Project resource management is concerned with planning, managing, and optimizing resources to achieve the greatest results for your project and your people. It is about properly aligning and allocating resources to projects where they are empowered to do their best work - engaged in tasks that suit and invigorate them and never bored or burned out. 

Project managers must be both people and functional managers to use project resources efficiently and ensure that they fulfill their expected performance goals. Project resource management strategies address how resources must be handled when working on various projects.

This blog will address the fundamentals of project resource management, including a step-by-step method for developing an effective project resource plan. Let us begin with a definition before digging deeper:

What is project resource management?

Planning, organizing, managing, and measuring people's work is part of the project management process. Its goal is to efficiently organize, distribute, and schedule the company's resources. By making the best use of each resource, this is accomplished.

Simply put, project resource management entails making the greatest possible use of your company's resources, ensuring the efficient and successful operation of every aspect of your projects. What needs to be done to deliver a project on schedule and within the allocated budget should be clear from this.

Types of resources

Every area of the company uses resource management. Included in this are, but are not limited to:

• Finances: How much money can be allocated for new tools or employee development?
• Staffing: Are there enough hands to do the job? Do your resources possess the necessary expertise to finish the project? Is it essential to hire or outsource someone else?

• Space and rooms: Does the current location comfortably accommodate all the resources and people? Are they exerting all of their efforts?

• Equipment: Does everyone have the tools to finish their jobs and projects?

• Technology: Is there anything the project requires, and do we have the funds to complete it?

Project resource management techniques

Make sure to do the following when putting together a fantastic resource management strategy:

Resource Allocation: aids in determining the kinds and quantities of resources required to complete the projects. Specific resources are allocated through the allocation procedure to particular project activities.

Resource Aggregation: demonstrates the daily, weekly, or monthly consumption of resources. Basically, it is the total amount of resources required for a single work or project over a specified period of time.

Resource Scheduling: It is much simpler to schedule resources according to actual resources and project plans if you know their allocation and understand how much of them are being used. Resource plans outline the precise moment each resource is required. 

Resource planning makes sure:

• Efficient utilization of resources;
• A realistic schedule with start and end dates;
• Observe potential issues and disputes resulting from a lack of project resources;
• Improved long-term planning.

Project Resource Management Process

Project resource management involves locating, evaluating, and assigning the resources required to achieve project goals.

The steps in resource management are as follows:

1. Resource planning
2. Estimate resources
3. Acquire resources
4. Develop and manage the team.
5. Resource evaluation

1. Resource planning

The resource planning process entails developing the resource management strategy, which includes how you will estimate the necessary resources, identify the gaps, fill those gaps, and manage resource-related risks.

Various tools can aid this process, including Material Resource Planning (MRP) and Resource Management Software.

1. Estimate resources

Estimating resources means anticipating the amount and kind of materials, workers, and equipment required to complete a project within a particular timetable and budget.

Businesses may ensure they are neither overspending nor underutilizing their resources by using effective resource estimates. Furthermore, it enables them to detect prospective concerns and develop contingency plans for any unforeseen events.

1. Acquire resources

The third project resource management step, "Acquire Resources," is concerned with gathering the various human resources, facilities, tools & equipment, supplies, and raw materials necessary to complete the project. This procedure aids in outlining and directing the process of choosing project resources before assigning them to particular activities or tasks. As a result, it is carried out periodically throughout the project lifecycle and helps to stop resource shortages.

1. Develop & manage the team

Every project has a unique aspect that sets it apart from others. After acquiring the team, a vital resource, the project manager must guarantee that they are working successfully towards accomplishing the project objectives. You can use resource management tools to assist you with these tasks. The following are essential activities for efficiently developing and managing the team.

• Ensure that any skill gaps are filled through training or other comparable initiatives.
• Establish clear expectations for labor, performance, and outcomes.
• Determine the activity assignment based on the appraisal of each individual's qualifications and competencies.
• Create an environment that encourages communication and collaboration. Maintain close supervision of team interactions and guarantee proper and timely dispute resolution.

1. Resource evaluation

Continuous monitoring of each resource's performance is essential. This ongoing strategy works with people, equipment, and technology. Giving the team feedback and assisting them in overcoming obstacles helps ensure project success. Even with regard to equipment, routine output testing, recalibration, and preventative and corrective maintenance will guarantee that it continues to operate as planned throughout the project.

Benefits of project resource management

When we use effective project resource management, we gain various advantages. They are as follows:

• Evaluating and avoiding the issues: It can assist in finding possible problems before they arise, allowing us to take remedial action by preventing delays and/or cost overruns.

• Preventing Interdepartmental Conflict: Resource conflicts can emerge when inter-functional departments or teams compete for available resources. Effective project resource planning and management aids in the prevention of interdepartmental conflicts by ensuring that resources are allocated fairly.

• Avoiding Overallocation: Team members would frequently become burned out, experience decreased productivity, and produce subpar work due to excessive resource allocation. By ensuring that the workload is spread fairly and that team members have the tools they need to execute their responsibilities successfully, efficient resource management can help prevent overallocation.

• Adapting to Change: By ensuring that the resources are managed effectively with the help of the project resource management tools, project managers can adjust to changes in the project's scope, schedule, or budget.

Key Notes

Throughout the whole project lifecycle, project managers should efficiently manage their projects. The best project management techniques include:

• task breakdown structures,
• subject matter expert consultations,
• strategic resource planning using project planning tools, and
• Minimizing team overload.

Without going through spreadsheets and potentially outdated project data, project resource scheduling software like eRS gives you access to real-time information about project resources, allowing you to model, monitor, and manage resources more effectively.

eRS assists you in keeping track of the planned vs. actual use of project resources throughout the project. This keeps the expenses within budget, allows you to reverse course if necessary, and ensures that your team produces its best work—without boredom or burnout weakening their commitment to the project.