Resource Planning and Management in Project Management

Project planning includes knowing exactly what resources are necessary and when you need them. In his article on Teamdeck, Paweł Hałabuda walks us through the steps and processes involved in resource planning and management. He expounds on how resource planning and management help project managers align a project’s deliverables with the available and required resources. Without proper resource planning and management, your project’s timeline, budget, and delivery will not go seamlessly.

Resources for a project often involve people, especially in creative and service-based organizations, as well as resources in the form of equipment and materials which the project team mobilizes and processes to complete the project.  It is a fact that the time it will take to complete a project is often overestimated. A significant number of projects take longer than the set deadline; they also incur more costs. This fact is supported by research. The progress of a project can be hampered when more people are brought in to help as there are often disagreements that can negatively affect the project. It is imperative to establish the reason for time and cost overruns and what can be done to rectify the situation.

By examining the “whys” and “hows” as well as strategies to synchronize and integrate available resources into project planning, scheduling, and control, you can learn how to design a project that delivers the intended results within the preset deadline. Resource planning and management can facilitate the alignment of available and necessary resources with the relevant tasks in order to complete a project in time. It is also essential to identify why a project is lagging and to explore strategies to speed up the process of project completion.

With an emphasis on resource planning and management, project management mechanisms can be synchronized to complete a project in a timely and cost-effective manner, yielding the desired results.

Enrolling in eCornell’s Project Management 360 program will enable you to learn how to make your projects deliver the expected results in the given time frame, within the allocated budget, and with minimal or zero resource wastage and spillover.

eCornell courses are approved by SkillsFuture Singapore for SkillsFuture Credit as well as by HRDF Malaysia under its SBL Scheme.