Resource Allocation in PM: Techniques and Tools

Effective resource allocation has the potential to influence the success of your projects even before they begin. Outstanding project plans have the potential to fail due to the inability of teams to effectively manage the distribution of personnel, budgets, and resources. The simple truth is, project managers who understand how to allocate resources effectively separate themselves from the rest by minimizing issues that arise from poor resource allocation.

If PMP Certification Training is on your horizon, resource allocation is more than a topic that will appear on the exam; it is a skill that you will rely on daily. This guide describes proven techniques and tools to help you strategically allocate resources while minimising bottlenecks and keeping your projects on track.

The allocation of resources is the process of assigning and scheduling available resources to complete project tasks in an efficient manner. It is a simple mental exercise of matching the resources with the tasks to be executed.

Your resources can be classified into one of the four following categories: financial, physical, people, and technology. Each of the four categories is of equal importance, and you need to have all four available to be able to complete a project. For example, you cannot undertake a construction project without having the materials, and similarly, you cannot undertake a software project without having developers.

What separates good resource allocation from great? Timing. Resources cannot sit idly within an organization. They need to be available when a project needs them.

Positive impacts flow downstream from effective resource allocation. When resources are available and distributed properly, teams are able to collaborate and complete tasks more efficiently. Their morale is higher as they are not overburdened with work, and project costs remain within budget as they do not need to reallocate resources at high costs.

Negative impacts are more pervasive when resources are misallocated. When a resource plan collapses, it results in scope changes that become nightmares for project success. The isolation of team members who do not understand which resources are in their control can lead to a misalignment of skills, where a team member designated as an expert is overburdened with tasks of a single speciality, while junior team members are left to tackle higher-order complexities.

Project management principles help circumvent inefficiencies that threaten to derail timelines.

Step 1: Assess Your Resource Needs

Your first step should include identifying project goals and detailing the objectives and tasks required to complete the project for the goals. For example, what skills, assets, and budget do you need for a task? For a marketing campaign, you may need copywriters, designers, a budget for ads, and analytics software. For construction, you may need engineers, building materials, construction tools and equipment, and safety gear.

Be specific here and include extreme details. Knowing you need "developers" is too ambiguous. Break this down so that it is clear whether you need front-end developers, back-end developers, or full-stack developers.

Step 2: Prioritize What Really Matters

Establish the importance of resources. Some resources are critical, and the project cannot move forward without them. Others are secondary and may be useful for non-essential efficiency.

The specific team you need is normally the highest priority. Equipment is also critical if it takes a long time to obtain. The flexibility of software tools and construction materials is less critical. The knowledge of the PMP certification requirements provides the framework for making priority decisions.

Step 3: Allocate Resources Strategically

Next, resource allocation should focus on your identified needs. Take availability, specific skills, and capacity of the resources into account. If your top designer has a 20-hour work per week schedule, allocate your resources accordingly. Make sure that one team has the same amount of work to do while another team has a lower amount of work.

The project management plan must incorporate realistically achievable resource distributions and anticipate.

Step 4: Monitor and Adjust Throughout

Resource allocation is not a one-time solution. Projects change. Team members call out sick. Equipment malfunctions. Budgets are reallocated. Tracking progress allows you to identify and anticipate issues proactively.

Analyzing resource utilization on a weekly basis can help you determine whether project members are being over/under allocated or experiencing zero utilization. This drives and disruptive adjustments to project objectives.

Step 5: Evaluate and Optimize

Once a project is over, assess its successes and shortcomings. Did you assign too many resources to tasks that are not of high value? Did you identify and address obstacles when you should have? Improving lessons on your future project helps you improve your allocation decisions.

Critical Path Method (CPM)

CPM helps identify the longest sequence of interdependent tasks, which defines the duration of the project. Identifying tasks that affect the timeline helps you prioritize your resource allocation to maintain momentum on critical tasks.

It works excellently for projects that have a distinct set of interdependencies and timelines that are easy to forecast. On the contrary, it operates under the assumption of the availability of endless resources, which is not always a reality.

Critical Chain Method (CCM)

CCM enhances CPM by having all resource constraints considered upfront. It calculates the uncertainty associated with each task and adds buffers accordingly. A project buffer protects the promised completion date. A feeding buffer ensures that a non-critical task does not delay the critical path. A resource buffer ensures that the necessary resources are available for the critical tasks.

Resource Levelling and Smoothing

Resource leveling balances overallocation by starting the task with a different due date or extending the deadline. It can only be used when there is enough flexibility in the schedule. Resource smoothing is about the optimal use of resources and is used within a deadline by adjusting the tasks that float.

When you begin to study the PMP syllabus, these techniques and their applications in project management become increasingly valuable.

Modern project managers do not typically use spreadsheets when allocating resources. They use the following tools that make significant impacts:

Gantt Charts show planned start and due dates, duration of tasks, task dependencies, and resource assignments. You can immediately see when resources are over- or underutilized.

Workload Charts show the available capacity and the allocated tasks of each member of the team. They are useful in preventing burnout by showing who's overloaded and where unallocated capacity is available in the system before problems emerge.

The Resource Allocation Matrix provides a snapshot of task assignments for each of the resources mapped to project tasks. It quickly identifies skill gaps and bottlenecks.

Resource utilization across time periods can be described using bar charts called resource histograms. They can be used to identify patterns of over- and under-allocation.

Resource histograms are commonly incorporated into project management software. Students of the Techademy’s PMP certification course learn to use these tools through project management software.

When scope changes occur, you are forced to re-evaluate your resource plan. Build in some flexibility to your initial resource allocation and keep some contingency reserve.

When there is a skills mismatch, some available team members do not have the expertise required to complete a task. Minimize this issue through cross-training and keeping clear skills inventories.

Communication breakdowns can lead to the misallocation or overbooking of resources. Automated notifications and real-time dashboards help everyone stay on the same page.

When trying to manage a number of simultaneous tasks, prioritization becomes complex. Good project leadership helps the team to understand the priorities and make allocation decisions under pressure.

Properly allocating resources can improve project outcomes significantly. By assessing the allocation systematically, avoiding the most common mistakes from poor planning, and prioritizing from the bottom up, you can preemptively eliminate the most common pitfalls of project planning. The concepts and frameworks discussed in the previous sections can be applied across industries, project types, and styles to ensure you make the best allocation decisions.

These reminders should help provide a baseline to work from. Resource allocation is both an art and a science. Where the frameworks provide a baseline to work from, your experience should help you know when to better tune them to your needs. Use these methods, measure your outcomes, and improve your methods as you work on more projects, one method at a time.