CHAPTER TWELVE

Resource Management

TRANSPARENCIES

12.1 CONSTRAINTS ON PROJECTS

1. TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS

2. PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS

3. RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS
a. PEOPLE

b. MATERIALS

c. MONEY

d. EQUIPMENT
12.2 RESOURCE LOADING TABLE WITH OVER ALLOCATION

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.
12.3 RESOURCE LOADING TABLE

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.
12.4 PRIORITIZING ACTIVITIES FOR RESOURCE
ALLOCATION

1. Those with the smallest amount of slack

2. Those with the smallest duration

3. Those with the lowest activity identification number (e.g., those

that start earliest in the WBS)

4. Those with the most successor tasks

5. Those requiring the most resources

12.5 EXAMPLE OF RESOURCE LEVELING

Fully Developed Task Table for Sample Project

Activity Duration ES EF LS LF Slack

A 5 0 5 0 5 --
B 4 5 9 6 10 1
C 5 5 10 5 10 --
D 6 5 11 8 14 3
E 6 9 15 10 16 1
F 6 10 16 10 16 --
G 4 11 15 14 18 3
H 7 16 23 16 23 --
I 5 15 20 18 23 3
J 3 15 18 20 23 5
K 5 23 28 23 28 --
12.5 EXAMPLE OF RESOURCE LEVELING (CONTINUED)

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.
12.5 EXAMPLE OF RESOURCE LEVELING (CONTINUED) – SAMPLE PROJECT
NETWORK
 12.5 EXAMPLE
OF RESOURCE LEVELING (CONTINUED) - Activity Float and Resource Needs for the
Sample Network
Activity Duration Total Float Resource Hours Total Resources
Needed Per Week Required
A 5 0 6 30
B 4 1 2 8
C 5 0 4 20
D 6 3 3 18
E 6 1 3 18
F 6 0 2 12
G 4 3 4 16
H 7 0 3 21
I 5 3 4 20
J 3 5 2 6
K 5 0 5 25
Total 194
12.6 RESOURCE LOADING TABLE FOR SAMPLE PROBLEM

12

10
Resource Requirements

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Project Days
12.7 RESOURCE LOADING TABLE FOR SAMPLE NETWORK WHEN ACTIVITY
FLOAT IS INCLUDED
January February

Activity 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 17 18 19 22 23 24 25 26 29 30 31 1 2 5 6 7

A 6 6 6 6 6

B 2 2 2 2 

C 4 4 4 4 4

D 3 3 3 3 3 3 

E 3 3 3 3 3 3 

F 2 2 2 2 2 2

G 4 4 4 4 

H 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

I 4 4 4 4 4 

J 2 2 2 

K 5 5 5 5 5

Total 6 6 6 6 6 9 9 9 9 10 8 9 9 9 9 8 9 9 7 7 3 3 3 5 5 5 5 5 ( = Late Finish)

12.8 RESOURCE LEVELING THE NETWORK TABLE
January February

Activity 1 2 3 4 5 8 9 10 11 12 15 16 17 18 19 22 23 24 25 26 29 30 31 1 2 5 6 7

A 6 6 6 6 6

B 2 2 2 2 

C 4 4 4 4 4

D 3 3 3 3 3 3 

E 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

F 2 2 2 2 2 2

G 4 4 4 4 

H 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

I 4 4 4 4 4 

J 2 2 2 2 

K 5 5 5 5 5

Total 6 6 6 6 6 9 9 9 9 7 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 7 3 3 3 5 5 5 5 5 ( = Late Finish)

12.9 RESOURCE LEVELING THROUGH SPLITTING ACTIVITIES

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.
12.10 SAMPLE RESOURCE LOADING CHART

8
R 6
es 4
ou 2
rc
es D
A
B F

C E

2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Project Days
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

12.1 This chapter suggests that there will be a dominant constraint for most projects.
How does considering this help with putting together a resource schedule?

The chapter suggests that most projects will always carry a dominant constraint. For
example, a festival will have a dominant time constraint. If necessary, additional
resources will be allocated to the project to ensure it is delivered on time. Resource
constrained projects must work with the set of resources that have been allocated. Mixed
constraint projects suggests that certain activities may be critical (in terms of being
completed on time), however others may be limited in terms of resource allocation. It is
important for project managers to consider dominant constraints before allocating
resources as it helps to make reasonable decisions about what is possible in terms of
resource loading the project.

12.2 For many projects, the key resources to be managed are the project team personnel.
Explain in what sense and how project team personnel are often the project’s critical
resource.

Project teams are created to perform work on a specific project. Since projects often
require a team member’s expertise in more than one area, it is not uncommon for a team
member to be assigned to more than one task in the project. The problem comes when
these two tasks need to occur simultaneously. If only one person on the team or within
the organization can perform the function, then team personnel becomes the critical
resource constraining the ability to complete the project as planned. Alternate scheduling
has to be made in order to enable completion of both tasks, and hence, progress on the
project to continue.

12.3 What is the philosophy underlying resource loading? What does it do for our
project? Why is it a critical element in effectively managing the project plan?
Resource loading identifies the amount of resources needed over the project baseline. It is
a process that assigns resources in the required amount to each project activity. Resource
loading maps out resource use over the duration of the project. It is a useful tool for team
members to determine conflicting uses and over-allocation of resources prior to the start
of the project. It is critical to effect project management in that it provides a better picture
of resource availability, constraints, and misallocation, allowing managers to determine
more accurately if extra resources are required and if the project baseline is reasonable.

12.4 Explain the concept of resource leveling. Why is it an important consideration?

What are the key steps involved in this process?

Resource leveling is sometimes referred to as resource smoothing and is the process of

minimizing fluctuations across the project lifecycle and allocating resources efficiently in
order to deal with the complexity of working within constraints. It is an important
consideration in projects to ensure that no one resource is overloaded in the project, as
this will cause issues with timescale. Additionally, ensuring that project team members
are being fully utilized ensures that the project will run more smoothly, with good
transition across resource usage.
The steps are as follows:
1. Develop the resource loading table indicating the resource requirements across the
length of the project. This is normally illustrated as a histogram.
2. Determine activity late finish dates. This process applies slack and late finish
times to the resource loading table.
3. Identify resource over allocation. After the resource loading table is complete the
process of leveling can begin. This determines any points within the project where
we the maximum resource capacity is exceeded.
4. Level the resource-loading table. This involves a reconfiguration of the resource
loading table to remove points where over allocation exists. It should be
highlighted though that leveling resources can affect other parts of the project
plan (such as the network), and this needs to be taken into consideration.
12.5 Discuss the nature of “time/cost trade-offs” on projects. What does this concept
imply for our project management practices?

When a resource is over-allocated,(i.e., it is needed to perform multiple tasks at one time

or is needed in a greater quantity than the current supply), time/cost tradeoff decisions
have to be made. Due to over-allocation, project managers must decide to either increase
the overall time of the project by extending the schedule to allow extra time to complete
both tasks, or increase the budget to allow for employment of additional resource use.
Either way, the project is going to run over projected figures; it is simply a matter of
whether the budget or timetable will be extended.

12.6 When resource-leveling a project, a number of heuristics can help us prioritize those
activities that should receive resources first. Explain how each of the following heuristics
works and give an example:
a. Activities with the smallest slack
b. Activities with the smallest duration
c. Activities with the lowest identification number
d. Activities with the most successor tasks
e. Activities with requiring the most resources

a. Those activities that have the smallest amount of slack are given priority for resources.
This is done to reduce the amount of slippage in the overall project, by attempting to
meet the demands of tighter deadlines. For example, if activity A has 4 days of slack time
and activity B has 3 days of slack time, then resources needed to complete B are allocated
first and activity A is scheduled around the resource use of B.

b. The activity requiring the shortest amount of time for completion may receive
resources first. This heuristic focuses on completing the greatest number of tasks by
getting shorter tasks out of the way before engaging in long-term assignments. In this
case, if activity A takes 10 days to complete and activity B will take 25 days, then A is
scheduled first and resources for B are assigned based on remaining availability.
c. Tasks starting earlier in the WBS sequence are assigned resources before those
occurring later. If A begins on day 1 of the project and B begins on day 6, then resources
will be assigned to A first.

d. Resources are assigned to the task that has the greatest number of subsequent tasks.
This allows an increase in the number of downstream tasks that can get underway.
Assuming activity A has 4 successor tasks following its completion and B has 6
successor tasks, B will be assigned resources first, leaving A to be scheduled with the
remaining resource availability.

e. Activities requiring the greatest use of resources are assigned priority. Then, those with
lesser requirements are allocated. Here, if A requires 10 people and 5 specialized
machines for its completion while B only needs 5 people and 1 machine, then A will be
scheduled first.

12.7 Multitasking can have an important negative impact on your ability to resource-
level a project. When team members are involved in multiple additional commitments,
we must be careful not to assign their time too optimistically. In fact, it has been said:
“Remember, 40 hours is not the same as one week’s work.” Comment on this idea. How
does multitasking make it difficult to accurately resource-level a project?

Multitasking decreases employee efficiency because employee time is divided among

multiple projects. This division creates downtime as employees shift from one project to
the next. Simple things such as time spent getting to a new location or time switching
from one set of thought processes to another eat up time that employees could be
spending on task accomplishment. Therefore, scheduling may become difficult because
employees’ time devoted to one project begins to affect their time availability for other
projects. Managers in charge of scheduling need to be aware of employees who have
multiple responsibilities, and not assume that employees can devote their full amount of
working hours to one project.
12.8 This chapter suggests that “most managers will be confronted with the problem of
dealing with resource allocation across multiple projects.” How can project managers
resolve this challenge?

Project resources can be scarce and a common problem is that any decisions made about
resources in one project is likely to affect others (for example, increasing a team
member’s hours on one project can lead to reduction of hours for others). Project or
portfolio managers can address these problems by deciding which projects should be
given highest priority in terms of resource allocation. Scheduling of projects should also
be considered at a higher level in the portfolio to ensure efficiency in the use of
resources. Considerations about the importance of the project and its criteria for selection
(I.e. time to market, or cost to develop), should be taken into account when allocating
resources. The chapter suggests that resource decisions can be resolved in one of the
following ways:
 First in line (whichever project was in the queue first)
 Greatest resource demand (whichever projects demand the greatest resources
from the company)
 Greatest resource utilization (streamlining resources)
 Minimum late finish time
 Mathematical programming
PROBLEMS

12.1 Consider a project Gantt chart with the following conditions (see Figure 12.22).
Susan is your only programmer and she is responsible for Activities 3 and 4, which
overlap. In resource-leveling the project so that Susan is only working a maximum of 8
hours each day, what would the new Gantt chart look like? What would be the new
project completion date?

Figure 12.22

12.2 Referring to Figure 12.22, how would splitting Activity 3 on July 1 to complete
Activity 4 and then finish Activity 3 affect the revised project completion date? Show
your work. Do you recommend splitting Activity 3 or allow Susan to first complete it and
then perform Activity 4? Which strategy would allow the project to finish sooner? Why?

12.3 Refer to the Gantt chart in Figure 12.23. Bob and George are carpenters who have
been scheduled to work on the construction of a new office building. Just before the start
of the project, George is injured in an accident and cannot work this job, leaving Bob to
handle his own activities as well as George’s. Resource level this Gantt chart with Bob
now responsible for Activities 3, 4, 6, and 7. What is the new projected completion date
for the project?
12.4 Referring to Figure 12.23, suppose you have the opportunity to hire two new
carpenters to perform George’s tasks (shortening them by 50%). What would be the new
projected completion date for the project? Would it be worth it to you to hire two
replacement carpenters instead of just one? Show your work.

Figure 12.23
For problems 5–9, consider a project with the following information:

Activity Duration Predecessors

A 5 --
B 7 A
C 9 B
D 5 B
E 7 C, D
F 6 D
G 4 C
H 7 E, F, G

Activity Duration ES EF LS LF Float

A 5 0 5 0 5
B 7 5 12 5 12
C 9 12 21 12 21
D 5 12 17 16 21
E 7 21 28 21 28
F 6 17 23 22 28
G 4 21 25 24 28
H 7 28 35 28 35

Activit Duratio Total Resource Hours Total Resources

y n Float Needed per Week Required
A 5 weeks 10
B 7 weeks 8
C 9 weeks 7
D 5 weeks 8
E 7 weeks 4
F 6 weeks 6
G 4 weeks 5
H 7 weeks 8
Total
12.5 What is the critical path in the project? Draw out an AON diagram.

12.6 Float data is missing from two of the tables. Complete this after you have created
your network diagram.

12.7 Calculate the total resources required for this project, and create a resource loading
table, highlighting the activity float.

12.8 Consider that the maximum resource hours available per week are 10. Which weeks
are overcommitted?

12.9 What options are available for you to resource-level the project? Re-create the
resource loading table.