Resource Management

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND

PROJECT MANAGER
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Art of directing and coordinating human, material and
equipment resources throughout the life of a project by using
modern management techniques to achieve predetermined
objectives of scope, cost, time, quality and participation
satisfaction.
PROJECT MANAGERS
The people in charge of a specific project or projects within a
company.
As project managers, their job is to plan, budget, oversee
and document all aspects of the specific project they are
working on.
Project managers may work closely with upper management
to make sure that the scope and direction of each project is on
schedule, as well as other departments for support.
Project managers might work by themselves, or be in charge
of a team to get the job done.
WHAT IS A RESOURCE
 The term resource is used in many fields and contexts.
Most companies have human resources departments,
which match the need for employees with the appropriate
supply by hiring and laying off workers.
 The term financial resources is commonly used to indicate
available monetary sources.
 In project management, we use the term resources to
indicate three main categories: labor (human), materials,
and equipment.
 Ultimately, everything is translated into a monetary
quantity that may be—for the accounting department—a
part of the financial resources.
CATEGORIES OF RESOURCES
Labor
Salaried staff: These individuals include the project manager,
superintendent, project engineer, secretary, and any other
person who is tied to the project but not tied to one particular
activity or work package. Salaried persons usually get paid a
fixed salary for the duration of the project or their assignment.
Hourly/Daily workers: These individuals are hired to perform a
specific task or activity.
Examples include carpenters, masons, ironworkers,
electricians, foremen, and so forth. They are usually paid for
actual hours/days worked.
Equipment and Materials
Construction equipment and materials
This type of equipment and materials is used for the
construction process but is not permanently installed in the
project.
Examples of construction equipment are bulldozers,
backhoes, cranes, power generators, forklifts, mechanical
trowels, heaters, and blowers.
Inexpensive personal tools are usually treated differently
(either as a lump sum for all tools or as the laborer’s personal
property).
Examples of construction materials are formwork materials
and scaffolding.
Installed equipment and materials
This type of equipment and materials stays permanently in the
project after completion.
Examples of installed equipment : heat pumps, emergency
generators, kitchen equipment, and many specialized
equipment.
Examples of installed materials : concrete, rebar, CMUs
(concrete masonry units), brick, mortar, insulation, framing
wood, shingles, floor tile and carpet, bathroom accessories,
plumbing pipes and fittings, and electrical wires. Elevators and
escalators may be classified as either installed equipment or
installed materials, but in most cases, they are installed by the
same vendor and in the estimate are considered a
subcontractor cost.
WHAT IS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
 The process of using a company's resources in the most
efficient way possible.
 Resource management can include ideas such
as making sure one has enough physical resources for
one's business, but not an overabundance so
that products won't get used, or making sure that people
are assigned to tasks that will keep them busy and not have
too much downtime.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
 Relationship among progress, time and resource availability/usage is
the major focus of Resource Management.
 PM must address utilization of individual types of manpower, specific
facilities, kinds of materials, individual pieces of equipment and other
discrete inputs that are relevant to an individual project, but limited in
availability.
 Schedules should be evaluated not only in terms of meeting project
milestones, but also in terms of the timing and use of scarce
resources.
 A fundamental measure of PM’s success in project management is
the skill with which the trade-offs among performance, time and cost
are managed.
AS A PM, THINGS THAT NEED TO BE
CONSIDERED IN HANDLING:
 Co-workers
- The behavioral science approach is important because project
management entails getting things done through the actions of
people.
- An effective project manager must understand the importance
of human factors such as needs, drives, motivation, leadership,
personality, behavior, and work groups.
- The fundamental challenge is to enhance communication
among individuals, groups and organizations so that obstacles
in the way of improving interpersonal relations may be
removed.
TOOLS AND CONCEPTS IN MANAGING
PEOPLE
 Worker Learning and Development
 Training
 Performance Management
 Communication
 Consultation
 Conflict Resolution
 Materials and Equipment
- Materials represent a major expense in construction. If materials
are purchased early, capital may be tied up and interest charges
incurred on the excess inventory of materials. Delays and extra
expenses may be incurred if materials required for particular
activities are not available.
- The selection of the appropriate type and size of construction
equipment often affects the required amount of time and effort
and thus the job-site productivity of a project. In order to increase
job-site productivity, it is beneficial to select equipment with
proper characteristics and a size most suitable for the work
conditions at a construction site.
MATERIAL AND EQUIPMENT
PROCUREMENT
 The main sources of information for feedback and control of
material and equipment procurement are requisitions, bids
and quotations, purchase orders and subcontracts,
shipping and receiving documents, and invoices.
 For projects involving the large scale use of critical
resources, the owner may initiate the procurement
procedure even before the selection of a contractor in order
to avoid shortages and delays. Under ordinary
circumstances, the contractor will handle the procurement
to shop for materials with the best price/performance
characteristics specified by the designer.
 A project manager must ensure that primary inputs of labor,
material and equipment are effectively coordinated to
achieve an efficient construction process. During the
course of construction, foremen and site managers will
make decisions about work to be undertaken at particular
times of the day based upon the availability of the
necessary resources of labor, materials and equipment.
Without coordination among these necessary inputs, the
construction process will be inefficient or stop altogether.
RESOURCE ALLOCATION
 is the assignment of the required resources to each
activity, in the required amount and timing. Resource
allocation is also called resource loading.
 Scheduling techniques do not address the issues of
resource utilization and availability; they focus on time
rather than physical resources
 PM must address utilization of individual types of
manpower, specific facilities, kinds of materials, individual
pieces of equipment and other discrete inputs that are
relevant to an individual project, but limited in availability
 Time itself is a critical resource, one that is unique
because it can neither be inventoried nor renewed
 Relationship among progress, time and resource
availability/usage is the major focus of resource allocation
 Schedules should be evaluated not only in terms of
meeting project milestones, but also in terms of the timing
and use of scarce resources
 A fundamental measure of PM’s success in project
management is the skill with which the trade-offs among
performance, time and cost are managed
COMMON CHALLENGES OF RESOURCE
ALLOCATION
1. Client changes
Changes to the scope, timeline or budget can affect project
delivery. With resource allocation, having an up-to-date
resource calendar will smoothly adjust resources once the
changes appear. projects.
2. Availability of resources
Starting off a new project, ideally you could use any resources
you need that are available at your company. But what if your
agency is running multiple projects and you have to negotiate
over the same resources with another PMs? Or what if a given
team member is out on their sick leave? Availability changes
and you have to monitor it all the time to spot threats to your
project’s delivery.
3. Project dependencies
Allocating resources you need to include project
dependencies, which are a form of a relationship between the
tasks or activities in the project. For example in IT projects
there are tasks that can only be done after some other ones
are completed, so there’s no point to hog resources early on.
4. Project uncertainties
Even if you’ve checked all the boxes when starting off a
project, agreed on the timeline, the budget and the scope,
there’re always things you can’t predict. Resource
management requires you to be able to respond to project
uncertainties, e.g. by shifting resources from other projects or
re-assigning them.
5. Priorities across the company
If your company runs multiple projects simultaneously, you
and your peers may have to share limited resources, very
often in a similar timeframe. But even if you manage to
negotiate over resources you both need, there may be a
change in priorities regarding one of the projects.
THE 6 STEPS OF RESOURCE
ALLOCATION
1. Divide the Project into Tasks
2. Assign the Resources
3. Determine resource attributes (grade, skill, quality,
resource-specific attributes – size, shape, length, color,
strength, speed, etc., availability)
4. Resource Leveling
5. Re-allocate as necessary
6. Track resource utilization
RESOURCE LEVELLING
 Is minimizing the fluctuations in day-to-day resource use
throughout the project. It is usually done by shifting
noncritical activities within their available float. It attempts to
make the daily use of a certain resource as uniform as
possible.
 Is a technique in resource management that overlooks
resource allocation and resolves possible conflict arising
from over-allocation. When project managers undertake a
project, they need to plan their resources accordingly.
 This will benefit the organization without having to face
conflicts and not being able to deliver on time. Resource
levelling is considered one of the key elements to resource
management in the organization.
 An organization starts to face problems if resources are not
allocated properly i.e., some resource may be over-
allocated while others will be under-allocated. Both will
bring about a financial risk to the organization.
 Resource leveling is a mathematically complex process.
The resource-leveling method is called the minimum
moment algorithm.
WHY LEVEL RESOURCES?
 When the contractor adds the daily total demand for a
specific resource for all activities, he or she must provide
the required amount, or work will be delayed.
 This daily demand for a certain resource naturally fluctuates
during the lifecycle of the project, depending on the work
being performed that day (i.e., activities requiring that
resource) and the resource demand for each activity. This
fluctuation is not practical or economical.
 Leveling may also be necessary for an expensive piece of
equipment (which may cost money not only in rental
expenses but also in the cost of mobilization, setup,
maintenance, and demobilization). Say, for example, two
activities require a tower crane at the same time. If you can
delay the start of the second activity till the first has finished,
you will redirect your resource (the tower crane) to the
second activity.
 By doing this, you will have reduced the maximum demand
of tower cranes at any time to only one, which will save
expenses.
DO ALL RESOURCES HAVE TO BE
LEVELED?
 Not all resources need to be leveled. The main idea of
resource leveling is to improve work efficiency and minimize
cost during the life of the project.
 This concept applies to resources that are hired or rented—
namely, labor and (major) construction equipment.
 The need for such resources may vary significantly as some
activities start (they pull new resources) and other activities
finish (they release their resources).
 Likewise, the resource requirement of some activities
changes during their duration.
WHAT DOES RESOURCE LEVELING
ACCOMPLISH?
Reduce project cost
Project scheduling techniques will minimize the project duration, but it
can be advantageous to increase the project duration in order to
smoothen out the resource usage. For example, if a project requires 2
laborers for 10 days, followed by zero laborers for 10 days, perhaps the
project cost can be reduced by lengthening the schedule slightly, to
allow for 1 laborer for 20 days.
Ensure a realistic schedule
Sometimes a resource is needed elsewhere, making the assigned
duration for a task unachievable. The resource becomes overextended
during that time and cannot perform the two tasks simultaneously. In
this case, the resource usage must be smoothened by increasing the
task duration. For example, an excavator requires an operator to carry
out an excavation. But if the operator needs to get out of the machine
and perform surveying during that time, the excavation task will need to
be extended or the project schedule will not be achievable, and the
excavator is idle during that time (costing the project more money).