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How to Balance Your Resources During Projects

By Tom Pierson posted 02-04-2020 15:46

  

Resource allocation is a very important skill for project managers because it enables them to balance out their resources throughout the entire operations. It entails developing a plan that will help you use the resources at hand more productively and to the best benefit of the work. 

Resources don’t include equipment and material - it also entails finances, employees, and expertise in particular types of work. Because of the variety of resources, some project managers may feel overwhelmed and not know where to start allocating them. 

To solve that, here is how to balance your resources during projects:

Identify the resources you have

Identifying what kinds of resources you have will help you develop a project plan that includes the additional resources you need to source. Once you have determined the type of resources you have, you can then start appropriately allocating them according to the scope of work. 

These skills are taught during classes of a PMP course for professionals and they help project managers allocate resources more appropriately. In the classes, other skills pertaining to project planning are taught that will be very beneficial in different types of projects.

Have a contingency plan

A contingency plan is very important in project planning because whenever an emergency arises, the workflow won’t be affected much. When allocating resources, lookout for any inefficiencies that could slow down the workflow. 

For example, tasks that are depending on one person should raise a red flag. The reason behind that is because if that person gets injured or falls sick, that task will be on hold until someone else is sourced. Instead of having those tasks taken care of by one person, assign it to two or more skilled people that will undertake them.

Use good judgment

The mistake most project managers make is burdening their human resources with a lot of work. You might feel like they are up for the challenge, but the results may be that your teams might lose their motivation and start burning out. 

Don’t overwork the human resources to the point of them turning their gears and burning because that will be detrimental to the entire project. You can do this by being realistic to the client and not setting deadlines that are way too tight for yourself and the team.

Have a routine

As a project manager, there are a lot of tasks that you need to undertake and because of that, you might forget about resource allocation or reallocation. It is a very important process that needs to be monitored constantly because all project plans are very fluid, which means it changes constantly. 

You might allocate the resources very well at the beginning and as time goes on in the project, problems might arise. Because of that, you need to set up a well-structured routine of checking the resources to see if they are in good shape. That will give you an opportunity to give the human resources some pep talk and motivation.

Ask for periodical reports

Periodical reports will help you know the state of each resource you have and if there any idle that can be reallocated. By asking for reports from supervisors and managers on how the workload is looking will help you understand how many human resources can be asked to assist other departments. 

Also, you will identify the teams that are overworked and find them the necessary assistance to make the workload more manageable. You can also know what equipment needs servicing and determine if the teams need more equipment or materials.

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