Developing a resource management strategy is not a simple or straightforward activity. It requires diligence, thought and a wide lens to understand your organizational landscape. You need to take into consideration multiple factors and ensue that you have a strong process in place for not only making the right resourcing decisions but also putting in place sufficient monitoring to make sure your resources continue to be allocated properly. Here are some key components to include when developing your resource management strategy.
Pipeline Visibility
Without a strong visibility to your sales pipeline your resource management strategy will be completely reactive. You won’t be able to predict with any degree of accuracy the new work coming in that needs resourcing or what your staffing up/down needs are going to be in the intermediate or long term. Work with your sales team to get a solid understanding of the work pipeline. Perhaps gaining access to the corporate CRM (ex. Salesforce, Dynamics) will help you generate the information you need to ensure that your team is sufficiently staffed to take on the upcoming work.
Current ETC on Projects
The flip side to understanding your pipeline is to truly understand the current work you have in front of you. It’s vital that in your project portfolio that you understand the estimate to complete (ETC) for your projects, ideally by resource so that you can ensure that time is allotted appropriately to complete the work. There’s a number of other non-resource management reasons for knowing your ETC but we can go into that later. Plotting out the hours needed by resource on your existing projects will be crucial to understanding when you can staff up on newer work coming in.
Peaks and Valleys for Current Assignments
When assigned to just one project as a dedicated resource, the thrashing between projects is minimal however when a resource is assigned to and having to juggle multiple projects it can present challenges even if the monthly hours allocation matches the resource capacity. It’s important to understand what the peak and valley assignments are for the immediate term (day/week) so that resources are not essentially double-booked that could lead to missed assignments or deadlines. This is the element of a resource management plan that will require a little more discussion around what resources can and cannot do for specific days or weeks.
Resource management is vital to any service-based organization. Examining these three areas will help set your organization up for success when designing and rolling out a resource management strategy.