Example of a Project Resource Plan

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Do you need help creating a resource plan for your project? Then here’s an article
that, with the help of an example, will help you get a better understanding of how a
resource plan is prepared and what important information must go into it.
 Resource planning is a key aspect of project management as the success of a project
is directly dependent of how the resources are allocated and how optimally they are
used. Having a resource plan also means that the teams don’t have to juggle and
struggle for resources as and when they need it. Let’s take a look at how a resource
plan can be made, but before that, here’s a link to download a project resource plan
example. You can doubly use the downloaded Excel file as a template to create a
resource plan for your project.
 What Goes into a Project Resource Plan?
The example that you’ve just downloaded is a resource plan for a website building
project. A quick look at the example will reveal two important things that must be
given due attention in a project resource plan –
 Human and Non-human resources must be accounted for in separate sections, and
 The resource requirements should be analyzed individually for each phase of the
project.
Here’s more on what goes into each section of the Excel spreadsheet.
The top most section contains some basic details about the project such as the name
of the project, the name of the particular process for which the resource plan is being
made, the name of the creator and the authorizing personnel, and the date on which
the plan was prepared. It’s worth noting here that the resource plan can either be
made for the entire project if it’s a small project or for some process which is a part
of a larger project.

 Project Human Resource Requirements

The human resource and skill requirements will vary considerably during each phase
of the project; accordingly our example of a project resource plan shows these
requirements in terms of the different type of skilled professionals required for
executing different aspects under each phase. The resource details include the
following:
Task or Deliverables: Here you can have either the name of the task or a short
description of it. In our example the tasks identified for the first phase are – site
layout and design, developing and installing JavaScript, developing content and
procuring images.
Resource Type: The resource type refers to what type of a professional is needed to
execute the said task. For instance – programmers, designers, writers or
photographers, as in our example of building a website, are the different resource
types needed.
 Source: This section is meant for listing the source which will make the desired
professionals available for accomplishing the tasks. If the professional is from within
the organization you can simply write ‘Internal’ under the source and if you’re
outsourcing the process to someone then the name of the agency or the name of the
professional can be put here.

Skill Level: Some tasks require a clearly identified set of skills to be executed

properly, if there are any such requirements these can be detailed out in this section.
Continuing with the example these skills may be – knowledge of macromedia flash
for the designing professionals, APA writing style for content writers, and knowledge
of JavaScript for the programmer.
Quantity: This is simply the number of professionals needed for completing a task.

Hours Required: This is an estimate of the total number of hours that will be needed
for completion of the task.
Controller: Here goes the name of the person or team at whose deposal the resource
will be and who will have full authority over allocation of the resource.
 Non-Human Resource Requirements
These requirements are again classified along the different phases and for different
tasks or deliverables. The fields in this section are similar to the one above, except
that it doesn’t require any information about the skill – obviously material resources
do not have any skills, and a new field has been added to this section which requires
a cost estimate of the resource. The cost estimate can be the cost of purchasing a
particular resource or the lease/rent amount in case you’re acquiring a resource on a
temporary basis.

 Resource Assumptions
Every aspect of a project has some assumptions and so do the resources, so whatever
assumptions have been made at the time of resource planning can be detailed out in
this section. For instance, the assumptions can be like a ballpark figure for an
equipment lease or mentioning an external source while the deal is not yet final.

 Resource Risk and Mitigation Strategies

This section is meant to detail out all the risks associated with the project resources
and the mitigation strategies that will be used to nullify the risks in case they crop up
during the execution of the project.
 Detailed List of Sources
The last section is a list of the sources from which the resources are to be procured.
This list can either be included within the resource plan as in our project resource
plan example or it can be attached as an annexure to the resource plan. This must
contain some basic details about the source such as the name of the source, the
physical location of the agency, the name of the contact person there and the contact
details.

 References & Credits:

1. http://www.helbig.com.au/pmo/templates/Resource_Plan_Template.doc
2. http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/templates/project-resource-plan-TC001141417.aspx
3. http://www.projectinsight.net/project-management-basics/project-management-resource-plan.aspx
4. http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/CN/it/products/projectresourceplanning.pdf