Chapter 8. Resource Management
8.4 Resource Allocation
Based on the Resource Management Plan and according to the estimation methods, the project team should identify the resources necessary for the project activities and should allocate them to execute the project activities. Allocation of resources is named “Resource Loading”. Then, the project team can have a resource usage calendar that exhibits the amounts of resources assigned to each activity during the project. Let’s continue with “Table 7.1. Activity List Template” from Chapter 7, and load resources to the activities of “1.3 Preparation of Project Charter”.
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Activity List for Project “Grocery LLC’s M-Commerce Project”
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| Activity identifier | Activity title | Scope of Work | Person Responsible | Predecessors | Resources |
| 1.3 | Preparation of Project Charter | The project charter that will authorize the project manager to undertake the responsibility of the project and apply the resources to project activities will be prepared. | Project Manager |
1.1 1.2
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| 1.3.1 | Develop high-level scope | The high-level scope consists of the project purpose, measurable project objectives, high-level requirements, project description, boundaries, key deliverables, and assumptions and constraints. | Systems Analyst 1 | 1.2 | Systems Analyst 1 |
| 1.3.2 | Identify overall project risks | This includes the identification of the risks that affect the project in general. | Systems Analyst 2 | 1.3.1 | Systems Analyst 2 |
| 1.3.3 | Develop high-level schedule | This includes the estimation of the overall schedule with summary milestones. | Team Member 1 | 1.3.1 | Systems Analyst 1 |
| 1.3.4 | Identify main resources and develop a high-level budget | This includes the initial estimation of all resources (human resources, physical resources, and services), and the budget. | Team Member 2 | 1.3.3 | Systems Analyst 1
Systems Analyst 2 |
| 1.3.5 | Identify key stakeholders and project team member roles | Stakeholders with high-interest levels and/or power levels will be identified.
The project team’s composition will be created. The qualifications required should be detailed. The project sponsor’s authority will be detailed. |
Team Member 3 |
1.3.1 1.3.2 |
Systems Analyst 1
Systems Analyst 2 Sales & Marketing Expert 1 Sales & Marketing Expert 2
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| 1.3.6 | Develop project approval requirements and project exit criteria | Based on the project scope and other sections of the project charter, project approval requirements and exit criteria should be detailed.
Exit criteria include the conditions that describe the early termination of the project. |
Team Member 1, 2, 3 |
1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3 1.3.4 1.3.5 |
Systems Analyst 1
Systems Analyst 2 |
In Table 8.2, we only assigned human resources. We also assume that all the people work full-time, which is 8 hours a day. They work during the weekdays, which makes the weekly total work hours forty. In Table 8.3, we can see how human resources are distributed to the tasks by week.
| Resource Name | Work | May 2 | May 9 | May 16 | May 23 | May 30 | June 6 |
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| Systems Analyst 1 | 240 hrs | 40 | 32 | 40 | 64 | 40 | 24 |
| Clarify project purpose and determine project scope | 40 hrs | 40 | |||||
| Develop high-level scope | 32 hrs | 32 | |||||
| Develop high-level schedule | 48 hrs | 40 | 8 | ||||
| Identify main resources and develop a high-level budget | 16 hrs | 16 | |||||
| Identify key stakeholders and project team member roles | 64 hrs | 40 | 24 | ||||
| Develop project approval requirements and project exit criteria | 40 hrs | 16 | 24 | ||||
| Systems Analyst 2 | 200 hrs | 40 | 0 | 40 | 56 | 40 | 24 |
| Clarify project purpose and determine project scope | 40 hrs | 40 | |||||
| Identify overall project risks | 40 hrs | 40 | |||||
| Identify main resources and develop a high-level budget | 16 hrs | 16 | |||||
| Identify key stakeholders and project team member roles | 64 hrs | 40 | 24 | ||||
| Develop project approval requirements and project exit criteria | 40 hrs | 16 | 24 | ||||
| Sales & Marketing Expert 1 | 104 hrs | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 24 | 0 |
| Clarify project purpose and determine project scope | 40 hrs | 40 | |||||
| Identify key stakeholders and project team member roles | 64 hrs | 40 | 24 | ||||
| Sales & Marketing Expert 2 | 104 hrs | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 24 | 0 |
| Clarify project purpose and determine project scope | 40 hrs | 40 | |||||
| Identify key stakeholders and project team member roles | 64 hrs | 40 | 24 |
Resource usage calendars help project teams evaluate whether resources are assigned without conflicts. As can be seen in Table 8.3, System Analyst 1 (SA1) and 2 (SA2), both, have resource overallocation problems on May 23rd week. SA1 works 64 hours on that week while SA2 works 56 hours. Both work more than 40 hours (8 hours per weekday) assuming that overtime work is not allowed. In the next section, we will discuss how to solve this overallocation by means of resource leveling.
