PROJECT RESOURCES

Resources are the means that have been used to achieve project objectives. The primary
resource is obliviously people with applicable skills and competencies. The other main
grouping of resources needed include capital, facilities equipment material and
information. Work structure planning and arrangement of work packages are meant for
resource planning and leveling.

Types of resources

1. Engineering Design and erection Plan:

The plan for the project specifies the end product that is desired and in some cases it
may considerable details about the components that make the end product. Such
information provides the basis for constructing work packages and specifying their
contents. The technical aspects of work packages or activities are manifested in
engineering design for each discrete activity and the plan for step- by- step erection of
the whole sub-unit and plant or building. The stage of engineering design and erection
takes the engineers deep into the process through dissecting each technical work into
minute details and steps. The engineering design would detail all specifications like
size, shape, thickness, alloy, characteristics and properties and functionalities of every
piece included in a machine or equipment and their sub-stages of testing and
experimentations.

2. Equipment supply:

Projects involve significant investments in machines and equipments. They may be

either the core the core assets for the project or support assets. The capacity of each
machine, balancing of equipment in the process planned and technical specifications are
very important in the purchase of machines and equipment. The equipments needed for
activities on critical path have to get better attention and close follow-up from the
procurement team. Contracts with fabricators are the main driving factors in the
successful acquisition of machines and equipment.

3. Material procurement:

The project construction involves procurement of thousands of special materials that the
business would not keep for its routine activities. Vendors may be unknown and their

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reliability uncertain. A procurement team has to develop vendors for various material
teams and buy the resources as and when needed.

4. Manpower planning:

Manpower with different skills and experience would be in demand at different times of
project construction. Some scarce manpower would arise the issue of its allocation,
which would have a bearing on the project activities start and end date. If the firm is
drawing some or all manpower resources for the routine operations, coordination with
operations would be an added challenge. A smooth flow of required manpower from
one activity and routine operations without causing the conflict of priority of different
activities can not be easy to ensure.

5. Budgeting:

Project budget has two components in it- cost and cash. Every resource consumed has a
cost and cash. Every resource consumed has a cost and cash flow effect. Cash flow has
to be tracked with time and cost with activities. Cash flow budget is required liquidity
planning and for obtaining funds in time. Cost of activities is helpful in exercising
control over project construction. Cost and cash flow budgets emerge from resource
planning and contracting. A budget offer has to work in close coordination with the
technical staff that prepares project network and with the procurement officers.

GUIDELINES TO DETERMINE RESOURCES REQUIREMENT:

The objective of these articles is to be providing the some guidelines and advice to
determine the resource requirements and the process of acquiring and managing
resources.

1. Resource Planning:

The resource planning includes following inputs:

 The work break down structure identifies the project elements, these elements
needs the resources for project establishment.
 The historical information relating to the project can give an idea about the
resources, what types of resources were required for project work.

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  The scope statement contains the project justification and the project objectives
which should be considered.
 A resource pool description is another useful input. It constitutes knowledge of
what resources are potentially available.
2. Resource estimation:

Estimation is the process of establishing a reliable analytical model of a project.

Resource estimation is structured prediction of the cost and other resources required to
execute a task. One of the primary functions of the process is to establish a control
basis. The required accuracy and effort going into resource estimation can be influenced
by the element of uncertainty and risk involved because of technical complexity and
novelty of the project.

3. Resource acquisition:
Resource acquisition refers to the process of physically securing the necessary inputs.
All resources required have to be paid for in some way or another. The financing of a
project therefore plays an essential role in the acquisition process.

4. Resource levelling:
The resource leveling aims at reallocation of resources, and as result the rescheduling
of activities also, to minimize the cost of project. As a general rule, an early
consumption of resources costs more than the late consumption. Even the cost
implication of delayed completion is considered and if late completion is found cost-
effective, the network plan and critical path may be changed.

5. Human resource planning:

Human resource planning for a project involves a realistic estimation of the staff input,
based on an estimation of which type of staff will be required for the tasks that are
planned, and the anticipated number of working days. A Responsibility Assignment
Matrix (RAM) to allocate the role and responsibilities to be used.

6. Resource allocation:

The different types and quantities of resources must be allocated to the project as
needed to perform the activities. A schedule for this must be maintained to ensure that
the allocation process takes place on time and in the right quantities. The delivery of

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resources is a very important task. During contracting one must know exactly where
resources will be originated and where it will be delivered to. Sometimes delivery to
site is a good option.

Approval Process

Project quality management ensures that there is adequate review of project deliverables
at phase completion. Approval is a formalized process ensuring that the appropriate
levels of testing and review have been completed. The approval process has been
discussed separate from the development life cycle. The process of ensuring that
appropriate approvals are obtained is part of the management function and is not strictly
a technical function .The approval process ensures that each defined project phase and
associated deliverables are successfully completed before beginning subsequent phases.
Management gets a comprehensive view of the current project status. Information
necessary to ensure that deliverables satisfy the specific business needs of the state
organization is also received.
Project approval also allows management to reassess the direction of the project, as
necessary, and to provide project planning up dates, as required. There are typically
three types of approval processes. The first, project plan approval has been addressed in
Project Planning.
Approvals discussed in this section occur during the execution stage and include:
• Phase reviews
• Deliverable reviews

Strategic Planning

A strategy is a detailed plan for achieving success—the bundle of decisions and

activities that we select to achieve our long-term goals—our path. Every organization
must figure out what it wants to achieve and how to make it happen by using its
products, customers, and operations. Strategy is fluid, continuous, and iterative and can
be broken down into logical steps or element.

1. Goal Setting:

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Project manager cannot begin to think about a strategy until he have objectives that are
prioritized and are based on our business, our markets, and how value is created in the
organization.

These objectives are aimed at maximizing the value of the organization to the
shareholders, with the critical factor being time. Even though project manager create a
vision of the organization, say, twenty years out, the strategic plan considers only a
three-year to five-year time horizon. A written declaration of an organization’s core
purpose and focus, commonly referred to as the mission statement, serves as a
consistent directional tool for the firm. In contrast, the strategic plan and its related
practices fluctuate according to changing circumstances.

2. Strategy Development Process

Strategy is the road map for the success of the project. Strategy development is focused
on three fundamental questions: Where are we now? Where should we go? How do we
get there? The project manager has to find out the answer for these questions while
developing the strategy for the project.

3. Customer Analysis

Unmet customer needs are at the heart of business ideas and the development of a
business strategy. There is a need to continuously analyze the customer as part of
everyday management. Essentially, we need to know why our customers buy from us
and why others buy from our competitors. This information is typically gathered at
point of sale via customer surveys or focus groups. Good, regular, and valid information
is essential to business strategy success.

4. Internal Business Analysis

The internal audit explores the organization’s operational and financial results,
evaluates its talent pool, assesses its functions and processes, and explores the health of
its key relationships. A good SWOT analysis not only identifies the component
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT), but also prioritizes them and
helps to limit analysis to a smaller set of the most important factors.

6. Strategic Choices
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A comprehensive strategy formulation contains both positioning and execution
components. An effective strategy must align between positioning and execution.
Positioning articulates clearly and concisely the organizations strategic approach to
achieving its goals by setting out a direction and a choice of suitable products and
services. Execution ensures that the organization has the necessary resources,
operational capabilities, and organization to support the direction. To enhance our
strategic choices, Project manager ask the question “how?” and develop a strategy
through approaches like integration, penetration, development, diversification, and
divestiture.

6. Strategic Thinking

Strategic thinking involves asking the right solution-oriented questions and conducting
appropriate analyses to formulate plans and strategies. Asset optimization questions
have long been fertile ground for new ideas—for thinking about the best use for each
significant asset that we currently own and control. Another strategy-generating
approach is to use core-business thinking. Your core business is defined by the set of
products, customer segments, processes, and technologies in which you can build the
greatest competitive advantage. Another method uses best practices lists that can be
found in publications.

7. Implementing Strategic Decisions

The principal causes of strategy failures are the attitudes, communication, and
commitment of senior management. The best system for implementing strategies is by
using the balanced scorecard. It provides a framework for considering strategy from
four perspectives—financial, customer, business processes, and learning and growth.
Implementing strategy is a team game, and even though senior management has the
responsibility to formulate and articulate the business strategy, you, as a program or
project management professional, play a lead role in the strategy implementation
segment of the process. As a program manager, you are expected to understand the
strategic drivers of the program, the specific benefit levers, and the required level of
governance to make change happen. As project manager, you are expected to fulfill a
similar role at the project level, whether it is part of a formal program or a one-off high-
impact strategic project.

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Conclusion

Each successful strategy could be a catalyst for a strategic thinking direction and
approach. As a program or project manager, take the time to identify the strategies in
play in the next business case or feasibility study you review.

Project Implementation

The day-to-day work of project implementation is to lead and manage the application of
the project implementation plan. This task can be relatively simple, or can become
extremely complex, depending on the nature of the project.

As in all project management, success during implementation is partially an art

(managing people, leading teams, communicating with clarity), but it is also a science.
In its simplest form, the responsibility of the project manager is to implement the
project plan. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the project manager
must apply a number of technical skills to succeed during implementation.

The major steps associated with implementation. Note that many of these activities
need to be completed ahead of time.

1. Prepare the infrastructure.

Many solutions are implemented into a project environment that is separate and distinct
from where the solution was developed and tested. It is important that the
characteristics of the project environment be accounted for. This strategy includes a
review of hardware, software, communications projects, etc.

2. Coordinate with the organizations involved in implementation.

This may be as simple as communicating to the client community. However, few

projects today can be implemented without involving a number of organizations. For IT
projects, there are usually one or more operations and infrastructure groups that need to
be communicated to ahead of time. Many of these groups might actually have a role in
getting the solution successfully deployed. Part of the implementation work is to
coordinate the work of any other groups that have a role to play. In some cases,
developers simply failed to plan ahead and make sure the infrastructure groups were

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prepared to support the implementation. As a result, the infrastructure groups were
forced to drop everything to make the implementation a success.

3. Implement training. 

Many projects require users to attend training or more informal coaching sessions. This
type of training could be completed in advance, but the further out the training is held,
the less information will be retained when implementation rolls around. Training that
takes place close to the time of implementation should be made part of the actual
implementation plan.

4. Install the production solution.

The project (solution) needs to be moved from development to test. If the solution is
brand new, this might be finished in a leisurely and thoughtful manner over a period of
time. If this project involves a major change to a current solution, you may have a lot
less flexibility in terms of when the new solution moves to production, since the
solution might need to be brought down for a period of time. The project manager make
sure all of your production components are implemented successfully, including new
hardware, databases, and program code.

5. Convert the data.

Data conversion, changing data from one format to another, needs to take place once
the infrastructure and the solution are implemented.

6. Perform final verification in production.

Project manager should have prepared to test the production solution to ensure
everything is working as he expect. This may involve a combination of development
and client personnel. The first check is just to make sure everything is up and appears
okay. The second check is to actually push data around in the solution, to make sure
that the solution is operating as it should. Depending on the type of solution being
implemented, this verification step could be extensive.

7. Implement new processes and procedures.

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Many IT solutions require changes to be made to business processes as well. These
changes should be implemented at the same time that the actual solution is deployed.

8. Monitor the solution.

Usually the project team will spend some period of time monitoring the implemented
solution. If there are problems that come up immediately after implementation, the
project team should address and fix them.