Resource Planning in Project Management — Episode 20
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the focus is on resource planning in project management, particularly managing people resources. The key points discussed include defining resources, ensuring that work is well-distributed among team members, and avoiding budget issues and delays. Effective resource planning ensures that team members aren't overloaded and projects run smoothly. Important steps include defining tasks, estimating timelines and effort, and accounting for holidays and personal schedules. The video suggests using traditional tools or project management software to streamline the process, emphasizing how proper planning makes project management more efficient.
Takeaways
- 🔧 Resources in project management include time, money, people, and equipment.
- 🧑💼 This lesson focuses on managing people resources, while equipment management is similar.
- 📊 Proper resource planning prevents overloading people with work and ensures efficient use of time and budget.
- 📅 Resource planning helps answer questions about how new projects impact existing ones and the availability of skilled workers.
- 😩 Poor resource management can lead to overworked teams, budget issues, timeline delays, and domino effects on other projects.
- 🔍 Before planning resources, you must have a clear understanding of your overall project plan and defined activities.
- ⏳ Defining timelines and estimating the hours required for each task is essential to stay on schedule and adjust for discrepancies.
- 🏖️ Resource planning must account for holidays, vacations, and personal schedules to avoid conflicts and downtime.
- 🛠️ Assigning tasks involves matching team members with the right skills and availability based on the timeline and workload.
- 💻 Resource planning can be done manually with tools like spreadsheets or whiteboards, or through project management software for easier management.
Q & A
What are resources in project management?
-Resources in project management refer to the assets available to complete a task. These can include time, money, people, and equipment.
What aspects of resource planning were discussed in previous lessons?
-Previous lessons covered time and budget planning, which are critical components of resource planning.
Why is it important to manage people resources effectively?
-Effective people resource management ensures that team members are not overloaded, their time is well-spent, and the project budget is allocated efficiently. It also prevents project delays and employee burnout.
What are some key questions to ask when planning resources?
-Some key questions include: How will new projects affect existing ones? How many additional resources are required? Are there skilled team members available? Is anyone overloaded with work or underutilized?
What are the risks of improper resource management?
-Improper resource management can lead to overworked teams, uncontrolled project budgets, project delays, and negative impacts on other projects within the company.
What are the first steps in resource planning?
-The first steps in resource planning include having a solid understanding of the overall project planning process, which involves defining activities and timelines for each project.
Why is estimating task duration important in resource planning?
-Estimating task duration helps in managing timelines and ensuring that resources are allocated appropriately. It also allows for adjustments if tasks take more or less time than expected.
How do holidays and personal schedules impact resource planning?
-Holidays, vacations, and personal schedules can affect resource availability, so it's important to account for these factors when creating a resource loading calendar.
How do you assign tasks in resource planning?
-Once timelines, estimated hours, and tasks are defined, tasks are assigned based on the skills required and the availability of team members best suited for the job.
What tools can be used for resource planning?
-You can use traditional methods like whiteboards or spreadsheets, or you can leverage project management software that automates resource planning.
Outlines
🎬 Introduction to Resource Planning
The video begins by welcoming viewers to a discussion on resource planning within project management. It introduces the concept of resources as elements like time, money, people, and equipment that are necessary to complete tasks. The focus of this lesson is on managing people resources, as time and budget planning were covered in previous lessons. Effective resource management ensures team members aren’t overloaded and resources are used efficiently.
👥 Managing People Resources
The video emphasizes the importance of managing people resources and planning equipment resources, which are similar in nature. Good resource management prevents overworking team members and ensures that their time and skills are utilized wisely. It raises critical questions, such as how adding new projects will affect existing ones and if the team has the required skills and availability to complete the tasks. Failing to manage resources correctly can lead to team frustration, budget overruns, and timeline delays.
❗ Consequences of Poor Resource Management
The video discusses the consequences of mishandling resources, such as overloading employees, project delays, and budget overruns. Poor resource planning can create a domino effect where one poorly managed project impacts others. To avoid this, it is essential to keep track of resource availability and workloads to maintain a happy, productive team and ensure project success.
📅 Essential Steps for Resource Planning
Before starting resource planning, the video advises having a solid understanding of the overall project plan. This includes defining the activities that need to be completed for each project and setting clear timelines. Having this clarity helps in resource allocation, task duration estimation, and adjusting plans when necessary. It highlights the importance of knowing how long tasks will take, with an example of adjusting estimates when additional time is required to complete a task.
🏖️ Factoring in Vacations and Personal Schedules
The video explains that when planning resources, it’s essential to consider holidays, vacations, and personal schedules. People need time off for various reasons, and these factors should be accounted for in the resource-loading calendar to avoid last-minute disruptions. This ensures that the project timeline remains on track while accommodating team members' personal needs.
🛠️ Assigning the Right People to Tasks
The final step in resource planning is assigning the right people to tasks based on their skills and availability. The video explains how, once timelines and tasks are defined, it’s crucial to match them with team members who are the best fit. This can be done manually using a whiteboard or spreadsheet or with the help of project management software. The key is to be methodical in planning to make project management easier and more effective.
📊 Closing: Next Week’s Topic
The video concludes by mentioning the topic for the next lesson: popular project management methodologies and how to use them. Viewers are invited to tune in next week for more insights. The music fades in as the video ends.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Resources
💡Resource Planning
💡People Resources
💡Overloading
💡Budget
💡Project Timelines
💡Estimating Hours
💡Vacations and Personal Schedules
💡Resource Loading Calendar
💡Project Management Software
Highlights
Resources in project management include time, money, people, and equipment.
Proper resource planning prevents overloading people and ensures time and budget are allocated intelligently.
Questions to ask during resource planning: How will new projects affect existing ones? How many additional resources are needed?
Managing people resources helps identify who's overloaded and who's underworked.
Overloading team members or mismanaging resources can lead to budget issues, project delays, and unhappy teams.
Understanding the overall project planning process is essential before resource planning begins.
Defining activities and timelines is crucial to ensure tasks are completed on time.
Estimating task durations and effort is important for accurate resource planning.
Progress tracking involves comparing estimated hours with actual hours to adjust estimates if needed.
Consider factors like holidays, vacations, and personal schedules when planning resources.
A resource-loading calendar helps track availability and workload of team members.
Assigning tasks based on required skills and team availability ensures efficiency.
Resource planning can be done using whiteboards, spreadsheets, or project management software.
A methodical approach to resource management simplifies project planning and execution.
Upcoming lesson will cover popular project management methodologies and their applications.
Transcripts
[Music]
hey there welcome back to project
management made easy today we're going
to be talking about resource planning so
let's get to
it let's take a moment to Define
resources so we're on the same page
simply put resources are what you have
available to complete a task in the
project management World resources can
include everything from time money
people and equipment
since we already talked about time and
budget planning in our previous lessons
today we will talk about managing your
people resources keep in mind that
planning equipment resources is almost
identical proper resource planning and
management ensures that people are not
overloaded with work their time is spent
well and your budget is allocated as
intelligently as possible it helps you
answer questions like how will the
existing projects be affected by adding
a new project how many additional
resources are required to complete a new
project without affecting the schedule
of others are there any highly skilled
graphic designers available in two weeks
to begin working on our Christmas
campaigns is anyone overloaded with too
much work is there anyone who doesn't
have enough
work these questions are important to
ask because without knowing the answers
you could end up with a frustrated and
overworked team that would like nothing
better than to quit their jobs when
resources are not handled correctly
there are a series of unfortunate events
that can occur you can accidentally
overload people with too much work your
project budgets can spiral out of
control your project may suffer many
timeline
delays also it could have a domino
effect on other projects in the
company so in order to keep everyone
happy it's important to know what's
going on with your resources to do this
there are a few things that you do need
to know before you start planning your
resources first you need to have a
pretty decent handle on your overall
project planning process this means that
for all of your existing projects you
have to have defined
activities defining your activities
simply means knowing what tasks need to
be completed during the duration of your
project second Define timelines having a
timeline will give you an idea of each
task's duration by number of
days estimated hours estimating how much
effort is required to complete each task
is equally important as you can remember
from our previous
lessons progress when your project is
underway you can keep an eye on
estimated hours versus actual hours
because you'll want to make sure your
estimates are accurate or if they need
adjusting for example let's say you
estimated that a task will take 20 hours
to complete you already spent 15 hours
and the team member in charge reported
that she still has 10 hours of work left
to do you'll have to adjust estimate and
incorporate the five extra
hours other factors to consider holidays
vacations and personal
schedules when planning your resources
it's important to remember that people
do take vacations
get sick and have other things come up
you need to account for all of these
factors too when building your own
resource loading
calendar finally you have
assignes once you have your timelines
estimated hours and the tasks for all
your existing and new projects you can
finally look at the skills required to
complete new tasks and check the
availability of the team members who
would be the best
fit you can use traditional whiteboard
or spreadsheets to manually design your
resource loading calendar or you can use
a project management software that can
do all of the resource planning for you
if you use the methodical approach to
plan and manage your resources you'll
find that project planning becomes a lot
easier so that's it for resource
planning next week we're going to be
talking about the most popular project
management methodologies and how you can
use them see you then
[Music]
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