Chapter 8. Resource Management
8.0 Learning Objectives & Overview
Learning Objectives
- Describe how to create a project resource plan.
- Define the resources utilized in a project, including the project team members.
- Elaborate on resource loading, leveling, and crashing to allocate resources effectively.
- Practice on Microsoft Project to determine and allocate the resources and solve resource overallocation and conflict problems as well as scheduling issues.
Overview
A project manager is responsible for planning, developing, managing, and monitoring and controlling the resources to ensure that project objectives can be achieved. Effective resource management is integral to overall project success. The objective is to identify and allocate resources effectively and efficiently to project activities to complete the project to the satisfaction of the stakeholders, particularly clients and customers. Whereas scope, time, and cost are the main constraints of a project, they are tightly linked to the resources. After delineating the scope and schedule, the project manager can continue identifying and allocating resources based on the scope (product requirements and project activities) and the schedule (how project activities are sequenced on a timescale). Allocation of resources allows the project manager to determine the overall budget, most of which is spent on resources.
