Are you thinking that Project Planning is all about mapping tasks? If so, Project Planning denotes more than just mapping tasks. It also means making sure that you have the right team to actually complete the tasks. When you manage a project, you should have foresight. This foresight is essential to know the resources required and when are they required. 

Also, you should have the organization navigate the schedules and commitments that lock them down. When talking about Project Management, Resource Planning play a crucial role.

Resource Planning – The Definition:

Resource Planning in Project Management can play a pivotal role. But, you should first understand what is a Resource Plan all about.

Resource Planning is the process of allocation of tasks to team members. This allocation will happen to team members not as such but based on their capability and skill set. Whoever you feel fit for a particular task will get that task in the project. In turn, it will be possible to improve the efficiency of each team member. This can happen by helping teams with the management of their capacity and budget. 

Now, you know what is Resource Planning. So, what is a Resource Plan? You can compare it to a document that contains the complete Resource Planning that you have done for effective Project Management. A well-created Resource Plan will specify the exact quantities of the essential resources that can be stored. It can also denote resources that cannot be stored like labor or machinery. 

Why Should You Have Resource Planning?

Resource Planning in Project Management deals with the most basic ingredient in the success of the project – the team members. Indeed, this can be the most crucial reason for Resource Planning. Nevertheless, four other reasons make Resource Planning crucial:

To Prevent Under-utilization:

How successfully you utilize the resources as a Project Manager will ensure proper Project Management. A resource that is just sitting is a resource that is not making money for your organization. So, the utilization rate is one of the most crucial metrics you should keep track of. This is nothing but a measure of the amount of time every member of the team spends on valuable work. This encompasses both internal and project administrative work.

The utilization rate is nothing but the hours worked divided by the total available work hours. Do you wish that your organization should get more money from the same resources? If so, you can do one of the following:
 

• Get the resources to work more

• Charge more for each resource

Among these two options, the first option is the best for most organizations. The reason is that most resources waste time on work that cannot be billed like report generation. When this time is used for improving software and automation, it will improve the chances of making more money overnight. 

Further, it is also much simple to sell than getting clients to pay more. This becomes possible with Resource Planning. You can match resource availability and performance. When you do this, you can make sure that no resource is underutilized.

To Prevent Over Allocation of Resources:

Let us consider that you are running a factory. There is a great chance that you will come across one or more situations that demand the 100% usage of all your machines. But, as a Project Manager, you should remember one thing for sure. People are not machines. When you dump them with huge work, you will experience a drop in their morale. Even, it can have an ill effect on the quality of their work.

Particularly organizations functioning in the creative domain face such over-allocation issues.  The reason is that it is hard to estimate creative work. For instance, you can allocate five hours of work. On the other hand, it can take 15 hours to complete the work in practicality. In this case, creativity will fill in the gaps.

Apart from affecting the morale, over-allocation of work can lead to over-optimization as well. Let us consider that everyone is working at 95-100% capacity. When suddenly one of the resources goes on sick leave or vacation, the entire project can face an effect. 

Now, you know what is a Resource Plan. It can help with the prevention of over-allocation. It will do it by constantly keeping an eye on the utilization and availability rate. You can set a benchmark for resource utilization at 80%. When the resource requirement increases beyond this limit, you have two options in front of you. They are hiring more resources and the other option is to outsource the work to third parties.

To Plan Your Hiring:

Further, a Resource Plan becomes essential to planning your hiring. You should decide on the kind of resources to hire. This becomes possible with the tips given below:
 

• Go for utilization-focused hiring: When you follow this technique, you can evaluate the present capacity allocation for different tasks based on skills and project types. Let us consider that you find that the graphic designers in your team are always near 90% utilization. In this case, it would be good to hire more designers.
   

• Sales-focused hiring: When you follow this technique, you can judge the projects in the pipeline. Accordingly, you can presume the demand and accordingly plan your hiring.
   

• Strategic Hiring: With this approach, you will hire more resources in a particular area in which you wish project expansion to happen. For instance, you can think about hiring more Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence engineers in case you want to brand your business as an AI Specialist service.
   

• Follow your Gut Instinct: With this approach, you will decide on the basis of business performance, overall strategy and industry trends.

 
To Reduce Resource and Task Dependencies:

Let us consider that you have at present four ongoing web design projects in hand. Before your developers start coding, each of these projects need detailed mockups. 

Let us consider that all your designers are fully occupied. In this case, you will have to hand over the mock-up creation to a single designer. Let us again consider that this person gets sick. When this happens, unfortunately, all the mock-ups will remain half-finished. All four projects get stuck on a stage. When multiple projects rely on a single resource or when more than one project uses a single deliverable, this type of issue can arise.

As a Project Manager, it is your responsibility to bring down these types of single-resource dependency. This becomes possible with Resource Planning. By charging all resources and task availability, it will be easier for you to spot these weak points. It is better to reassign a resource that is overspread or working on too many tasks. When you do this, you can reduce risk to a great extent.

How To Create a Resource Plan?

Now, you know the importance of Project Resource Planning. But, your question will be how to create the best plan. Here is a step-by-step guide to creating a Resource Plan:

Plan to Project:

In the plan to project phase, you should decide on which project your team should handle next. This is also the time when you will identify and request the resources required for the project. Along with the list of resources, you will have to lay out every task related to the project. Also, at this stage, you should decide on the tasks that will take much longer compared to others. Also, decide on the projects to be front-loaded, if any.

Nearly 34% of teams work more than the official hours for completion of the assigned work and 80% or more of the time. It is better to carefully consider every task required for the completion of the project so that nothing is left unaccounted for. 

Hold a Resource Management Meeting:

As a part of Resource Management processes, meetings are essential. When you think about an expensive trip to a vacation spot with your friends, you can make it a success only when things are planned rightly. The same rule applies to Resource Planning as well.

Nearly 62% of leaders figure out resource scheduling to be the biggest challenge in Project Management. So, you should hold a resource management meeting to make sure that everyone move in the same direction. Only then, you can ensure that everyone follows the appropriate metrics.

This involves identifying the resources required for the project. In case, you are juggling more than a single project with many crossover teams, it might mean you will have to take time to compromise on the allocation of those resources with team leaders. When you arrive at these decisions, it is crucial to have a point of reference for all stakeholders engaged to provide help with the resource management techniques. 

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Conclusion:

Your Resource Plan in Project Management should encompass other things like matching resources to tasks, setting a budget and tracking time, forecasting future plans, updating your Resource Plan and performing post-project analysis. Apart from these things, you should also keep your plan flexible so that appropriate changes can be made as required to ensure the overall Project Management success.