capacity and utilization
Once the effort has been estimated, resources and/or team members can be assigned to the individual tasks (ideally as a joint act between the project manager and the team). Once this has been done for the next planning phase (e.g. milestone or sprint), you should take a closer look at the load profile of each resource. Is a machine being used in parallel by mistake, or has a team member been over- or under-planned? If this is the case, you must adjust your planning or rethink your resource allocation. The key word here is capacity. Capacity is the availability of a resource including the available volume. If, for example, a person is planned for more than 100% of their capacity, this is called overload. If this overload occurs because the person is planned for two competing or parallel tasks, this is a resource conflict.
Resource conflicts can also arise across project boundaries. Is the employee still needed for tasks in the line or do other projects in the company want to access the same resource at the same time? Another frequently used term in this context of project resource planning is the bottleneck resource. This is a resource that is only available to a limited extent at the desired time due to limited capacity or multiple workloads. Furthermore, its capacity cannot be easily expanded, especially when considering the return on the project.
A Fool with a Tool
In practice, no project manager does these steps manually. Project management software , such as Microsoft Project, Merlin or Excel templates, offer the possibility of carrying out work packages including resource management electronically. All resources are measured in units such as hours, kilograms or meters and directly linked to the respective costs. The software automatically detects resource conflicts and can help resolve them using analysis data. The software also generates a Gantt chart including all dependencies. The project plan is ready and can be communicated to the clients and stakeholders.
But here too: BE CAREFUL! Think carefully about when and in what detail you communicate a project plan. Unfortunately, plans are often interpreted as promises and project managers are judged on how well they stick to their plans. Do you really want to plan everything through to the end at the start of a project, even though you yourself are not yet completely clear about how it will be implemented? Do you want to keep justifying a plan that you know is largely based on assumptions? Or do you want to plan people down to the hour months before they are deployed, even though you have no idea whether they are still working for the company at that point?
Don't worry, I'm not advising you not to use these tools, but use them wisely. Think about the depth of planning, don't let yourself be carried away by statements that you already know will be wrong, and always think about the human factor, with all its surprises.
Summary & Suggestion
Resource planning with material and financial resources is usually not too complex and can be done well oman telegram data with the use of project management software . But when it comes to planning on a human level, things get difficult. Classic planning approaches often fail when things start to get "human". Will a team work well or will collaboration be difficult? Do I have a constant team composition or a high level of fluctuation? Classic planning methods are not suitable for all of these dynamic and therefore unpredictable factors. Rather, elusive skills such as empathy, intuition and pragmatism are required.
Focus on the qualifications and talents of your employees. Actively involve them in your planning process and delegate responsibility. An employee will be more willing to complete a task on time if they have chosen and specified the task themselves. After all, looking after "your baby" is different from being given a task. Internalize the Pareto principle and concentrate on the really important tasks. Constantly prioritize the tasks to be completed with your team. Watch for bottlenecks and dependencies. Think of the keyword "workload profile" and do not exploit your team members. Because as Tom DeMarco said in his book "The Deadline": "Projects with an aggressive schedule are (usually) completed later than would have been the case with a reasonable schedule!"
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