase activity. Situations change. And, that’s why the need to monitor your resource plans continuously.

Toggl Plan is a beautifully simple project planning tool that can help you manage your resources and deliver a project on time.

Sign up for a free 14-day trial account .

Jitesh Patil

Jitesh is an SEO and content specialist. He manages content projects at Toggl and loves sharing actionable tips to deliver projects profitably.

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A quick guide to resource allocation: how to maximize your team’s time and skills in 2024

Learn everything you need to allocate the best and available people to projects.

Stella Inabo

Stella Inabo,   Content Writer

  • resource management

Resource allocation helps resource managers schedule the best team for the job and streamline how work is assigned, based on resource availability.

Ideally, resource allocation should be fairly easy: you line up your projects ➡️ divvy up your people’s time ➡️ the project gets delivered ✅ 

Most articles on resource allocation will describe this process as if it represents the real world. 

But in reality, what you are dealing with is: 

  • A team with a limited amount of time and a large number of requests
  • Team members with paid time off, national holidays, unforeseen sickness
  • A long list of projects you could potentially assign your people to (and more incoming)
  • Your boss wanting you to deliver the project for Acme yesterday

Resource allocation is not as easy as it seems—yet thousands of our customers get it done daily while juggling the factors mentioned above.

Is it magic? Luck? Or is it the fact that they have solid resource allocation processes in place and the right tool for the job? 😉 You decide. In this guide, we’ll share and show you some effective resource allocation tactics we’ve sourced from our customers so you can successfully allocate your team’s time.

What is resource allocation in project management?

Resource allocation is the process of identifying and assigning available resources—including people, time, money, and equipment—to projects while considering a team’s availability , skill sets, and interests. 

Usually, a resource manager, project manager, or team lead is in charge of allocating resources.

What do we mean by resources?

In the general sense, ‘resources’ usually refer to the tangible and intangible elements used to carry out a project, like team members, equipment, software, time, money, etc. But the term “resources” can obscure the fact that we are working with living, breathing people. So, in the rest of this guide, we are going to use language that shows the humans behind the work. For example, we’ll write “schedule your people’s time in your resource management tool” instead of “schedule your resources in your resource management tool.”

A resource allocation plan can look as simple as this👇🏿

A table showing possible allocations for team members of Float content team

An example of a simple resource allocation plan from our content team

Or look as detailed as this:

A team’s schedule in Float

Float helps you allocate your team’s time with extra context about their capacity and skills

That being said, let’s make an important distinction between two terms that are often used interchangeably.

What is the difference between resource allocation and task allocation?

Resource allocation is not assigning project tasks to people. It focuses on identifying the right and available people for a specific project and deciding what amount of their time to assign to it.

After you’ve allocated your people’s time to projects, you move on to task allocation, which is assigning specific time blocks or hours to perform particular tasks within a project.

For example, your team has three projects to work on, and team members usually work 40 hours a week. So, you allocate a team member to work 20 hours on Task A and 10 hours each on Task B and Task C. That is resource allocation.

Allocation page in Float

You can allocate time to projects by clicking and dragging across a date on the Schedule in Float

Once you’re done with that, you move on to the next phase by assigning specific tasks, e.g., building a wireframe or creating a mockup, to specific people. That is task allocation.

Resource allocation should be done in your resource management software, while your detailed task allocation should be done in your project management tool. 

Resource management software provides information about the people on your team–their skills, interests, and availability– all crucial information needed for resource allocation.

4 signs you need to improve your resource allocation

Poor resource allocation can be glaring–bottlenecks that stall a project–or very subtle–overworked team members. 

1. Your team is suffering from too much context switching

“One of the signals of poor resource allocation is a lot of context switching where a team member is regularly jumping between different projects and trying to juggle a lot of work at the same time,” says Colin Ross who leads the engineering team at Float.

It might seem like the multi-tasker is doing a good job, but the work might be subpar. “While multi-tasking can look efficient, in terms of output it’s never a good idea—there is little chance for the kind of deep focus generally needed to create high-quality work.”

2. Your team keeps running into bottlenecks

Frequent bottlenecks indicate that your people need to be allocated properly. Ross suggests looking out for “projects that are stalled because some critical resource is unavailable, thereby blocking the next stage.”

Suppose you have too many projects on pause because team members don’t have the capacity to finish their work. He suggests identifying the jobs necessary to complete a project and focusing on completing them first. 

3. Your team has too many active projects

It is tempting and common to pursue new ideas or take on new projects without considering whether we can handle them. 

Ross points out this is a sign of poor resource allocation: “Having too many projects taking place simultaneously is also a sign of inefficiency if the teams working on those projects are not partitioned.” More often than not, taking on too many projects compared to your actual capacity to do them can lead to the first two problems of bottlenecks and context switching. 

4. You don’t have a single view of team capacity

An additional sign of poor resource allocation is a lack of a shared source of truth for who is working on what, and when. Here is Alice Winthrop, Senior Product Manager at Float: “If you don’t know what people are working on, what kind of utilization rate or capacity you have, then you have no way of knowing how well or poorly your people are being managed.”

How to allocate resources (the right way)

In project management, resources are allocated based on project requirements, budget constraints, timelines, and resource availability. This typically involves identifying the necessary human, financial, and material resources and assigning them to specific tasks or activities within the project plan.

At Float, we make listening to our customers– project planners and resource managers– a priority. This is why, after speaking with several of them, we came up with a set of steps they follow to allocate their people’s time to projects while juggling many variables. 

The steps below are written with the assumption that you are looking to do resource allocation for several projects with a team of 20-50 people. 

If that sounds like you, keep reading 👇🏿 

At its core, efficient resource allocation focuses on two steps: 

  • Identifying what projects to prioritize 
  • Determining who is best and available to work on projects

Let us break it down. 

Step 1. Identify what projects to prioritize

At any point in time, several projects are waiting to be done—but your team has a limited number of hours to work on them. This means you have to prioritize projects and spend time on the ones most impactful to your organization, whether in terms of improving revenue or client relationships.

For example, our customer, Emily Feliciano , the creative resource manager at Atlassian, deals with up to 60 resource requests every week . To help her prioritize the projects to allocate people’s time, she uses a set of questions based on urgency, business value, and cost. 

Business value 

  • Are we mending a broken relationship with a client we really want to salvage? 
  • Is this a new opportunity to partner with a client we have been seeking for a long time? 
  • What is the priority of this work? 
  • What is the level of importance of getting this work accomplished? 
  • Is there flexibility in the timeline for us to deliver?
  • Is there a large budget attached?

A decision tree diagram with steps to determine what projects to prioritize

Resource allocation decision tree

Ideally, tasks that contribute to the business, are urgent, and have bug budgets should be prioritized when allocating project resources.

Step 2. Determine who is best and available to work on projects

Once you know the projects you need to work on ASAP, you need to determine who is the best person who is both skilled and available to work on them. 

Because you’re working with humans and not machines, you don’t just need to consider the amount of time they are available to work for: you also need to evaluate what projects excite or spark interest, and what your team is stellar at. 

If you can balance the three, you’d have an enthusiastic crew willing to do their best to deliver successful projects—and who have enough time to do it, too. 

Otherwise, you’d have a team of unmotivated people pushing out projects just for the sake of it.

Consider how your team ’ s skills align with a project 

Do you have people with the right skills for the project? Do you need a generalist or a specialist? Or do you have to look outside your team and hire a freelancer?

Getting the people with the right skills to work on a project has two benefits: the job gets done well and probably faster than getting someone who doesn’t know how to do it (unless it is a training opportunity).

For example, if you’re doing an SEO audit for your website, ideally, you should work with an SEO specialist instead of working with a generalist digital marketer.

Person tags in Float

You can find people with the right skills using person tags in Float

Identify team members who are available

Allocating people with insufficient time can lead to tasks being done poorly because of the rush to meet deadlines or constant context-switching. Your project might even grind to a halt because interconnected tasks are not delivered on time. 

But by asking some questions before allocating work, you can avoid all of these problems: 

  • Does anyone have time off planned during the duration of projects?
  • Is anyone on sick leave?
  • Are any national holidays coming up?
  • What are their work hours (e.g. are they working full-time or part-time)?
  • How much of their time is already allocated to other projects? 
  • Can their current allocations be negotiated?

There’s a catch. If you try to answer these manually, especially if you have a large team, you might notice that it is an extremely tedious process, and you don’t have all the data you need. 

It is best to use resource management software that gives you a full view of your team’s capacity so you can see at a glance who has PTO, is on sick leave, or has a national holiday coming up. 

Team schedule in Float showing work allocations and annual leave

Float alerts you if work is about to be scheduled on a non-work day

Align allocations with your team ’ s interests 

During the resource allocation phase, don’t miss the chance to get your people to work on things that pique their interest or challenge them. 

For example, you might have heard team members express a desire to work on a certain kind of project. Or, as a manager, you might proactively decide that they should try out new types of projects. 

Resource allocation is an opportunity to assign your team members to projects that help them grow and develop their skills.

For example, our customer Jason Fisher at Flight Story makes sure he rotates the video editors and the team participating in shoots, so everyone on the team gets an opportunity to work on a variety of projects that interest them instead of just doing the same thing over and over again. 

What to do when your resources aren’t enough

Sometimes, even with careful, strategic planning, your team might need to put in extra hours. While it’s not ideal, it happens. 

Here are some guidelines to prevent your team from getting too overwhelmed in those cases:

  • Try to limit the extra workload to a short time to avoid exhausting your team. 
  • Talk to your team about why the extra time is needed and what steps you’ll take to manage the workload , like finding extra help or hiring freelancers. 
  • Make an effort to find extra support to lighten the workload for your team.

A real-life example of resource allocation from Float’s engineering team

Back in September 2023, the engineering team at Float had several projects they needed to allocate the team’s time to: 

  • Short-term projects scheduled to be shipped before our annual team meetup in late September 
  • Long-term projects to be shipped after our annual team meetup.

To make them all happen, they had to consider several things, including resource constraints, projects to prioritize, and their existing workflow.

At that time, the team comprised eight engineers evenly distributed between the front and back end. Their time was divided between:

  • Current ongoing work like the rollout of the cache API
  • Ongoing work that required more time to finish, like the Timer and changes to our Project planning and Estimation features
  • New work they wanted to start, like automating dependency updates
  • Regular commitments like the Support Champion who analyzes customer issues and provides concise steps for solving issues and Release Manager who coordinates tasks and team members for a smooth release.
  • Ongoing hiring process involving several engineers.

To strike a compromise between competing tasks and decide what allocation of time went to what, the team referred back to Float’s Principles for Success and the Product Vision.

As a result, product-led and engineering-led work received the most hours, while tasks related to marketing and customer success were allocated less time.

While allocating work, the team also paid attention to each member’s interests and strengths. For example, one of the engineers, Guido, had experience and interest in performance engineering, which made him the best engineer to handle lazy computation on our schedule.

Throughout the resource allocation discussions, open communication was encouraged by using a public Slack channel. The plan itself was shared in Notion, allowing everyone to contribute and fine-tune it collaboratively.

Allocations of Float team members

The engineers' time were allocated to different projects based on priority levels

How to handle resource allocation problems

Even if you adopt all the right tools and follow resource allocation best practices, you will probably still run into problems. Hiccups are going to happen, so it's best to be prepared! 

Let's take a look at some of the top challenges project managers face and how to overcome them. 

The project scope changes

You did your best to plan resources for your upcoming projects, but there's still the chance of scope creep. Maybe the tasks were more extensive than expected or required skills you didn't account for. 

You need to be nimble and adjust your resource planning accordingly when this happens. To prevent scope creep , you should:

  • Ensure project scopes are always transparent and defined
  • Set clear and defined project goals
  • Strive to do your best work, but don't be a perfectionist if it will cause delays
  • Build a work plan that guides your course of action
  • Create a system that allows workers to greenlight change requests and revisions
  • Monitor team performance to ensure everything is on track
  • Use all the tools at your disposal to speed up progress

Sometimes it’s impossible to avoid scope creep. In such cases, having a scope change process helps you adapt fast and get back on course. It may look something like this:

  • Submit a specific form to document change requests (in writing)
  • Analyze the revision request to understand the scope creep thoroughly
  • Get approval from the main stakeholders
  • Document the approved scope changes in writing

Resources become unavailable 

Uncontrollable outside forces prevent scarce resources from showing up as expected. A worker’s car breaks down, and they can’t get to the office. Or maybe they have other priorities in the organization that trumps working on a task you assigned them. What matters is what you do next.

Work quickly to find a replacement within your talent pool. If there’s no one available with the skills you need, hiring a freelancer or contractor may be the best option. You can prevent this in the future by looking at task dependencies. Investigate other responsibilities team members have that may pull them away from the project.

Have a backup resource allocation strategy if they are unavailable for whatever reason. One option is to have a pool of freelancers you can count on to fill in gaps on a whim.

Resources need to be shared

It’s common for projects to share the same resources. This is especially true in smaller organizations that can't afford to hire an extensive staff roster. As you can imagine, shared resources can lead to issues that bog down the pipeline. Project bottlenecks may occur if resources are spread too thin. 

Use your resource allocation software to spot gaps in advance. Closely monitor the workloads of team members who move between several departments. It’s the best way to prevent over-allocating resources and burnout. 

Unexpected delays occur

A delay can hit when you least expect it. People get sick, labor shortages arise, and miscommunication happens. That’s when scope creep may rear its ugly head. Some issues are within your control, and others, not so much.

The most straightforward way to deal with issues is to try your best to prevent them in the first place. You can:

  • Schedule tasks based on skill, not just time. An expert or specialist works faster. Using Float, you can create custom skill tags for team members so you can find the right person for the job in seconds.  
  • Avoid overloading team members with too many other priorities—especially if the task depends on them to move through the pipeline.
  • Offer flexible hours. Some employees work more productively outside of traditional working hours. 
  • Map out project timelines, break them into phases, and track progress. Software helps to pinpoint potential delays before they become bottlenecks.

The more organized and transparent your resource allocation, the easier it is for everyone to take accountability for their role.

Use resource management software for efficient resource allocation

Most of our customers switch from using spreadsheets or project management tools for resource allocation because they encounter one (or all) of the following: 

  • Their team grew and the spreadsheet became inadequate 
  • They need to do a lot of manual updating 
  • They couldn’t tell the accurate availability of resources

If you can relate to these, it means you need to switch to a resource management tool. We might be a bit biased on this point because Float is a resource management software, but hear us out. 

Because resource management tools have all the features you need for allocating your people’s time, they make the process less cumbersome and more accurate. For example: - They’ll give you an updated overview of your team’s schedule up-to-date, complete with their availability to facilitate informed decision-making - You’ll be able to save details about your team, like their skills and work hours, and note their interests - As your project progresses, you can see how other projects might affect their availability (and yes, if you’re wondering, Float does all three. And many more.)

Allocation option in Float

You can efficiently allocate time to projects in Float

If you want to find the best option, take a look at this list of the best resource management software we curated for you, complete with feature and pricing comparisons. 

And if we’ve already convinced you to give Float a try, sign up for a free trial 🙌 .

Plan your resources with the #1 rated resource management software

Allocate resources with the #1 rated resource management software

With Float, you can plan your projects and allocate resources with confidence. Try it free for 14 days, no credit card required.

Related reads

Resource allocation and capacity planning: what’s the difference, what is resource planning a simple guide for 2024, 9 metrics you need for effective resource tracking.

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What is resource allocation - best practices for project management

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Andreas Springer _Actonic_

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The complete guide to resource allocation in project management

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21 Jul 2022 By Jo Johansson

resource allocation guide

In this article 📖

Resources are ever-changing—a constant ebb and flow of people, materials, time, and money—so it may seem obvious that resource allocation should always be front of mind for your project team . But are you implementing it effectively? If your answer is no or you’re unsure, keep reading. 

Allocation strategy can be complicated, but once you master it, you’ll be able to help your team do their best work, and they’ll have confidence that the project’s end goal is achievable. Using our step-by-step guide, you’ll learn what resource allocation is, why it matters, how to use it, and how to overcome the common challenges you may face as you implement the resource allocation process .

What is resource allocation? 

Resource allocation is the process of managing resources to best meet a project’s needs over the course of its duration. 

Resource refers to materials needed to complete a project: specific facilities, tools, and equipment, budget, a team, or even time itself. In resource management , employees are often referred to as resources. We encourage you to keep the human aspect of human resources at the forefront of your projects. Think of allocation as not just a technique to keep your project on track but also as a way to ensure your employees are treated as human beings, not robots.

Allocation is fluid. As a project develops, you’ll need to adapt who is working on what under which circumstances. A solid resource allocation plan allows for some variability while outlining how employees can expect to use their time.

Why is resource allocation essential to project managers? 

Resource allocation to maximize utilization

Resource allocation with Resource Guru

Allocation is an essential part of any project—without it, project managers can make a timeline of when they want certain milestones completed but have no idea of whether or not that timeline is achievable with their team and resources on hand. In the worst cases, poor resource misallocation can lead to project failure.

Mishandled resource allocation strategy can also frustrate employees, sometimes leading to increased staff turnover . So can underutilizing your resources.  

Before dedicated resource management software , project managers had to use version-controlled spreadsheets to manage and allocate their resources. Tools like Resource Guru have changed that once time-intensive part of project planning and made it as easy as taking a few moments to breathe.

M&C Saatchi

“Resource Guru is simple to use. It allows us to optimize our resources and keeps an eye on every project.” Stefania Sabbatini Digital Production Director

Common challenges with resource allocation

Successful project completion isn’t easy—it’s likely that project managers most often run into trouble with the allocation piece of their project plans , as consequences range as far as project delay, cost overruns, and even employee turnover. 

Here are six of the common challenges you may face when allocating resources , regardless of the size of your company.

1. Resources have competing projects

It’s not uncommon for two projects to require the same resources. Consider a website design firm: most projects will demand attention from the lead UX designer. And IT departments tend to rely heavily on their senior developers regardless of which tasks they’re tackling. It’s up to the project manager to allocate their resources effectively to meet all project needs.

2. The project scope is subject to change

Some projects are predictably challenging to plan for in the long term, like software projects or content plans. Project managers can anticipate inconveniences like changing user expectations or Google updates and adjust their strategies accordingly. In our opinion, project managers should use Agile resource planning methods in these circumstances).

Unfortunately, changing scope requirements aren’t limited to Agile projects. Even construction projects frequently undergo scope changes (like needing to retile a bathroom during a renovation), which pulls the right resources from working on their original project onto another. The project manager has to ensure that there’s enough flexibility in the schedule to account for these scope changes.

3. Team members take time off

Vacations: we want employees to have nothing in the way of taking them at the right time to stay sharp for their projects. Unfortunately, project managers often have to create a resource allocation plan months or even years before the project’s end date. During that time, team members will undoubtedly exercise their right to time off, regardless of whether it’s time spent on the beach or sick in bed.

4. Time zone differences make collaboration difficult

As companies expand, outsource, and adapt to remote or hybrid work, team members often find themselves in different time zones from their colleagues and project managers . The trouble with time zone differences is coordination; what do you do if you have resources scheduled for a particular day but not available for the precise hours you need them?

5. Change requests slow you down

Change requests revise how a project will be implemented, often expanding the project’s scope or making significant shifts in requirements. When tasks change, so too do your allocation needs, especially if those new tasks create the need for more or fewer skills than what you have available on your team.

6. Unrecognized level of effort for everyday tasks

Wouldn’t it be nice if work was just focusing on production goals: coding, writing, and making firm decisions? Most workdays consist of much more, like checking and responding to emails, attending long meetings, and participating in code reviews.

Given that the average employee checks their email 36 times in an hour , it’s unrealistic to expect eight hours of uninterrupted project time day to day. Still, project managers often consider the allocation of resources with that expectation in mind.

7 best resource allocation tips you should know

Scaled-up PMOs rely on the most advanced project management software and best practices to ensure that their projects are completed on budget and on time. 

Once you’ve nailed down your project’s scope , timeline, budget, and requirements, you can begin to allocate your resources effectively. These five tips will help you improve productivity, avoid delays, stay within budget, recognize new opportunities, keep your team in good spirits, and help them excel on your project.

1. Identify which resources you have at your disposal

A screenshot of Resource Guru displaying resource availability

Using a visual tool like Resource Guru can help project managers determine how to allocate their resources appropriately

There are four major factors to consider when starting a resource allocation plan :

  • Which skilled resources match the tasks that the project demands?
  • Which of those resources have any availability in their schedule?
  • At what time are those resources free?
  • Which dependencies affect when a resource is needed or not?

Small companies with 10 or fewer employees can probably get away with just using a shared calendar to sort most of these questions out. Still, larger companies with hundreds of resources need a dedicated resource allocation tool to do this first step correctly. A visual tool like Resource Guru can help project managers determine how to allocate their resources appropriately.

Let’s use a front-end upgrade as an example. Simple tools might direct project managers to the IT team but leave it at that for the project manager t o further sort out. With a tool like Resource Guru, project managers can filter their resources by needed skill sets . 

In this case, they can filter senior resources with React experience to meet the project’s needs.

Resource Guru Allocation Filters

Screen your resources with filters like experience, location, and skills.

Resource Guru, as an example, also offers the ability to distinguish between time zone differences when calculating team availability. That makes it easy for time off to be appropriately managed.

For example, when you create a booking or time-off event for multiple resources based in numerous time zones, you can choose whether the time/date of the event should be found on the resource’s local time or a specific time zone. This eliminates any of the confusion caused by international resource scheduling mishaps.

Making sure resources are scheduled correctly across time zones with Resource Guru

Avoid time zone mishaps with the right software.

2. Be sure to include your material assets in your resource allocation plan

While individuals make up the bulk of allocation planning , don’t forget your equipment, facilities, materials, and other schedulable resources as well. 

This step is essential for businesses that deal in physical assets. For example, a construction company wouldn’t simply book a concrete slip form paver for two weeks and consider the task of allocating it correctly complete.

Instead, the project manager h as to calculate how much wear and tear the heavy equipment would undergo during that time and use that information to flag dependencies t hat may affect other resources (it’s kind of hard to paint a parking lot before it’s entirely paved).

Back at the office, buffer time is particularly precious. While it might be tempting to book out one of two meeting rooms for a three-day project brainstorm, the savvy project manager might realize that eliminating half of all private meeting space for greeting new clients, informal office communications, and other meetings could cause problems.

Recognizing just how competitive those meeting rooms are, the project manager might choose to extend the brainstorming to five days so that the meeting rooms can be used more efficiently.

3. Look at your resource utilization rates

If you know your utilization rates, you can be more strategic and accurate when scheduling employees. A reasonable resource utilization rate ensures that your team progresses an entire project forward by spending time on the right tasks. Resource utilization is especially important if your employees are working on several projects because it gives you a more complete picture of their workload. Utilization awareness gives you a real-time understanding of workloads and workflows and allocation of resources when you begin scheduling people for the project, which can help you ward off team burnout and overallocation . 

The difference between resource allocation and resource utilization is this: allocation is how you decide when and where to focus employees and materials (resources); utilization tells you how much work your team is doing across the company and how effective their work is on each project.

As IBM puts it, “ resource utilization differs from resource allocation because it measures how efficient a team is based on how it’s using the available resources .” In this case, resource utilization uses KPIs to measure the team’s performance for the available time or capacity and not on an unrealistic 100% utilization rate.

The term “ resource utilization rates” describes the percentage of time employees spend on billable work during their allotted shift. To understand why employee allocation matters, imagine a work environment in which employees are often overallocated. They become burned out quickly and always feel stressed at work. Because burnout and stress impact employees’ productivity and their mental and physical health, they may take more time off work or call in sick more often. The quality of your team’s work lessens or tanks altogether due to employees’ poor health. If this work climate continues, employees may give their notice in order to salvage their health and find a work environment with better allocation. 

We recommend shooting for a 70–80% utilization rate to allow for buffer time for admin tasks and short breaks throughout the day. Monitoring resource utilization before you’ve allocated resources helps you understand how productive your team is and ensures that they’ll continue to be productive because they aren’t burned out.

How to calculate resource utilization rate

There’s a simple formula you can use to calculate an employee’s utilization rate:

Total billable hours ÷ total available working hours × 100 = utilization rate

Let’s say you work for a marketing agency and have a graphic designer on your team. The graphic designer works 40 hours per week. Since you’re implementing a 70–80% utilization rate, you have 28–32 hours per week of billable hours to be scheduled. The other 8–12 hours are preserved for administrative work and non-lunch breaks. Now you need to understand whether the designer has other ongoing assignments. Let’s say they have a project that takes 10 hours each week. The designer’s utilization rate is already at 25%, so you know not to assign them more than 18 hours per week of work to honor your 70–80% utilization goal. 

Perhaps you schedule the designer for 10 more hours of work. Their total billable hours at that point would be 20 hours or a 50% utilization rate. 

20 total billable hours ÷ 40 total available working hours × 100 = 50% utilization rate

Because you’ve paid attention to your team’s utilization rates, you’re able to allocate the designer’s time to the highest-priority projects without overallocation.

4. Take time for resource leveling

Resource leveling is the practice of evening workloads across the entirety of a project.

Imagine a project’s workload like a piece of classical music—say Holst’s “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.” Sometimes the project requires the orchestra to play in unison. Other times, the orchestra goes soft to allow a single instrument to solo over the rest. There are points in the piece when the music crescendos and decrescendos, getting louder and softer.

You can plan for the piece to begin and end, just like a project, and plan the allocation of resources ( the musicians) to the music arrangement’s demands. You can reliably churn out an outstanding performance every time.

The thing is: most projects don’t perform like an orchestral ensemble—nor should they! Consider just how much work the first-chair violinist (or your most senior architect) would have to put in to make the project “sound” right, while the poor second-chair flutist—an intern perhaps?—twitters in and out, barely heard by an audience member.

Resource leveling an orchestra would involve stripping the music of its fortes and pianissimos, its solos and solis, and distributing play time and notes evenly across instruments.

The result would sound nothing like “Jupiter” as we know it now, but instead, like a steady chord held for roughly seven minutes (likely far less, given that leveling would do away with so much idle time between musicians).

While resource leveling is a terrible idea for music lovers, it can really help out a resource allocation plan because it involves balancing resource workloads throughout the project. And sometimes, that means rebalancing the project’s duration, budget, or scope to accommodate. It’s also used to ensure that non-competing tasks are scheduled concurrently for optimal efficiency. Resource leveling is often applied to critical path calculations.

Gyro

“Resource Guru is simple to use with powerful permissions that allow us to manage the team the way we want.” Stephen Crowther Studio Manager

5. Follow up with resource smoothing

Because you’ve followed the previous steps, you know your utilization rates, and you’ve used resource leveling to make workloads more even across your team—which means your project plan is primed for resource smoothing. 

Resource smoothing helps with allocation because when partnered with resource leveling , resource smoothing allows you to meet project timelines without overallocation of resources. In order to meet your project schedule (resource smoothing), you need to be aware of your employees’ (resources) other obligations/projects/admin duties ( resource utilization ). That way, you can schedule resources and employees strategically to meet both project requirements and deliverables ( resource allocation ). 

Resource smoothing helps you to identify the most important action items within a project and eliminate any unnecessary steps that could slow your project down. The classic definition of resource smoothing says that it helps you make sure a project is completed on time “without peaks or dips in resource availability .”

Let’s say your current project has four steps. It takes a minimum of three days to finish those steps, but your client is pushing you to complete the project in two days. Resource smoothing would eliminate one unnecessary task and identify the most important steps. Now you can complete the project in two days and meet the client’s deadline.

6. Capitalize on modern resource management tools

Resource allocation planning i sn’t just for your team—it applies to the rest of your company too. 

When allocations are visible to everyone, the entire agency can see how pieces fit together and where their “quick tweaks” or internal projects align with the grand scheme of other allocated resources .

Whether you’re a small team using a shared group calendar software or a more robust office relying on more advanced resource management software , team leads that can visualize employee availability have an advantage over those relying on spreadsheets . 

Further, tools like Resource Guru can significantly cut down on emails, facilitate conversations that would otherwise require rounds of meetings, and help you allocate your resources as efficiently as possible. 

For example, with features like reports, you can see just how over- or under-allocated resources are for any given period. And if you need to rush a project, you can always put in for overtime if needed (though I’m sure your team would prefer it if you didn’t).

Resource allocation report from Resource Guru

Why yes, the team can take on new projects!

7. Continuously monitor your allocation and communicate changes

Wouldn’t it be nice if when you set up your project resources at kickoff, it would just stay as you’d planned it? 

Unfortunately, businesses, and people, aren’t stagnant. You acquire new projects , o ne of your essential resources goes on family leave , and budget cuts force project delays; as your needs and your resources’ availability shifts, so too do your resource allocation plan have to adapt. 

One way to do this (other than using your resource allocation dashboard) is to emphasize continuous communication. Ask your teammates how they perceive their workloads; don’t just assume stress levels based on how much they are formally allocated according to your project management tool . A nd keep track of their tasks; unanticipated project completion speed can help you adjust the project l ifecycle .

Finally, ask your team both during and after the project completes if they have any ideas to improve their own allocation or efficiency. While you can glean where each individual fits best in a project, it’s important to remember that you will always have imperfect information about their preferences and abilities.

Regular retrospectives can help you continuously improve your existing process and make more significant changes for future projects .

Continue expanding your resource allocation knowledge

With all these different ways to look at the metrics of effective resource allocation , you can equip your team to do their best work and give them the confidence that they will meet their project’s goals. 

Implementing all the steps we’ve laid out may seem overwhelming, but the benefits of allocation make it worth it, especially with technology on your side. As you continue to learn about resource allocation and the various other techniques we’ve shared here, consider trying resource management software to help you meet your goals and take the extra work out of managing your team’s timesheets . 

Resource Guru can automatically flag employee overallocation for you and allow you to rework it before it becomes a problem. And with other helpful features within the software, you can keep your team on track, balanced, and happy, leading to more productivity, higher employee satisfaction, profitability , and more accurate decision-making .

Join 28,813 subscribers and get an update from us every month or so :)

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Jo Johansson

👋 I'm Jo, Senior Content Marketing Manager at Resource Guru. I spend my days creating educational content that helps people be more productive at work, so they can enjoy their time off work. Got any ideas or requests? Drop me a line at [email protected].

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What is resource management in software engineering?

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IT resource management can also be utilized each time the team changes: for example, if you add more team members. Planning allows a software development company to ensure that it adheres to the client’s deadline, requirements, and budget.

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Resource planning relies heavily on accurate estimation of the time and budget at the start of the project and the prioritization skills of a project manager. There are varying approaches to resource management in an IT company depending on the project and the industry. In this article, you’ll learn about managing resources particularly in software development.

What are resources in software development?

In software development, resources are anything a team needs to build a software product within the set budget and time limits.

resource management in software project management

Usually people think of skills, specialists, and time as resources, but these aren’t the only types of resources in software project management. Let’s review them all.

People are the most expensive yet valuable resource. Your team members contribute not only their time but also the skills they’ve been working on for years. When working with people, you need to take human factors into account: your team member could leave the company, go on sick leave, or take time off for any other life circumstance. There are many tools for human resource management in a software project.

Equipment and tools include everything you need to pay for, from a desk and a laptop to software tools.

A workspace is usually an office or a coworking space. With the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people started working from home, and many companies now offer compensation packages that include home expenses for their employees.

Materials include office supplies and even means of transport to get to a client.

Money is needed to pay for every resource mentioned above.

Top resource metrics

Let’s talk about how to measure resources needed in software development projects. This will help you accurately calculate everything you have at hand and distribute them among your projects.

resource allocation model in software engineering

  • Scheduled utilization is the amount of work employees need to do during a particular project against their total capacity.
  • Tracked utilization is the actual amount of work hours that your employees log.
  • Total capacity is the total number of hours available for each employee. To estimate this correctly, you need to consider all public holidays, sick leaves, and vacation days for each employee.
  • Availability is the amount of time each employee has for the project. This means the total capacity minus the hours your employee spends on other projects.
  • Employee FTE (full-time equivalent employee) is the number of working hours of a full-time employee in your organization.
  • Billable/non-billable hours is the number of working hours you charge your clients for against hours spent on internal matters.

Now that you have a better understanding of what software development resource planning is, let’s talk about the benefits of implementing it correctly.

Benefits of smart resource planning

resource requirements in software project management

Transparency and structure

Resource planning in software project management increases transparency in each department. Let me give you an example. A salesperson has a new project coming in and needs the help of a developer to give the client a rough estimate. If the planning was done correctly, the salesperson will know exactly which developer to contact by checking who has available non-billable hours.

Reduced costs

One of the main principles of resource allocation in software project management is assigning the most appropriate resource for the given situation. Appropriate assignments show that you realize the potential of a particular specialist or tool and will increase efficiency, which allows you to save money and increase your margins.

Appropriate matching

When allocating developers to different projects, you should consider not only their time and availability, but also their skills and unique experiences. This allows you to get the most out of your employees and increase project efficiency.

Allocating tasks to your team members according to their expertise will promotel give you a highly motivated and productive team.

Timely delivery

Resource allocation and scheduling in software project management allows you to deliver projects that adhere to the initially discussed timeline and budget. s. Because you have assigned the right people for the right tasks, you avoid most technical risks.

Allocating underqualified developers is just as bad as hiring an overqualified team: the first may harm the timeline, while the second can cause overbudgeting.

Predicting HR needs

When you plan your development process, you are able to identify when a certain part of your team starts to run out of available resources, allowing you to hire specialists before your resources are completely exhausted.

Main resource management challenges

resource loading in software project management

Unexpected changes

In Agile development, changes are inevitable. Business and market changes are reflected in the software. When scheduling resources in software project management, you need to take potential changes into account and keep your team flexible enough to allocate their resources into sprints without harming the overall development process.

Resource unpredictability

Resources themselves are far from being 100% reliable and available. This is especially true for talents: your team members could decide to leave the company or take time off.

Tools are also quite unpredictable. You may find that some tools are no longer enough to sustain the development process and need to be changed.

Lack of resource planning tools

Resource scheduling in software project management can be rather complicated, especially in large projects. Keeping all your planning in Excel spreadsheets can lead to chaos even if your team is small. You’ll need to invest in high-quality project management software tools that will suit your internal business needs and processes. Finding an off-the-shelf tool that will cover all your resource planning activities is quite a challenge.

Limited resources

No matter how big or small your company is, there will always be a limit. To minimize risks and allocate limited resources effectively, you need to ensure your HR specialists have access to data about your current resource needs so they can plan for vacancies in advance.

Project unpredictability

Dozens of issues that can occur during software development, and while it’s impossible to predict them all, it’s certainly possible to calculate and minimize the risks during the planning stage.

Now that we’ve discussed all the benefits and challenges of resource planning and allocation in software development, let’s talk about how to implement resource planning in your business processes step by step.

How to plan and allocate resources in software development

resource management and allocation in software engineering

Step 1. Plan your project

The planning stage in software development is the most important, as it sets the project up for success if done correctly. At Mobindustry, we call this a discovery phase, where you learn about business requirements, market conditions, competitors, and user needs before creating a clear technical specification.

Without this planning process, it is difficult to know how many resources you’ll need. The planning process provides a foundation to properly find and distribute resources.

For example, if you plan to build a mobile app for your business and you already have a web development team, your next step is finding a mobile developer. Your resource planning will help you decide where you want to get (and can get) your mobile developers from: either by hiring in-house, hiring freelancers, or partnering with a software development company.

When clients come to us for software development, we first go through a discovery phase, then create a technical specification, and finally prioritize and create a clear roadmap of the whole development process. This also includes a project management plan that accounts for not only developers’ time but also risks, assets, project costs, time for communication, and any other information necessary for project completion.

Our specialists can also help to develop a brand book and design a logo, as well as provide recommendations for the architecture, tech stack and frameworks for your project.

Step 2. Estimate all your resources

Though the Agile process may correct initial plans and estimates, it’s still possible to estimate your resources fairly accurately. Calculate how many team members you’ll need for the project. A typical software development project usually requires at least four the six members:

  • Web developer
  • Mobile developer (or frontend developer)
  • Quality assurance specialist
  • Project manager
  • Business analyst
  • UI/UX designer

The number of specialists can vary depending on your needs. For example, if you need a mobile app for both Android and iOS and you use native technologies, you’ll need two mobile developers with different skills.

Apart from the cost of hiring talent, you also need to calculate the cost of equipment, supplies, workspaces, and any other resources.

Step 3. Gather all your resources

Now it’s time to get everything you need for your project: hire people you need, purchase supplies, rent an office space, and so on. There are multiple ways to acquire resources, and your goal is to choose the most effective way to do so.

Consider these factors when gathering your resources:

  • Availability — check if the resource is available at all times
  • Cost — check if it’s within your budget
  • Ability — check if your resource is enough for your needs

Here are some other specific criteria to look for in team resources:

  • Communication
  • Location/time zone

Step 4. Build your team

After you figure out your talent needs, it’s time to build your team. This may involve training, establishing communication, assigning roles and responsibilities, and setting the rules and procedures for effective communication and teamwork.

It’s important that everyone on the team knows exactly what they and their team members are doing and whom to go to for resolving certain issues.

If you work with an external development team, it’s vital that you have a representative and a person responsible for the whole development process from your side.

Step 5. Manage your team

After your team is formed and starts working on a project, it’s important to set up metrics and track their progress and performance. Issues will inevitably arise during development, so you need to resolve them, provide team members with feedback, and communicate any changes or needs to stakeholders.

Project managers use tools like Jira to track work hours and then create performance reports that include risk summaries, earned value, and forecasts. Managers are also responsible for communicating with stakeholders and prioritizing tasks according to business needs.

Step 6. Track and manage your resources

After you get everything up and running, you need to sustain it. Make sure that resources are still available, compare their actual usage against your predictions, and address any issues that arise.

It’s important to measure resource usage to find blockers or bottlenecks that prevent the development process from advancing efficiently. You need to also attend to your team to prevent burnout or constant overtime.

How we plan resources at Mobindustry

At Mobindustry, resource allocation is especially important because our developers and other specialists often work on several projects simultaneously. We make sure to use the best practices of resource allocation in software project management at our company.

To properly allocate team members to certain tasks and projects, we first look closely at our clients’ needs. After performing competitor analysis and market research, we extract the requirements and turn them into a series of documents that include:

  • Technical documentation
  • Testing documentation
  • A statement of work

After we know what scope of work we have, our project managers prioritize the features and divide the project into sprints. Developers are allocated to the project based on their skills, previous experience, and availability.

We always analyze the market trends and our own internal work to find out what specialists we need to hire to satisfy our clients’ needs.

For project planning we mostly use Jira, as it has advanced reporting capabilities, shows billable and non-billable hours of each developer and specialist, and also helps to track their performance and velocity.

Final thoughts

Resource planning is an important aspect of software development. Creating software is a costly and time consuming process, and it’s so nuanced that it can become very easy to go over budget, make wrong decisions, exceed the desired timeline, or encounter other issues.

The principal goal of any business is to be profitable, so business owners should focus on where they put their money and efforts. This is where resource planning comes into play.

Creating software is so nuanced that it’s very easy to go over budget, make wrong decisions and exceed the desired timeline

To plan resources correctly at the initial stage of the project, you need to have a clear project plan. This involves a technical specification that determines the number of team members, supplies, and third-party tools and integrations that will make up your budget.

If you have any questions about effective resource planning and allocation, or if you’d like to get a quote for your project, make sure to contact us. We can organize the full-cycle development process for you or provide you with specialists to join your existing team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the risks of improper resource planning.

These are the most common consequences of lack of resource planning in a software development project:

How to plan and allocate resources in software development?

Here are the common steps of resource planning activity:

  • Plan your project
  • Estimate all your resources
  • Gather all your resources
  • Build your team
  • Manage your team
  • Track and manage your resources

What are the resource metrics you need to consider when planning resources?

Rate the article, related articles, share your project with us, what happens next:.

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Resource Allocation in Project Management: How to Solve 4 Common Problems

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Resource Allocation in Project Management

Last updated March 20th, 2023

As many project managers and firm owners know, resource management isn’t always a walk in the park. Issues arise with the under or overallocation of resources, resources taking time off, and staff excelling at certain tasks and not others to name a few. It can be a real challenge to figure out who and how much time to put into a project. Resource allocation in project management , while tricky, is super important to growing your bottom line and keeping clients happy with on-time deliverables.

What is resource allocation in project management? Resource allocation in project management is the process of assigning the best available resources to tasks and projects. And if you want to run a successful project, then it’s important to have the right resources. These resources can include people, money, tools, and more.

You might also know the term, capacity planning . Resource allocation and capacity planning go hand in hand — it manages workloads to ensure resource over allocation or under allocation doesn’t happen. Then, if needed, people are reassigned based on current resource availability and project timelines.

Benefits of Resource Allocation in Project Management

Project management is all about being on time and within budget for successful project delivery, but that is often easier said than done. A key strategy to optimizing success is having an effective process for project management resource allocation, which can provide the following benefits:

  • Helps projects get delivered on time
  • Lowers project risk
  • Ensures the right resources are available at the right time
  • Boosts employee engagement 
  • Increases productivity
  • Reduces costs
  • Keeps budgets on track
  • Keep on reading to discover common resource allocation problems that you might already be dealing with, and how to solve these issues to optimize delivery success and client satisfaction.

psa 101 project resource allocation tool

Resource Allocation Problems, Issues, and Solutions

Resource allocation problem 1: not having a clear project scope.

Before you can even start allocating resources, you first need to define the scope of the project. This should involve identifying project goals, objectives, deliverables, and timelines. When those details are determined, you can break down the project into smaller parts and allocate resources according to each phase’s needs.

The next key step is monitoring and adjusting resource allocation as needed as the project progresses in order to stay on track. The clearer the communications are among all stakeholders, the better you’ll be able to address resource allocation issues in a timely manner and meet project objectives.

But wait, this doesn’t seem like a resource allocation problem… it is! You need to understand the scope of a project to make resource allocation work for you and your team. 

Pro tip: When you use a resource allocation tool like BigTime, you get access to historical data from your firm on past projects completed. With real-time reporting , you can see just how much time was under- or over-spent, how many people worked on the project, and how long it took. Measuring past performance is the best way to forecast and understand the scope of a project, all leading to successful resource allocation.

Resource Allocation Problem 2: Having Unclear and/or Low Staff Utilization

One of the biggest challenges project managers face is determining how many resources are needed for each task, who those resources should be, and how they should be allocated from the start.

One of the easiest ways to check whether your resource allocation efforts are working and successful is by tracking your team’s utilization rate. To calculate the utilization rate , look at the percentage of time spent on billable projects vs. the total time worked, in other words, it measures how busy employees are.

While an employee may work 40 hours a week, it’s pretty much impossible to do 40 hours of billable work. When you factor in lunch breaks, phone calls, meetings, trips to the coffee machine, etc., it’s easy to see how time can be spent on things other than work. However, when looking at your firm’s utilization rate, it’s really important to get the balance just right. If your rate is too high, it might mean that you need more resources and if your rate is too low, you’re probably not bringing in enough work for the number of people on your project team.

If your firm is experiencing unclear or low staff utilization rates, take a step back and reflect on how your firm is currently tracking these rates, along with your project resource allocation plan altogether. Who is managing resources within your firm? Are you using contractors? If so, what is the effect on your bottom line? Is your team accurately and actively tracking their time?

By answering and evaluating questions like these, you can start to understand what you need to do to gain better visibility into your staff utilization. Next steps to overcome this problem might include re-prioritizing work assignments, improving communication, providing development opportunities, and monitoring and adjusting utilization levels as needed.

Did you know?: BigTime makes it easy to optimize your resource capacity and avoid under/under utilization by giving your team the project visibility they need to succeed.

Resource Allocation Problem 3: Lack of Resources

Whether we like it or not, a lot of things are just totally out of our control. Kids get sick, cars break down, doctor appointments come up, life happens. You can have a project perfectly scoped out, scheduled, and resources allocated, but unexpected things will always happen during a project (unless you’re extremely lucky). This can result in delays, poor project quality, missed opportunities, and an increase in costs.

How do you solve for a lack of resources? When something unforeseen pops up, the quickest way to solve the resource allocation issue would be to look at your team for a replacement. Does anyone have time to help? If not, it might even be necessary to look for alternative resources, such as hiring a freelancer or contractor or collaborating with other departments or teams to share resources, depending on the need. However, the best thing you can do for everyone involved is to think ahead!

Prevent this in the future by looking at task dependencies. Specifically, look at other responsibilities (or even time off) that team members have currently or that will come up during the duration of the project that might pull them away. Then you can create a backup resource allocation plan in case they don’t show up or for when the unexpected happens.

Any high-quality project management resource allocation software uses project dependencies to do resource allocation. This is a way of managing projects where a resource must complete a certain task before a beginning another task, to avoid wasting money and time. A project management resource allocation example in BigTime, for instance, is a feature called Shift Allocations that lets you move around your resources without re-entering any data. Just move your resources where you need them to be.

FYI: BigTime also has a feature called Skills Matching that easily finds the staffer best suited for the job. You can keep track and search your staff list based on their skills, including the ability to search multiple skills at once.

project management resource allocation

Resource Allocation Problem 4: Lack of Project Visibility and Centralized Data

You are the person with your finger on the pulse of every project, so you need to be able to see the progress and status of every employee’s tasks, immediately and easily. A useful project management software will provide resource allocator capabilities, and will update you on your firm’s projects, in real-time, using informative graphics.

In seconds, you can answer questions like:

  • Have I assigned all hours to all available staff members?
  • Which staff member is logging the most hours on a particular project?
  • Is a project on budget , right this second, and will it be on budget next month?
  • What staffing changes would you need to make in order to get back on budget?
  • Who has hours available, tomorrow, to work on a last-minute project?
  • If you need to make a big decision based on the best information you can find, a project management software will create reports using your resource allocation data, showing you everything you need to make smart choices.

You can even run reports based on resource allocation to do revenue forecasting . Whether you’re forecasting by project, or across staffers, you can learn which months you’ll be cashflow positive, or which staff members will most likely make the most revenue during the next quarter. Any top-tier project management resource allocation software gives you two ways to predict your firm’s revenue:

  • Hourly revenue projection (as rate budget): revenue forecasting based on an employee’s hourly rate
  • Fixed-fee revenue projection (as % of overall budget): forecast revenue using a fixed price that you set for a client

Resource Allocation Management: Putting Your Employees First

Your firm is made up of the people who run it. Without them, nothing would get done. For many reasons, it’s important to think about your employees having a healthy work-life balance. Burnout is real. In fact, a report from Indeed found that 67% of workers believe burnout has worsened during the pandemic.

When you actively seek out methods to help reduce burnout and employee attrition , including staff capacity planning, you’re working to create a healthier work environment and culture.

Project Management Resource Allocation Software

Effective resource allocation can save you time and money by keeping your firm’s projects on schedule and within budget. Businesses can overcome the aforementioned problems with the help of project management resource allocation software . This type of technology can prevent:

  • Over-allocating tasks to your project staff. Any useful software lets you know your current capacity and future capacity for any project.
  • Becoming under-staffed. A helpful tool will inform you are understaffed, so you can make hiring decisions at just the right time.
  • Getting swamped at busy times. Every good project management resource allocation software lets you restructure your project’s staffing, at any time, and shows you the results.
  • Being caught off guard when your project’s deadlines or funding change. A smart tool for project management will allow you to make changes as the situation of your project evolves.
  • Running into conflicts with other projects. Any worthwhile software will let you see all of your projects, at the same time, so you can see all of the projects your firm is working to complete.

Resource allocation is an important part of any project management process, but it can be difficult to do well. From managing budget constraints to making sure your resources are used as efficiently as possible, there are many common problems that come up during project management resource allocation. Four common issues with resource allocation in project management include:

  • Not having a clear project scope
  • Having unclear and/or low staff utilization
  • Lack of resources
  • Lack of project visibility and centralized data

If you want to do better project management, you have to keep a close eye on your projects’ deadlines and budgets, each and every day. While it can be difficult to have the right resources in the right place at the right time, it’s attainable through awareness, proper planning and management techniques, and tools to help optimize resource allocation in project management. A staff allocation solution can benefit a professional services organization by:

  • Reducing time spent planning around staff capacity
  • Allowing you to easily find staff available by role or department
  • Eliminating the need for manual spreadsheets and planning meetings to track resources
  • Leveraging utilization dashboards for a big-picture view into operational insights
  • Pulling real-time reports on your firm’s health and utilization by department, role, or staffer

Want to learn more about how proper resource allocation and the right staff allocation solution can transform your firm and team? Visit our resource library or schedule a demo today.

psa benchmark resource allocation in project management

Frequently Asked Questions About Resource Allocation in Project Management

What is resource allocation in project management.

Resource allocation in project management is the process of assigning the best available resources to tasks and projects.

What are the problems of resource allocation?

Four common issues with resource allocation in project management include:

Which strategy is used to correct resource over allocation?

One of the easiest ways to check whether your resource allocation efforts are working and successful is by tracking your team’s utilization rate. To calculate the utilization rate , look at the percentage of time spent on billable projects vs. the total time worked.

How can resource allocation be improved?

Resource allocation in project management can be improved through strategies such as prioritizing projects and tasks, communicating and collaborating with all stakeholders, capacity planning, monitoring and adjusting as needed, and utilizing technology to make data-driven decisions.

What are the problems in resource allocation in strategic management?

Common resource allocation problems include unclear project scope and prioritization, inefficient utilization of resources, limited resources, and poor communication and project visibility. These problems can result in delayed projects, increased costs, quality issues, and under or overallocation of resources.

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Resource Allocation in Project Management Software

Effective resource management for team projects and goals.

Project Insight gives project managers power over the management of resource allocation for software development, marketing, product development teams and more. Assigning team members to business goals, projects and individual tasks is simple and easy with our PMI and PMBOK® Guide compliant solution. Mass assign team members' tasks grouped by skill set, department or resource type, or handle resource allocation management for a single person. It is equally simple to change a resource on a set of project tasks as well.

Our portfolio system allows resource allocation managers and project managers to use project level and/or cross project resource allocation to manage workloads in order to achieve their goals. The software application reports evenly divide the work (hours) among the workdays (duration) scheduled for the tasks to calculate the total work or effort assigned to a resource within a specified date range.

Efficient Resource Allocation and Workload Management

Resource information may be accessed from the 'Resources' tab within a project to review the availability of resources. Project Insight, web project management software provides real-time resource allocation data based on the allocation of their assignments to project tasks system-wide.

Project managers can also view all resources across all projects in Project Insight. This information is accessed in 'My Reports,' 'Cross Project Resource Allocation.' Data may be hidden or displayed according to each person's preferences, supporting a wide variety of applications for these reports. Hundreds of permutations of resource allocation reports are available.

Other project management software applications claim to have extensive resource allocation capabilities in their marketing materials; however, they often fall short. Project Insight not only allows resource managers or project managers to see the total workload each resource has per day, week or other time period, it allows them to drill down on all of the projects and tasks that are causing the over allocation in one view. Tasks can easily be reassigned using Project Insight's simple drag and drop functionality. It's perfect for the management of all kinds of goals, tasks and projects including IT projects, interactive or marketing projects, product development projects, professional services and more. All tasks are efficiently managed with proper resource allocation and tracking, down to the last detail.

If your goal is to make sure that you're on top of resource allocation, then Project Insight's powerful resource management applications will make it happen.

More information on the resource management features in Project Insight.

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16 Best Resource Management Software of 2024 (Free & Paid)

ProjectManager

Resource management is all about getting the materials, supplies, equipment and people you need to execute a project. It involves how you plan, schedule, allocate and manage those resources to best serve the project. But what exactly is resource management software?

What Is Resource Management Software?

Resource management software helps project managers keep track of the human resources, raw materials and equipment needed to complete a project. Before we look at a number of tools that claim to be the best resource management software, let’s define the key features a resource management software should provide. Then we’ll get to the best resource management software rankings of 2024.

Best Resource Management Software Features

Resource management is all about getting the materials, supplies, equipment and people you need to execute a project. It involves how you plan, schedule, allocate and manage those resources to best serve the project.

Resource management software should include resource planning, resource forecasting and resource allocation features to make sure teams have what they need when they need it. It’s through resource management tools that projects keep to their budgets and stay on schedule.

  • Resource forecasting tools: Using too many resources can be costly and using too few will affect your project schedule and budget. Fortunately, resource forecasting tools can help you gauge your resource requirements so you can determine which resources are truly needed.
  • Resource planning tools: Resource planning tools help you ensure your resources are used effectively. That means working with vendors, subcontractors and your own teams, coordinating their work and making sure that your resource utilization aligns with your project plan.
  • Resource scheduling tools: Once you know what resources are needed for each task, you’ll need resource scheduling tools to create a resource schedule and a timeline for the procurement and allocation of resources.
  • Resource allocation tools: Resource allocation tools help project managers assign specific resources to project tasks, such as assigning tasks to a team member or indicating the equipment that will be needed for a particular project activity.
  • Workload management tools: Workload management tools help project managers measure the amount of work that’s assigned to their team members so they can better reallocate project resources.

2024 Best Resource Management Software Rankings

The following are a handful of the best resource management software currently available. One of them should meet your resource management needs.

1. ProjectManager

ProjectManager is a comprehensive project and work management software that tops our list of best resource management software.

ProjectManager Key Features

With ProjectManager, you can schedule, allocate, manage and track your resources with an ease of use that competitors lack. This resource management software organizes resources, tasks, projects and teams allowing you to plan, schedule and reallocate resources as needed. Live data gives users greater visibility into their resource schedule, tracking labor costs, workload and task progress in real time. No other software helps you plan and schedule resources better. Plus, unlike some other resource management software options on this list, ProjectManager offers a free 30-day trial so you can try it out for yourself.

Schedule & Track Resources with Gantt Charts

Resource planning is one of the more challenging aspects of managing a project. Fortunately, ProjectManager makes it easy to identify and categorize teams, supplies, equipment and other resources for easy planning and scheduling on the Gantt chart . More than that, the Gantt chart schedules resources based on their availability and skillset. As the project progresses, you can monitor costs and workload in real time to keep to your budget and avoid burning out your team.

A Gantt chart with resource assignments in ProjectManager, a resource management software

Set Availability and Balance Workload

Teams are your most valuable resource and you need a resource management tool that knows how busy they are without getting in their way. A color-coded workload chart gives managers transparency into how many or how few tasks are assigned to their team. You can then balance the workload right from that page. When you reallocate resources, though, you need to know your team’s availability, especially if they’re hybrid or remote.

ProjectManager is the best resource scheduling software because it lets you define working days, holidays and planned hours, blocking days and setting parameters to help with task management and project scheduling. You can even filter by project, team or month if you’re using the tool for project portfolio management or program management.

Project management training video (j0c2p3ibzq)

Monitor and Track Resources in Real Time

Resource management isn’t just about planning and scheduling; it’s also about tracking resource utilization. ProjectManager has live dashboards (unlike other tools that require time-consuming setup) and one-click reporting for in-depth tracking of workload, availability, timesheets and tasks. Secure timesheets track how long your team is spending on tasks. Plus, when teams update their status, that resource utilization data is shared across the software instantly.

live dashboard from ProjectManager, a resource management software

With these features and others like a sheet view, kanban and more, no software does resource management better than ProjectManager. The best part? You can get started for free right away. Start your free trial of ProjectManager by clicking here. 

Verdict: Best Project Resource Management Software for Project Management

Projectmanager pros.

  • Built-in time tracking that’s easy to use
  • Excels at real-time collaboration
  • Offers a 30-day free trial
  • Has a mobile app for Android and iOS

ProjectManager Cons

  • Limited customization
  • Few native integrations
  • No free plan

ProjectManager Pricing

  • Team: $13 user/month
  • Business: $24 user/month

ProjectManager Reviews

  • G2 review: 4.4/5
  • Capterra review: 4.1/5

Float is a resource management software that’s used by agencies, studios and firms for tracking who is working on what and when.

Float Key Features

It can manage more than one project at a time, so you can see all your projects and their competing milestones in a single view, which helps with planning and scheduling. You can monitor your budgets in real time and forecast hours, which helps prevent overspending. The resource management software integrates with Slack, Google Calendar and other apps, which fills in some holes. It excels at capacity management, demand forecasting and skills tracking—making it one of the best resource management software around.

resource management software, float

A problem with this resource management software is that if more than one person is using it, things like task names and job descriptions aren’t centrally controlled and can vary as people edit them. While it can help organize resources, it’s missing some vital resource planning features, such as a decent search and a well-designed dashboard. Resource utilization reports are complicated and not visual, which would make them easier to digest at a glance. However, the fact that it can work with multiple projects makes it a good bet for project portfolio or program management.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Portfolio Management

  • Strong capacity management and demand forecasting
  • Offers many integrations
  • 30-day free trial
  • Mobile app for Android and iOS
  • Decent resource management tool but not a project management solution
  • Missing important project management features such as Gantt charts, dashboards and reports
  • Limited feature set

Float Pricing

  • Resource Planning: $6 user/month
  • Resource Planning + Time Tracking: $10 user/month

Float Reviews

  • G2 review: 4.2/5
  • Capterra review: 4.5/5

3. Resource Guru

Resource Guru is designed for resource managers and project managers. It’s primarily a project scheduling and resource management software.

Resource Guru Key Features

With Resource Guru, adding, editing, moving or deleting items in your schedule is fast and simple. You get visibility into resource utilization on its calendar view and a staff time tracker helps you stay updated on vacations, sick days, maternity leave, etc. The calendar syncs to a resource planning dashboard so everyone in the project is on the same page, and visual reports give you data on resource allocation.

resource management software, resource guru

Beyond that, this resource management software has limited features. For example, there aren’t alerts or appointment scheduling. There’s also little automation, which would help streamline the process greatly. The reporting feature could be better, and while there are integration workarounds, it’d be nice to have everything working under one roof. But the fact that it keeps your teams on schedule is a resource management win.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Team Resource Visibility

Resource guru pros.

  • Good for keeping your team on schedule
  • Strong visual reports
  • Mobile project management app for Android and iOS

Resource Guru Cons

  • Has only one calendar-like view for resource planning, project scheduling and workload management
  • Lack of project planning and scheduling tools such as Gantt charts or kanban boards
  • Limited reporting, only offers reports on resource allocation

Resource Guru Pricing

  • Grasshopper: $4.16 user/month
  • Blackbelt: $6.65 user/month
  • Master: $10 user/month

Resource Guru Reviews

  • G2 review: 4.7/5

Kantata is the merger of Mavenlink and Kimble Applications. It aims to help users staff teams, respond to changes in their projects and deliver better operational performance.

Kantata Key Features

Kantata offers project management and resource management features for small, medium and large businesses in IT services, engineering and other industries. It’s an easy-to-use, intuitive tool with good reporting features.

resource management software, kantata, a merger of mavenlink and Kimble

However, it can be complicated when trying to navigate integrations. The integration tool is poorly designed. While Kantata does have resource management tools that are fairly good at what they do, the price tag isn’t cheap. If your business is operating on a tight budget, then you might want to look elsewhere. On top of that, setup is a problem and will likely send users to customer support for assistance.

Verdict: Best Resource Planning Software for Reporting

Kantata pros.

  • Multiple task management Tools
  • Intuitive and easy to use
  • Resource utilization dashboards

Kantata Cons

  • User experience could be improved by making the software more intuitive
  • Lacks basic project management features like Gantt charts, kanban boards or project dashboards
  • Not ideal for task or project management due to limited functionality
  • Doesn’t have a mobile project management app

Kantata Pricing

  • Custom pricing depends on company information

Kantata Reviews

  • G2 review: 4.1/5
  • Capterra review: 4.2/5

5. Monday.com

Monday.com is known more as a task management app but has a resource management template that helps you plan your asset allocation.

Monday.com Key Features

There are many workflow views and you can use Gantt charts and kanban boards to import the template. A map view allows you to locate assets and displays the status of your resources in a dashboard-like setting, including financial data.

resource management software, monday.com

But, as noted, Monday.com is primarily used for task management and that’s where it excels—not as resource management software. There’s also the pricing structure, which keeps the resource management features you want behind a higher subscription rate. Tracking time and expenses aren’t easy and the mobile app is limited in terms of what it can do. Add integration problems and suddenly Monday.com looks like the worst day of the week.

Verdict: Best Resource Planning Software for Task Management

Monday.com pros.

  • Multiple workflow views
  • Excels at tracking financial data
  • Offers a 14-day free trial
  • Mobile project management for Android and iOS

Monday.com Cons

  • Better suited for task and workflow management than for resource management
  • Very limited resource reporting features, dashboards lack detail
  • Cost and budget tracking features aren’t automated and require manual editing

Monday.com Pricing

  • Basic: $8 user/month
  • Standard: $10 user/month
  • Pro: $16 user/month

Monday.com Reviews

  • Capterra review: 4.6/5

Runn is resource management software that helps with forecasting and assigning human resources. It’s a flexible and intuitive app that helps users integrate project information from your CRM and financial systems. You get an overview of what people are doing and their capacity, the projects they’re working on and their availability. You can reallocate overtasked resources and see the financial impact of that action.

resource management software, runn

However, this is strictly a resource management software. If you’re looking for task management or other project management features, then you’re going to have to use Runn in conjunction with other project management tools. In terms of resource management, it can be frustrating, especially if you’re not estimating for projects beforehand. Also, because of the extensive modeling and planning features, setup is time-consuming.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Forecasting

  • Strong capacity management
  • Flexible and intuitive
  • Missing many project management features such as Gantt charts, kanban boards, task lists or project dashboards
  • Limited resource management features
  • Overly simplistic reports that lack detail

Runn Pricing

  • Pro: $10 user/month
  • Enterprise: Contact sales

Runn Reviews

  • G2 review: Not enough reviews, fewer than 50
  • Capterra review: Not enough reviews, fewer than 50

Wrike combines project management with a real-time workspace. It’s a popular software option but only the most expensive plans include resource management features.

Wrike Key Features

This software lets you create and customize multiple dashboards that can then be shared with teams. There are nice risk features that help you predict and manage them if they show up in a project. Also, the tool has a lot of collaborative features, allowing teams to stay in contact with automated responses.

resource management software, wrike

Of course, a lot of these advantages aren’t related to resource management, which as we wrote, can only be accessed for a substantial investment in the resource management software. This can be a no-sale for mid-sized companies, especially as there are less expensive alternatives available. Also, integrations were slow to deliver alerts, such as Outlook, which is a problem.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Risk Management

  • Customizable dashboards
  • Strong collaboration features
  • The Gantt chart functionality is very limited and the user interface is outdated
  • Lack of project and resource management reports
  • Limited cost and budget tracking features

Wrike Pricing

  • Professional plan: $9.80 user/month
  • Business plan: $24.80 user/month

Wrike Reviews

  • Capterra review: 4.3/5

8. Smartsheet

Smartsheet is software that takes the spreadsheet and supersizes it. The software is relatively inexpensive and there’s a free forever plan. The tool is also highly customizable, with powerful analytics and reporting tools. There are a lot of templates to get you started, including ones for human resources. It features collaborative tools, automation and real-time reporting.

resource management software, smartsheet

What it doesn’t have, unless you pay for add-ons, is time tracking and resource management software. Maybe you’d be willing to pay extra, but the software even at its simplest is hard to use. There’s a steep learning curve to clear just to get any advantage out of it. Plus, pages don’t update in real time, which can mean you’re working on outdated data.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Spreadsheet Users

Smartsheet pros.

  • Analytics and reporting
  • Highly customizable
  • Offers a free 30-day trial
  • Has a mobile app available for Android and iOS

Smartsheet Cons

  • Relies too heavily on spreadsheets
  • Limited resource management functionality
  • It requires the use of formulas which is not ideal for most users

Smartsheet Pricing

  • Pro plan: $7 user/month
  • Business plan: $25 user/month

Smartsheet Reviews

9. silverbucket.

Silverbucket is a resource planning tool for projects that is user-friendly and helps to plan and allocate resources.

Silverbucket Key Features

It allows you to avoid conflicts and manage loads and capacity. Projects, people and capacity planning all are monitored within a single view, so resource scheduling decisions are based on hard data, which leads to greater profitability. There’s a filtered search, which is helpful, and skill tracking for team members. Plus, it integrates with many other project management apps.

resource management software, silverbucket

Some issues include that the resource management software doesn’t have drag-and-drop functionality, which can make it a bit clunky to use. The resource planning dashboard is less than ideal, and you have to click to get data on team members’ allocation. Resource utilization reporting is problematic, too, and leaves a big hole in the software that hopefully will get filled in one day. For all its shortcomings, we did appreciate the ease with which it integrated with other project management apps.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Capacity Planning

Silverbucket pros.

  • Integrates with many project management apps
  • User-friendly interface

Silverbucket Cons

  • Outdated user interface
  • Cost and budget tracking reports are not robust enough for project management
  • Overall limited resource management functionality
  • Doesn’t have a mobile app

Silverbucket Pricing

  • Resource Planning: 8.2€ user/month
  • Resource Planning + Time Tracking: 10.1€ user/month

Silverbucket Reviews

10. birdview psa by easy projects.

Birdview PSA is a resource management software for midsize to enterprise-level teams. It’s used in projects ranging from marketing, IT, operations and software development to professional services.

Birdview PSA Key Features

This software automates your workflows, which saves time. Teams can automatically create template-driven projects or tasks based on available resources and incoming requests. Birdview PSA by Easy Projects offers a more visual resource planning and project reporting user interface. It has team collaboration tools, Gantt charts and kanban boards, making it more of a full project planning solution.

resource management software, birdview psa

However, Birdview PSA might not be the best project management software for team communication or collaboration. For example, if two people are working on a task and one finishes because they still receive notifications until the other completes the assignment. There have been issues with resource allocation reporting, as well, as project stakeholders don’t get the full Gantt chart view unless they have a license. While there were some dings, the overall visual style was very appealing and made using this project resource management software fun and functional.

Verdict: Best Resource Management for Service Delivery Teams

Birdview pros.

  • Workload automation
  • Ideal for visual resource planning
  • Has a 30-day free trial
  • Has a mobile project management for Android and iOS

Birdview Cons

  • Outdated, non-intuitive user interface
  • Gantt chart lacks resource allocation and scheduling features
  • Project management tools like Gantt charts and kanban boards don’t allow tracking costs at the task level

Birdview Pricing

  • Team: $24 user/month
  • Enterprise: custom pricing

Birdview PSA Reviews

  • Capterra review: 4.4/5

Paymo is a resource management app that helps to align teams and keep them engaged. Its resource scheduling works with features on project planning, time tracking and invoicing.

Paymo Key Features

There are task management tools for managing team capacity, workload and availability and automatic ghost bookings based on task dates that were already added to the project plan. Other key features include Gantt charts and timesheets that track planned vs. actual work time.

resource management software - paymo

Users have complained about the steep learning curve of using this resource management app. But even if you take the time and put in the effort to learn how to use it, there are limits that might have you seeking more robust resource management tools. For example, the dashboard is more geared for invoicing than resource management. There’s a web task timer, which is great for managing remote workers, only it doesn’t detect idle time or automatically shut off when left running, which can cause some discrepancies with your team.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Payment and Invoicing

  • Modern, visually appealing user interface
  • Track planned vs. actual data
  • Offers a 15-day free trial
  • Limited resource management reporting features
  • It’s hard to export data to other software, files can only be exported as PDF or PNG
  • Steep learning curve, requires onboarding and training

Paymo Pricing

  • Free: limited features for a maximum of 10 users
  • Small Office: $11.95 user/month
  • Business: $18.95 user/month

Paymo Reviews

  • G2 review: 4.6/5
  • Capterra review: 4.8/5

12. Forecast

Forecast is a resource management software used throughout the world mostly in the professional services, agency, consulting and software sectors.

Some of its benefits include the fact that it offers real-time data that can help companies with enterprise resource planning and improve KPIs. It’s one of the new crops of tools that applies AI to help with resource scheduling and selecting team members who are most suited to working on a particular task or project.

resource management software, forecast

As with many of the options on our 2024 best resource management software list, Forecast can be difficult to use. One of the major deficits is the lack of reporting tools, which means poor tracking and difficulty learning from the lessons of past projects. Some users praise it as a forecasting tool but criticize the project visualization that gets confusing when dealing with larger teams in bigger organizations. Finally, the software is suited for more traditional ways of working with resource management and those creative industries or teams who work in an agile project management methodology tend to be frustrated by the tool.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for AI Automation

Forecast pros.

  • Ideal for enterprise teams
  • Resource scheduling through AI
  • Project management app for Android and iOS

Forecast Cons

  • High-priced alternative with a minimum of 20 users
  • The software is more focused on automating features through AI than optimizing the user experience
  • Limited resource allocation and cost-tracking functionality

Forecast Pricing

  • Light: $29 user/month
  • Pro: $49 user/month
  • Plus: Custom pricing

Forecast Reviews

  • G2 review: 4.3/5

13. Hubstaff Tasks

Hubstaff Tasks is a resource management software designed for agile project management. In fact, the whole tool is based on an agile methodology to foster team collaboration and communication.

Hubstaff Tasks Key Features

Its visual user interface is certainly going to attract the agile crowd, and kanban features will keep them happy. It’s easy to use and has multiple task management features, including Gantt charts, for resource planning. Customizable workflows help teams know that all their tasks are being worked on.

resource management software, hubstaff

The problem with this resource management app that targets agile users is that its kanban boards have no work-in-progress (WIP) limits, swimlanes, custom fields or image previews in the board view. This is sure to turn off agile enthusiasts. Another fault of the software is its lack of integrations. Most organizations want their resource management tool to seamlessly integrate with other project management apps that they use. Not having this function or a very limited one might be a deal-breaker.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Agile Teams

Hubstaff tasks pros.

  • Easy to use
  • Customizable workflows

Hubstaff Tasks Cons

  • Missing key project management features such as Gantt charts or kanban boards
  • Not a good alternative for project management, geared towards time tracking and employee payroll management
  • Limited work management functionality

Hubstaff Tasks Pricing

  • Free: limited features for up to five users
  • Premium: $5 user/month

Hubstaff Tasks Reviews

14. ganttic.

Ganttic is an online resource management software that is ideal for portfolio management.

Ganttic Key Features

Ganttic visualizes tasks in a matrix, which gives users a fully customized view of the project. Not only can you brainstorm, plan and allocate tasks to your team, but also track resource utilization on your dashboard. While excelling at workload and resource management, it also has portfolio optimization and can help you pick the right resources for the job along with the right projects for your organization.

resource management software, Ganttic

That’s a lot of resource management features, but it takes a lot of time to get there. Setup is long due to all the personalizing of unique client data required. It’s also not the easiest resource management software to use. For example, there’s no click-and-drag punctuality to move an allocated block of time around the timeline. It can also be problematic on some web browsers, such as Chrome. You can’t create a draft that is private until published, which might turn off some potential users. Some users complained about the complexity of its time-tracking and task-management tools. There are still some bugs in the user interface, but that’s par for the course and shouldn’t deter those who like the portfolio features.

Verdict: Best Resource Planning Software for Gantt Charts

Ganttic pros.

  • Visualizes tasks
  • Strong portfolio optimization
  • Offers a free 10-day trial

Ganttic Cons

  • Mobile app is only available for premium users
  • It’s a very limited tool that relies on a Gantt view for most actions
  • Poor project and resource management reporting features

Ganttic Pricing

  • Free: Up to 10 resources
  • Pro 20: $1.25 resource/month, maximum 20 resources
  • Pro 50: $1.18 resource/month, maximum 50 resources
  • Pro 150: .99 cents resource/month, maximum 150 resources
  • Pro 250: .92 cents resource/month, maximum 250 resources
  • Pro 500: .76 cents resource/month, maximum 500 resources
  • Pro 1000: .50 cents resource/month, maximum 1,000 resources

Ganttic Reviews

  • G2 review: 4/5

15. eResource Scheduler

eResource Scheduler is an enterprise resource management software that’s designed for managing resource utilization, scheduling and tracking across departments and business units within an organization.

eResource Scheduler Key Features

This software helps you allocate resources and manage your team’s workload with simple tools such as workload charts, project calendars, timesheets and cost-tracking reports. It allows for effective resource mapping and has a skill matrix to pair the right team members with the right resources and projects.

eresource scheduler screenshot

However, the simplicity of this software is a drawback when it comes to meeting the needs of a project management team. It lacks many project management tools such as kanban boards, status reports or project dashboards. In addition, its existing project management tools such Gantt charts lack some of the more advanced features such as identifying task dependencies, managing the critical path or tracking costs at the task level. In general terms, it’s a tool that’ll help you with some aspects of resource management, such as tracking resource utilization or capacity reporting, but it’s not a fully featured resource management software for professional project management.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Beginner Project Managers

Eresource scheduler pros.

  • Ideal for project managers and team leaders who need basic resource management tools
  • Easy-to-understand features and simple user interface
  • Allows team leaders to assign hourly rates to each employee

eResource Scheduler Cons

  • Its feature set might not be a good fit for many organizations
  • Not designed for project management
  • Confusing pricing structure

eResource Scheduler Pricing

  • Scheduling Module: $4 resource/month
  • Scheduling Plus: $2 resource/month
  • Timesheets Module: $4 resource/month
  • Financial Module: $3 resource/month
  • Authentication Plus: $1.6 resource/month

eResource Scheduler Reviews

  • G2 review:  Not enough reviews

Saviom is an enterprise resource management software that helps with workforce planning, project management and workflow automation. It serves companies across industries such as construction, IT and engineering.

Saviom Key Features

Saviom has features such as resource utilization charts, workload dashboards and resource scheduling calendars. These and other tools make Saviom a decent resource management tool for assessing your team’s workload, scheduling work or allocating resources for a project.

resource allocation in software project management

However, Saviom falls short as a project portfolio management tool as it lacks many of the features that project managers or project management offices (PMOs) need, such as project portfolio management roadmaps, dashboards and status reports. On top of this, Saviom has an outdated user interface, which offers a subpar user experience when compared with most of the resource management software alternatives in this list. In summary, Saviom helps with resource planning, allocation and tracking at the team level, but has significant drawbacks when evaluated as a project portfolio management software for project managers and PMOs.

Verdict: Best Resource Management Software for Workforce Planning

Saviom pros.

  • Good for managing organizational resources and workflows for every day operations management
  • Resource estimation, planning and scheduling tools
  • Capacity planning and resource utilization reports

Saviom Cons

  • Outdated user interface which results in a poor user experience
  • Project dashboards and reports are resource-centric, missing other aspects of project management
  • Lack of project planning, scheduling, tracking and reporting features

Saviom Pricing

  • Contact sales for pricing

Saviom Reviews

What’s the best resource management software for you.

There are many resource management software choices. The right one for you depends on what you’re looking for in a resource management tool. Some projects aren’t going to be as resource-rich, but most projects require a lot of resources and that means a lot of management.

Getting a resource management tool that helps you plan, schedule and allocate resources is crucial. Having one that’s online and provides you with real-time data to track your resources is even more important, especially in the 2024 working environment. Still, these are just some of the basic aspects you should consider when choosing a resource management tool for managing projects and teams.

Besides the feature set, don’t forget to factor in other attributes of resource management software such as the user experience, learning curve, pricing and customer service, as these things might make a difference as you implement the software in your organization.

Related Resource Management Software Content

  • Best Project Management Software of 2024
  • Best Production Scheduling Software for Manufacturing Projects in 2024
  • Best Project Portfolio Management Software of 2024
  • Best Gantt Chart Software of 2024
  • Best Project Planning Software of 2024

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Resource Leveling: Benefits, Techniques, and Examples

Rafael Timbó

Table of Contents

Proper resource allocation is essential for project success. Project managers who cannot properly distribute resources such as work time, skill sets, equipment, and materials put their teams at a severe disadvantage. Resource leveling is one resource optimization technique that helps tech teams achieve maximum productivity.

Resource leveling allows project managers to adjust project timelines and resources. Project managers, including Certified Project Management Professionals (PMPs), use this technique to prevent employee burnout, optimize resource availability, and create feasible project plans that flexibly maintain high quality. 

This article will help project managers better understand resource leveling and how to utilize it to improve tech projects. It also provides techniques, examples, and tools that assist in proper implementation. 

What Is Resource Leveling?

Resource leveling in project management is a technique that addresses possible resource constraints affecting a project’s timeline. This type of project and resource planning balances time, tools, and materials so project managers can allocate them most effectively. Project managers who effectively employ this technique create more manageable workloads for team members and improve overall project efficacy. Effective utilization of resource leveling is critical in complex technical projects with limited resources or time constraints to ensure the effective distribution of specialized tech skills.

To perform resource leveling, project managers detect where development teams may use resources more effectively and make necessary adjustments. The approach helps project managers overseeing tech teams better coordinate engineers, equipment, and tools for successful execution. Project managers also use it to ensure that a project’s schedule doesn’t overwork team members or overburden developers with specialized skill sets.

When to Use Resource Leveling

Project managers must plan appropriately to avoid the negative impacts of resource constraints and budget limitations and use their employees' specialized skills wisely. Managers leverage project resource leveling when they identify that limited resources are causing team members to be overworked or necessary resources to be inaccessible. This technique is especially useful when project timelines are strict, and problems with resource distribution may lead to bottlenecks.

Tech projects often face sudden shifts in priorities, changes in project requirements, and alterations in timelines. Project managers who employ resource leveling techniques utilize flexibility to optimize team performance, reassess necessary resource distribution, and avoid unwanted side effects. 

Why Is It Important?

Utilizing resource leveling before the project starts preemptively solves many potential resource conflicts that a team of software developers may encounter. In addition, resource leveling improves work conditions in a variety of ways. Properly balanced schedules improve employee teamwork, focus, and work-life balance, increasing job satisfaction and better employee retention .

Project managers who implement resource leveling also facilitate realistic scheduling. Team members will find deadlines more feasible by considering all of the resources and details and making educated decisions to establish a relevant timeline. Efficient resource leveling also reduces project costs while offering flexibility to shift priorities if issues arise in other projects.

Failing to utilize resource leveling to its full potential hampers projects and causes significant adverse impacts. An over- or under-allocation of resources may lead to low-quality work and project delays. Overworking employees often decimates team morale and productivity, leading to high employee turnover . Inflexible approaches also make it more difficult to reallocate resources, skills, and time when a crisis occurs. 

Examples of Resource Leveling

Implementing resource leveling before initiating a new project is important to allocating resources appropriately, cutting costs, and promoting adaptability. Team members can also maintain a healthy work-life balance that ensures maximum output. There are several methods project managers employ to implement resource leveling effectively.

Deadline adjustment

If a tech team is working with a limited amount of developers or equipment, a deadline adjustment is an appropriate form of resource leveling. Asking employees to work overtime or finish tasks in less time often leads to burnout and overly cumbersome code reviews . If stakeholders cannot provide additional resources or developers to complete the project as initially planned on an end date, it is best to adjust the deadline to retain employees and ensure high-quality results.

Task prioritization

Correctly determining task dependencies in the planning phase significantly streamlines a project’s workflow and date of completion. Project managers must decide which tasks developers should prioritize based on urgency and importance. Assigning a balanced workload across the team will allow for completing critical tasks on time while facilitating the development of dependent, less critical tasks.

Cross-skill Training

Tech teams that invest in cross-skill development for team members see increased versatility and expansion of available resources. Training developers to perform other duties, such as a front-end developer learning database management, will make that developer more versatile and able to fill more roles. Tech teams that embrace cross-skill training will reduce potential costs, as hiring additional workers to perform specific skill sets becomes unnecessary. 

Resource Leveling vs. Resource Smoothing

Resource leveling and resource smoothing are two distinct project management techniques. Still, project managers use them together to maximize effectiveness. Resource leveling mainly works to prevent the over-allocation of resources and allows project managers to adjust the timeline to meet the availability of resources.

Resource smoothing is a technique that takes place when project managers do not have the option to adjust a project’s timeline and must finish by the project completion date. Because resource smoothing does not allow an adjustment to the timeframe, project managers must optimize resource demand within the time constraints. Resource smoothing involves dividing tasks into smaller subtasks among team members. 

Choosing the optimal technique depends largely on the flexibility of the project's deadline. Projects with limited resources but the ability to extend the deadline will benefit from resource leveling. Resource smoothing is best for projects with fixed deadlines but flexibility with resources.

Resource Management Techniques 

For maximum efficiency and flexibility, project managers should be able to employ various resource management techniques depending on the state of the project. All resource leveling techniques involve adjusting schedules and resource allocation; however, different methods attack the problem from different angles. 

Critical Path Method (CPM)

A popular resource management technique is CPM. Project managers use CPM to plan, schedule, and monitor projects without considering the availability of resources. CPM improves a project’s workflow by mapping out a project’s tasks in the best sequence to find the shortest project duration. 

CPM requires project managers to break the project into manageable tasks before sequencing them based on their dependencies. Once the manager determines an estimated time duration for each task, they use the diagram of tasks to determine the most efficient path for completing the project in the shortest time span. This is called the critical path. With the critical path identified, the project manager determines start and finish times for each task and any outputs and deliverables needed for the project to run smoothly.

Critical chain management

Whereas CPM focuses on the time it will take to complete a project, critical chain management is a method of managing a project centered around available resources. The critical chain is the longest possible sequence of dependent tasks after considering resource constraints. When determining the critical chain, the project manager only allocates resources to a single task at a time and includes buffers so the project completion date remains unaffected despite any unexpected problems. Critical chain management is a way for project managers to optimize resource allocation and reduce bottlenecks caused by resource constraints. 

Fast-tracking

Fast-tracking is a resource management technique that project managers use when clients suddenly push deadlines forward. Fast-tracking involves compressing a project’s timeline and executing multiple tasks concurrently to speed up the workflow. For fast-tracking to work effectively, project managers must identify which activities don’t have dependencies and overlap. While this resource management technique can speed up the duration of a project, it can also lead to higher costs due to team members working overtime and securing additional resources.

Resource Leveling Tools

Resource leveling tools are software applications that project managers use to balance team workloads and resource allocation effectively. Each tool offers different advantages that benefit specific projects. However, resource leveling tools may cause delays for teams that are new to them. Integrating them with existing systems may also add complexity to workflows. 

One prominent resource leveling tool is project management software. Project management software provides solutions that allow managers to visualize project timelines, tasks, and resource assignments. This cuts down overscheduling or double-booking of team members and reduces resource misappropriation. Some project management software includes real-time insights, providing automatic adjustment suggestions or manual realignment of tasks. Popular types of management software include:

  • Agile project management tools: Agile project management tools support the Agile methodology approach, which involves segmenting projects into steps. The approach emphasizes collaboration, adaptability, and a rapid response to changes. These tools utilize backlogs, visual aids, and boards to prioritize and track progress. Agile project management tools also incorporate feedback to improve projects. Famous examples of Agile project management tools include Jira and Trello.
  • Time-tracking tools: These software applications record and analyze how long teams or team members spend on individual tasks and projects. This data helps project managers improve team productivity , manage workloads, and ensure accurate billing. Common time-tracking tools include Toggl Track and Time Doctor.
  • Resource scheduling tools: Resource scheduling tools are software applications that allocate resources to optimize a project’s efficiency. Teams utilize this tool to track resource usage, coordinate meeting rooms, and allocate equipment as needed. Resource scheduling tools often include real-time visibility of available resources to prevent overbooking conflicts. Popular examples of resource scheduling tools include Smartsheet and Float.

Find Project Managers for Your Dev Team

Resource leveling is an important technique that significantly improves the quality and efficiency of your development team’s projects. Ensuring that your employees are productive but not overworked while meeting project completion dates depends on the project manager’s ability to utilize resource leveling effectively. However, finding a qualified and effective resource leveling PMP is often challenging. 

At Revelo, we help businesses find the best project managers and developers for their tech projects. We rigorously vet our pool of highly skilled candidates for technical skills, soft skills, and English proficiency. We also handle onboarding, including payroll, benefits administration, taxes, and local compliance, and offer support throughout the developer or project manager’s time at your company. 

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IMAGES

  1. 12 Resource Allocation Tips for Managers

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  2. Resource Allocation in Project Management: an Ultimate Guide

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  3. Resource Allocation in Project Management

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  4. What Is Resource Allocation? How to Allocate Resources for Projects

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  5. A Complete Guide to Resource Allocation in Projects

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  6. Resource Allocation in Project Management: an Ultimate Guide

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VIDEO

  1. Project Management/ Resource Planning / Resource Allocation Strategies or Methods

  2. Project management resource planning

  3. Resource Allocation & Leveling

  4. Resource Planning for Projects: A Guide

  5. Resources Allocation & Resource Levelling (CPE520 Project Managment)

  6. Resource Management Software: Control Your Schedules, Resources and Costs

COMMENTS

  1. Resource Allocation in Project Management: an Ultimate Guide

    Resource allocation in project management is the process of assigning and distributing resources to various tasks and activities within a project. The goal of this process is to ensure that the right resources are available at the right time to complete project tasks effectively and manage possible constraints.

  2. What is resource allocation? Learn how to allocate resources

    In project management, resource allocation can help you ensure your project team has the assets—whether that's budget, tools, or team members—to hit the project's objectives. Effectively allocating resources can help you achieve your project goals on time and on budget.

  3. What Is Resource Allocation? How to Allocate Resources for Projects

    Resource allocation is a step of project resource management that involves estimating resources, procuring resources, allocating resources and tracking resources until the project is completed. Why Is Resource Allocation Important?

  4. 4 Best Resource Allocation Methods In Project Management

    In practice, you will likely use a combination of resource allocation approaches within a single project. To practice resource allocation effectively, follow these steps: 1. Make a Project Resource Management Plan. A project resource management plan lays out the full strategy for resource allocation, scheduling, and use during a project. This ...

  5. What Is Resource Allocation In Project Management?

    Resource allocation is a process in project management that helps project managers identify the right resources, and assign them to project tasks in order to meet project objectives. Project resources can be material, equipment, financial, or human resources. Typically, resource allocation is done during the early stages of a project's lifecycle.

  6. What is Resource Allocation? Importance & Challenges

    Resource allocation is all about identifying and scheduling resources on various activities across your project (s) to achieve your project goals. Resources in project management refer to anything you require to complete the project, including tools, equipment, facilities, or funding.

  7. Resource Allocation: Improve Project Efficiency in 2024

    What is resource allocation in project management? Resource allocation is the process of identifying and assigning resources—including people, time, money, and equipment‚to projects while considering a team's availability, skills, and interest. Usually, a resource manager, project manager, or team lead is in charge of allocating resources.

  8. What Is Resource Allocation in Project Management?

    Resource allocation is the process of assigning available resources in the most effective and economical manner. Learn how to leverage resource allocation with Wrike.

  9. What is resource allocation

    Like matchmaking, resource allocation is about assigning the best resource to the most appropriate task or project. In other terms, the right person for the right job with the right workload. But, again, the purpose is to maximize the utility of team members, hence improving customer and employee satisfaction. Resource allocation is challenging ...

  10. A Guide to Resource Allocation for Project Managers

    7 best resource allocation tips you should know. Scaled-up PMOs rely on the most advanced project management software and best practices to ensure that their projects are completed on budget and on time.. Once you've nailed down your project's scope, timeline, budget, and requirements, you can begin to allocate your resources effectively. These five tips will help you improve productivity ...

  11. Resource Planning in Software Project Management

    Resource planning in software project management is the strategic allocation and optimization of resources — people, time, and budget — to ensure the successful completion of a project. It involves estimating the type and quantity of resources needed to accomplish each task and when the project plan will require them.

  12. Six Methods to Manage Resource Allocation in Software Projects

    Resource allocation is the process of assigning and scheduling the available resources, such as people, time, money, and equipment, to the tasks and activities of a software project....

  13. What Is Resource Allocation in Project Management?

    Resource allocation is the process of organizing a company's assets for different activities and tasks. By conducting resource allocation, a key step in project management, business leaders can make sure their teams have the necessary support to achieve strategic goals. If you're a project manager or a related professional, you could benefit ...

  14. Resource Planning and Allocation in Software Development Projects

    Resource management is a set of practices that help accurately allocate materials and people during the planning stage of development. IT resource management can also be utilized each time the team changes: for example, if you add more team members.

  15. 7 Resource Management Techniques Project Managers Must Know

    7 Resource Management Techniques. Let's dive deeper into each resource management technique, understanding its essence and its application in our day-to-day management tasks. Resource Forecasting. Resource Planning. Resource Allocation. Resource Scheduling. Resource Leveling.

  16. Leading Resource Allocation Methods

    The process of resource allocation in project management is not a complex science or art understood only by geniuses. It's more about a simple yet powerful strategy that teaches us how to get the right balance in organizing multiple project assets. Projects reach better results faster if companies apply appropriate resource allocation methods.

  17. What Is Resource Allocation in Project Management?

    Resource allocation in project management is so important because it gives ... With a combined use of time tracking and project resource management software, it's way easier to identify project resources needed for a successful completion of the current team's capacity. Tracking how much time is spent on various tasks significantly helps ...

  18. Resource Allocation in Project Management: 4 Problems Solved

    Any high-quality project management resource allocation software uses project dependencies to do resource allocation. This is a way of managing projects where a resource must complete a certain task before a beginning another task, to avoid wasting money and time.

  19. What Is Resource Allocation?

    Several software tools can take the guesswork out of resource allocation. Modern resource allocation software is data-driven and, in some cases, powered by AI for a smooth, intuitive, and effective process. The following are some of the best project management software tools on the market that help organizations outline overall resource allocation.

  20. Resource Allocation in Project Management Software

    Resource information may be accessed from the 'Resources' tab within a project to review the availability of resources. Project Insight, web project management software provides real-time resource allocation data based on the allocation of their assignments to project tasks system-wide. Project managers can also view all resources across all ...

  21. 23 Best Resource Management Software Reviewed 2024

    Web-Based Resource Scheduling Software Digital Asset Management Software (DAM) Business Process Management Systems (BPMS) Digital Asset Management Software (DAM) Governance Risk & Compliance Tools (GRC) With so many different resource management solutions available, figuring out which is right for you is tough.

  22. 16 Best Resource Management Software of 2024 (Free & Paid)

    1. ProjectManager ProjectManager is a comprehensive project and work management software that tops our list of best resource management software. ProjectManager Key Features With ProjectManager, you can schedule, allocate, manage and track your resources with an ease of use that competitors lack.

  23. Resource Leveling in Project Management

    Resource leveling mainly works to prevent the over-allocation of resources and allows project managers to adjust the timeline to meet the availability of resources. ... Some project management software includes real-time insights, providing automatic adjustment suggestions or manual realignment of tasks. Popular types of management software ...

  24. Resource Planning for Multiple Projects

    Project teams use GanttPRO for work planning, task organization, and resource allocation, acknowledging its reliability as resource management software. Many PM newcomers and experienced managers admit the power of the Gantt chart maker for smooth and stress-free resource planning, tracking, and coordinating.

  25. Osmosys Software Solutions on Instagram

    Microsoft Dynamics 365 for #ProjectOperations has redefined project management. In the dynamic world of consulting, it addresses all major challen...

  26. 10 Best Resource Allocation Software For Efficient Resource Use In 2024

    10 Best Resource Allocation Software For Efficient Resource Use In 2024 Using my extensive experience resourcing projects, I reviewed and evaluated the top resource allocation software to shortlist the best tools to effectively manage and distribute resources.