Resource management is focused upon optimisation and efficiency. When you know what you need to make a project successful, you can effectively understand how to plan resources in an efficient way.
Where an organisation uses a lot of scarce or valuable resources, optimum efficiency is so important that they may hire someone solely devoted to resource management; also known as a resource manager. In other situations, especially in smaller organisations, resource management is everyone’s responsibility.
The person allocated resource management responsibility is accountable for allocating the resources needed to make the project a success.
Why is effective resource management important?
- It can help you avoid unforeseen problems and delays
By understanding your resources upfront and planning how to use them, you can anticipate gaps or problems before they happen. - It can help avoid burnout or overexposure
Effective resource management allows you to avoid “overallocation” or “dependency” of resources by gaining insight into your team’s workload. - It can help you justify your actions
If the project does not succeed due to lack of resources, evidence of resource planning and management shows that you did everything you could. - It provides transparency
If other teams can see your capacity they can provide additional capacity where available or take on new projects in your stead. - It can help you measure demonstrate and improve efficiency
With a clear understanding of what’s needed to manage and execute a project, you can effectively plan and measure the return on investment
Resource allocation helps you get the most from your available resources.
Based on team members’ skills and capacity, resource allocation is the process of tackling projects using the resources you have at your disposal in the most efficient manner possible.
Resource levelling aims to discover underused or inefficiently used resources within the organisation and work them to your advantage.
If an employee has additional skills and experience they may be able to deploy them to fill a gap when all other capacity in that area is used up. For the staff member, it keeps their skills up-to-date.
Resource Forecasting is about making a resource management plan to predict your future resource requirements before a project begins. This is critical to optimizing people, materials, and budget efficiency, and may be facilitated by the use of resource management software that forecasts the project’s scope, possible constraints, unforeseen costs, and potential risks.