Refining Your Project Resource Plans

The people who work on your project are both a significant factor in its success and a significant cost. So, it’s a good idea to analyze resource plans with an eye to maximizing success while minimizing cost. Here are a few things to think about to make your resource plans shine.

• Get skill levels just right. Most project managers are concerned about not having enough skilled team members. Turns out, being over-skilled can lead to problems, too. It’s great that highly-skilled folks will “do things right the first time.” But they might not do the job any faster. So, a higher-skilled person (who usually costs more) can increase your project cost without shortening the schedule. For the nest results, review your resource plans to make sure you have the right mix of skills you need. If necessary, supplement skills with contractors.
• Are your resources really available? You might rejoice when you get a talented staff member assigned to your project. But these rock stars are often busy with day-to-day operational tasks. Work with management to confirm that “the talent” will be available to your project over the long term.

If their longer-term availability isn’t assured, consider a different approach. For example, assign a lower-skilled, yet capable team member to the project. And arrange for the higher-skilled person to review their work. That way, you’re more likely to stay on schedule while still obtaining the benefit of the talented team member’s knowledge.

• When projects run in parallel. Team members can be pulled into multiple projects. If several projects need the same critical resources, plan your project alongside your fellow project managers. This avoids resource conflicts and undesirable schedule delays.
• How do key stakeholders perceive your team members. Skill isn’t the only criterion for selecting team members. The right attitude and how key stakeholders perceive them is important, too. When key stakeholders don’t trust someone on your team, their confidence in the project could be low.

What if you need someone with critical, scarce skills who doesn’t have the best reputation with stakeholder? Build and share stakeholder management               plans that address the trust issues and maintain confidence in the project. For example, you might include additional reviews of their work or help the team member communicate more effectively.

• Leverage contractors to build skill. Project requirements might necessitate hiring contractors because the appropriate skills aren’t available within your organization. To maximize long-term benefits, require contractors to provide skills training for your staff. That way, skill-building becomes part of the resource plan, expanding capabilities and reducing costs.

Note: Some people aren’t good at training others. If you’re going to have contractors provide training, require that the companies you contract with provide people with training experience.

Do you have questions about resource plans or tips for crafting awesome resource plans? Share with us in the comments section.

For more about resource plans, check out Chris Croft’s Managing Resources Across Project Teams course.

Coming Up

Office Hours: Great Meetings Build Great Teams July 11, 2023, 11am MT

Although great meetings won’t guarantee project success, poorly run meetings could lead to project problems. In this Office Hours broadcast, I’ll be talking with Jim Stewart, PMP and Rich Malzman, PMP about how to keep your necessary meetings from becoming necessary evils. Join us for a fun and informative session. (Bring your questions for a chance to win a complimentary eBook of Great Meetings Build Great Teams. Sign up here:

 

Office Hours: Gen AI: The Project Manager’s Edge July 19, 2023, 9am MT

AI is transforming project management in several ways, such as taking over the creation of complex and realistic schedules through analysis of all available data. As a project manager, you may wonder how to harness generative AI applications in your work and how to implement them successfully. Join me and my fellow LinkedIn instructors, Doug Rose, Dave Birss, and Christina Charenkova to explore how to put AI to work on your projects. Sign up here.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 41,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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