Management: RM, DM

MAR-344

Submitted by : Shafaq Sulmaz

What is resource management how it is benefited in a project ?
Resource management is the process of planning, scheduling, and allocating
organizational and project resources in the best possible way. Its ultimate aim is to
maximize your resources’ efficiency. Which in turn will help fulfil project, task, or
organizational goals.
When doing project management, managers need to know if there’s enough capacity
and the proper means to bring your projects to life. Resource management can ensure
that you’ll not only have the right resources to achieve your objectives, but you’ll have
the right resources that can take your projects to the next level. With as few of hiccups
as possible.

Below are 5 ways in which you benefit once you implement a resource
management strategy. It can help with:
 Maximizing resource efficiency: Resource Utilization
 Getting a bird’s eye view of your project: An overview
 Preventing miscommunication mishaps: Transparency
 Predicting the future: Foreseeing and avoiding problems
 Taking Control

1. Maximizing Resource Efficiency: Resource Utilization

Resource utilization is all about making the most out of the resources available to you.
It is the percentage of the resource’s working time (Busy time) within a certain time
period (Available time). The easiest way to understand the concept is through a
formula:
Resource utilization = Busy time / Available time

Why does it matter?

Utilization tracking and planning is the number one thing to consider if you are
planning your team and its resources. It’s especially important if your resources have
concurrent tasks or if they work on multiple projects simultaneously. This provides you
with insight on resource availability and allows you to find the best match between
tasks and your resources.

Prevents boredom and burnout

Both over and underbooking your team can lead to negative outcomes. For
example, studies found that on days when people experience more challenges, they
also tend to feel more positive and engaged in their work. This means your team
should feel challenged in order to be more productive.

On the flip side, it has been found that over utilizing a resource and an extreme
workload can lead to burnout. However, research indicates that when managers carry
out management practices that promote job control (i.e. resource management), it
reduces the risk of burnout.

Better forecasting

Plus, utilization can also be extended to planning other (nonhuman) resources. You can
track the downtime or efficiency of a piece of heavy machinery, for example. This can
help with long-term planning, and allow you to nip a problem in the bud. If you know
that you will be using a specific machine extensively, you can make arrangements for
repairs or replacements ahead of time.

How Can You Benefit ?

 Better utilization means a happier and healthier team, helping to
reduce burnout and stress.
 Resources are used to their maximum potential, keeping projects on time and on
budget.
 It helps project managers keep an eye on the project, reducing oversights and
double-bookings.
 Changes and hiccups can be caught more quickly, preventing problems from
getting worse.

2. Getting a Bird’s-Eye View of Your Project: An Overview

Contemporary project management is tricky. Offices in different locations. A number
of ongoing projects. Hundreds of different resources with different tasks. Without
resource management, it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Effective resource management strategies will give you an overview of everyone and
everything. And an overview gives you control over what’s going on.
To do so, it might be wise to take a cue from the ancient Romans. Their concept of
dīvide et imperā, (usually translated to “divide and conquer”) can help give you an
overview.

First, divide the plan into different views. Then, manage the resources within each view.
Finally, take a peek into the general resource plan to see if everything’s adding up.

Why is it important?
In project management, you should aim to have a better overview of everything. This
will help you see exactly where your project’s at, what still needs to be done, and by
when. It turns out, an overview will help you manage your team better and give you
more efficiency.
Whether you decide to follow the ancients’ method, or get modern software to do the
heavy lifting, an overview will give you a bird’s-eye view of your projects. This will
allow you to have better visibility, which can ultimately increase efficiency.

How Do You Benefit?

 An overview allows you to track team and project progress, giving everyone
better visibility and keeping you all up-to-date.
 You can see how efficient your team and resources are, allowing you to make
better predictions for future projects.
 Overviews give you more control. Which elps you to conquer all required tasks.
 Looking at your resources from a different angle can increase your efficiency,
especially when dealing with dozens of resources spread-out across the country or
world.

3. Preventing Miscommunication Mishaps: Transparency

With resource management, every (human) resource is able to view their tasks. Every
project manager can see how resources are allocated. This means planning is
transparent both ways.
And transparency is to planning like the weekend is to the workweek. Without it, it’s
just Monday-Friday. And we all know what can happen when it’s all work and no play.
You’ve seen “The Shining,” right?

Why is it important?
There are both practical and theoretical reasons why you’d want your project
management process to be transparent.

1. Better communication

 Misunderstandings are often unavoidable. Especially if you are working in an

organization with simultaneous projects and managers. And while workarounds for
this are abundant, they don’t always get the job done.

 It’s easy to create a Gantt chart from your Google calendar. Or make a project
management doc in Excel. But without dedicated resource planning software, you
opening yourself to a host of other problems.

 Resources will get overbooked. Task statuses will be changed over and over again.
And no one will be sure what the “right” version of the project plan is. This can
mess things up with your team, bosses, and stakeholders.

 It’s no wonder that miscommunication is the #1 reason why projects fail.

 Resource management with a central resource management tool will provide you
with better transparency. Helping to avoid such misunderstandings.

2. Happier team

 The other reason why you should aim for transparency is the engaged workforce
that comes with it. With links between organizational transparency, credibility,
and organizational accountability. There’s plenty of proof transparent
communication drives employee engagement.

 So, when managers encourage more participative information sharing, employees

feel more engaged with their work. So with greater transparency, you’re
essentially creating a better workforce.

 However, to achieve that kind of transparency, you need a tool that allows
controlled access to every team member. Unfortunately it can get quite expensive
if the tool is priced per user. Which is why you should aim to find one that
is priced per resource.

 That way you’ll only pay for the resources in use. More transparency and less
money, makes for a better business!

How Do You Benefit?

 More transparency helps prevent avoidable miscommunication mishaps between
team members, managers, and clients, keeping everyone up-to-date and on the
same page.
 Project transparency is beneficial to everyone involved. It increases employee
engagement and stakeholder trust.
 Transparency can reduce email noise, eliminating confusion and freeing up your
inbox’s storage.
 A central resource management tool can give an entire organization transparency,
allowing controlled access to every team member.

4. Predicting the Future: Foreseeing and Avoiding Problems

Though it may seem like the odd one out, managing resources can really help you
predict the future. And unlike the others, it can be a lot more reliable.
It turns out, planning your resources gives you the ideal opportunity to understand the
actual timeline of a project. The phases, the tasks that need to get done, and the
resources that are required to make miracles happen. Planning lets you account for all
of this, before they even occur.

Why is it important?
By planning out your resources, you have a better idea of where your team and
equipment are located. And what they’re up to.

Track your team and tools

Booked machines, client meetings, incoming shipments, everything is planned and

accounted for. Allowing project managers to quickly and easily check the availability
and utilization of a resource. This is helpful if a plan changes quickly and alternative
arrangements need to be made. And trust us, this will happen!

Fix problems ahead of time

Plans can also show the bottlenecks of the projects: upcoming holidays, overlapping
vacation days, scheduled repairs, mandatory safety trainings. Long-term planning can
help you prepare for the future and make adjustments in advance. By fixing the
problems when they are still “invisible,” you can prevent them from getting worse.

Taking the time to plan and organize your resources now means “future you” will be
better prepared and more able to focus on everyday tasks. You can thank yourself
now for all the free time you will have.

How Do You Benefit?

 Resource planning lets you understand the actual project timeline, helping with
long-term planning and making more accurate forecasts.
 Planning gives you a better idea of what your resources are doing and where
they are located. Making it easier to sort out unexpected problems.
 Bottlenecks can be ironed-out before they occur. And when changes are made in
advance, you can focus on the current tasks on hand. This means a more efficient
use of your time and less stress.