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Resource management is the process of determining the most efficient way to meet a business's needs while also recognizing that these resources may be needed elsewhere.
Gartner says that a successful initiative completion depends on the ability to balance available resources with demand. "Leaders should enable careful initiative prioritization and prevent resource overload. They must also promote flexible completion timing in order to maximize value delivery."
You need to be able to see the demand for resources and their capacity. Also, you must know what skills are required and which ones are available.
To maximize the value of your portfolio, you must prioritize resources based on schedules, budgets and corporate strategy. The resource management umbrella encompasses all of these things and more.
Resource Management: The Basics
Resource management is crucial for organizations in order to optimize and allocate resources to the best initiatives.
These are the initiatives that are aligned with corporate strategy and provide the greatest value. The enterprise can respond more quickly to changing customer needs and demands by minimizing waste, duplication and automation, as well as maximizing and speeding up throughput.
Resource management is essential for program and project delivery.
Leaders who want to manage resources effectively, regardless of their work method, must balance the demand and capacity while also understanding business needs to plan and schedule the work using the best teams, people and skills.
Gartner states that leaders have the opportunity and the challenge to "respond to and move from static to agile planning, one that is able to continually reshape their workforce to incorporate changes to business and skill requirements."
Even the most mature of organizations find it difficult to deliver value continuously with their resources, especially in an environment of increasing demand and constant change.
The enterprise faces a constant and common challenge: ensuring that there are sufficient resources and funds available to finish work on time and well. This is where resource management with an evolved approach can be of great help.
Benefits of Resource Management
Resource management is a goal that many organizations find difficult to achieve.
Resource management is often perceived as requiring a significant investment in a radical change in culture and process.
Those organizations that invest in establishing or improving resource management capabilities reap the benefits almost immediately.
These benefits can vary depending on your organization and how you implement them. Still, it's common to find that more projects are delivered on time and within budget.
You can assign people according to their availability and skills when you have all the information you need for planning and scheduling.
When managers understand their current workloads and priorities, they can set realistic expectations for customers.
Resource managers can schedule projects more accurately based on real-time, realistic data rather than saying yes to all without regard to their capacity.
Resource managers can make better decisions on how to staff their teams in terms of both headcount and the required skills for current and future projects.
Another key benefit of having the right people working on the correct projects at the appropriate time is happier employees.
Too few employees working on too many projects is a common problem for companies. Employees who are overworked quickly become disillusioned and frustrated. Overloaded employees often feel disengaged, with low productivity and poor performance.
Employees are more likely to feel valued and happy if they have more predictability, consistency, a manageable workload, and the ability to use their skills optimally.
Resource management allows organizations to optimize their people by providing insights into their workload, availability, project requirements, skills and more. The organization can equip its managers with the tools they need to fairly and appropriately allocate projects to resources.
People are the largest project cost for most companies. When the wrong people work on the wrong project, costs increase while delivery decreases.
Resource management helps managers to bring order to chaos. It allows them to optimize resources and cut unnecessary costs. The data that you have will help you to budget and plan more accurately.
You can also maintain an ideal team - optimizing the resources across projects according to skills and capacities.
The most important benefit of resource planning is to deliver projects efficiently and effectively to the customer.
When teams can fulfill project requests as planned and on time, customer satisfaction increases. Confidence builds and becomes a differentiator. It also provides a strategic edge.
Related article - Establishing An Effective System For Software Development Resource Management
Resource Management Techniques
Although resources can be divided into different categories, managing people is the most difficult because of all the factors that go into optimizing them, such as skill sets, availability and location.
The following resource management techniques are used by organizations to maximize resource efficiency. They often use software developers to give leaders transparency and help them make better resource decisions.
Resource Allocation
Allocating resources is more complex than simply assigning them to projects. It takes into account the skills and availability of your team.
Allocation reports allow you to filter your resources based on skills and capacities. This allows you to see not only who is currently available but also when specific skills will become available in the future.
Resource Utilization
Resource utilization is an effective resource management tool that allows you to see the performance of your team and determine whether they are over- or under-utilized.
It is important to do this because overused resources are more likely to burn out. The utilization reports will show you where your resources spend their time so that you can improve their productivity and performance while still keeping their workload manageable.
Resource Leveling
To balance supply and demand, resource leveling is employed. This is a process that maximizes resources for one or more projects based on the skills of those resources.
It's important to get the most out of what you have before adding staff or hiring contractors. Many people have different skill sets that are not being used. This resource management technique aims to identify all the skills that your remote employees possess and to determine where they can fill in any gaps.
Resource Forecasting
Resource management is important to ensure that current projects run smoothly and with the right resources.
However, the real value comes from being able to plan in order to balance resources between current and future projects. It is important to know your current capacity as well as the requirements of upcoming projects. Resource forecasting allows you to identify conflicts and make predictions.
The Stages of Resource Management
You need to determine the resources required for the project during the planning phase.
Resource management begins with determining your resource needs, which include people, skills, and budget.
In the second step, you will mobilize your team by identifying the specific skills that the project needs at each stage of its lifecycle.
You can then identify the people who have these skills. This is the stage where you decide if you have enough budget to hire IT Company people with certain skills if you find you lack them.
At this stage, all resources required will be allocated.
Resource management continues with the next step of managing your resources, which is clearly communicating and defining roles and responsibilities.
With transparent communication, collaboration tools keep teams on the right track. They allow team members and managers to see who is working when and on what throughout the lifecycle of the project.
Monitoring resources to ensure they are delivering the expected project contributions is the final stage in resource management.
As you strive to continuously optimize resources in order to deliver maximum value to your business, there will always be room for improvement.
Why is IT Important?
An organization needs to have a stable Information Technology Resource Management Process.
- Adequate Use Of Resources: Companies often face finite resource challenges depending upon the magnitude of the task. ITRM allows companies to allocate resources for maximum output efficiently.
- Productivity Increase: Overworked employees are less productive and more prone to mistakes and late submissions. Balancing workloads helps prevent overworking and idleness of employees--furthermore, office equipment functions better when subjected to lesser workloads.
- Cost optimization: Companies strive to maximize profits while spending the least amount of money. Increased productivity of human resources and equipment will help the company stay within budget on daily operations and projects.
- Improved Operational Results: A stable resource management process increases the chances of organizational and project success. Implementing an ITRM that is best suited for your company's dynamics is therefore necessary.
Organizations are different in their functions, culture, dynamics and resources.
They may also have different departments with different interests. Following these best practices will help to ensure that IT resources are managed better for the team, organization and stakeholders.
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IT Resource Management Best Practices
Six best practices for IT resource management can be applied to different types of organizations, ensuring success and overcoming issues.
Securing Team Leader Support
It is crucial to maintain and obtain the support and commitment of senior executives in order to implement an ITRM process successfully.
It is important to have the support of team leaders, whether you are the owner of the company or a project manager.
Team leaders' understanding of the strengths, weaknesses and capabilities of their team will give you an insight into the abilities of human resources in your organization.
Research shows that department heads are responsible for 29% of the allocation of human resources. This is due to their competent judgment.
The human resource component is the most complicated part of ITRM. This is because team members come from different backgrounds and have personalities that are not compatible with each other.
Starting the process with good communication between department heads and team leaders is important.
Data-Driven Resource Planning
After securing the support of departmental and team leaders, you can move on to resource planning.
Resource planning is a crucial part of resource management, as it involves deciding on future actions, allocating the right personnel, delegating authority and providing the correct equipment. Data-driven resource planning is essential for the accurate allocation of resources and minimizing waste. Adequate budgeting entails:
- To ensure that jobs are completed on time, assign tasks to employees based on their priority.
- Consideration of the employee's talents, capabilities, and availability can improve productivity and reduce the likelihood that workflows will be blocked.
- Allocating equipment and financial resources based on productivity and priority for each department.
You can optimize the productivity of your employees by allocating resources properly.
Take Uncertainty into Account
Murphy's Law states that "Anything can go wrong will go wrong." When managing multiple operations within an organization while implementing the ITRM process, unexpected obstacles are possible.
It is possible that key employees could fall ill, equipment may fail, or an outbreak may cause operations to stop.
One of the best ways to prepare for these scenarios is to conduct a risk analysis of the organization based on the ability of its internal and external damage.
You can also monitor team member's performances by comparing their past performance to their career progress. This will help you predict future performances.
Reporting Schedule
Reporting time is a tool for resource management that allows precise planning and scheduling of resources based on performance data in real-time.
Resource managers can use the data to predict pipeline projects and monitor changes in resource capacities.
Team Building
Adopting a top-down/bottom-up integrated approach can help foster team engagement.
Top-down is when the company's top leadership makes all decisions, while bottom-up allows for team input. Resource management is integrated into strategic planning, which gives you a holistic view of resource consumption over time.
The overall decision-making will be aided by obtaining the views of team members via anonymous, purposeful surveys.
The team members know the strengths and weaknesses of their department and equipment from a practical perspective. This survey allows you to gather the necessary data for resource planning. This will also help to inform the team about the ITRM process.
Use Resource Management Software
Software for resource management is used to manage the human resources of an organization and its schedule.
Resource planning software will help you allocate and assign employees to projects when they become available. Software can help determine the number of resources required based on project needs and roles.
Making the most of your employees' time and abilities will result in a better work-life equilibrium and higher health standards within your organization.
Professiona IT service companies often have ambitious development goals. Management wonders if the firm can complete further projects.
Read more - Leveraging Cloud Computing for Cost Savings
What Are The Elements Of Resource Management?
The main components of Resource Management in Project Management are:
Resource Scheduling
Resource Scheduling is the process of identifying and allocating resources to specific project tasks for a specified period.
These tasks could be billable or non-billable work, as well as BAU. Resource scheduling, with a central Gantt view of your enterprise, eliminates spreadsheet silos. You can also deploy the right resources for the job in order to complete the project on time and within budget.
Resource Utilization
Resource utilization is a measure of the time employees spend on various project tasks compared to their availability.
It is an important performance indicator for modern businesses as it has a direct impact on the bottom line. Use can be measured by:
- Overall resource usage
- Billable utilization
- Strategic utilization
- Non-billable utilization
Resource managers can mobilize resources to move them from non-billable tasks/strategic tasks into billable/billable tasks and maximize their billable utilization.
Resource Forecasting
Resource Forecasting allows managers to predict resource usage levels and anticipate the resources that are likely to be left on the bench.
They can also be aware of the capacity needed for pipeline projects. By leveraging this information, you can
- Mobilize resources from BAU or non-billable activities to billable tasks.
- Ensure effective bench management
- The gap between capacity and demand
Resource Planning
Resource Planning is a comprehensive process for planning, forecasting and allocating the workforce most efficiently and intelligently.
Resource Capacity Planning is a project to analyze the gap between demand and capacity well in advance of the curve. Both of these components are essential to ensuring that no project vacancies or excess capacity is wasted. Resource and capacity planning is a simple way to maximize project delivery and optimal utilization.
Business Intelligence and Reports
Business Intelligence delivers actionable insights through extensive data analyses.
The analysis of critical resourcing metrics is done using real-time data and dashboards. These reports improve the decision-making capabilities of managers and enable them to monitor resource health. Let's look at the skills that can help managers master this complex process.
Let's now learn key resource management techniques.
What Are The Skills Of Resource Management That Every Manager Must Have?
When managing the largest investment in a company, resource managers are responsible for multiple tasks.
They have many responsibilities, from understanding the talent pool to acting as the link between the PMO and the workforce. Here is a list to help a manager streamline this complicated process.
Communication Skills
Resource Managers have to fulfill resource requests by project managers. They do this by assigning the task to the appropriate resource.
They are the mediators of this process and, therefore, need to be able to communicate effectively. They will be able to communicate better with project managers and explain their roles to resources.
Conflict Resolution
Project managers often request resources with similar skills. If the criteria for project prioritization are not implemented, this may result in conflicts.
A lack of transparency when defining goals and objectives can lead to resource confusion, which can result in discrepancies. A resource manager's job is to set expectations, intervene and make sure that everyone on the team understands what they are doing.
Conflict management skills should be a mandatory requirement.
Domain Knowledge
In order to assign the right resource for the right job, managers must have a good understanding of the skillset.
A resource manager who has no expertise in engineering will face resource management issues if they work for an engineering company. To get clarity, they need domain knowledge.
Proactive Planning
Each project manager strives to complete them within budget and time. This makes planning ahead a crucial aspect.
Resource managers must be proactive in order to meet the demand. They must be able to quickly make calculated decisions to implement the correct resourcing treatment in order to guarantee resource availability for the project.
Negotiation Skills
Resource management is a challenging job that presents a variety of challenges to the resource manager.
As an example, a project manager requested a technical employee with advanced skills. Managers must convince project owners that a certain skill is lacking and that it would be expensive to hire a replacement.
In these situations, managers need to be able to negotiate effectively in order for the project owner's approval.
Risk Management
What happens if a resource has unplanned, prolonged leaves? What happens when there is attrition that was not planned? The project may come to an end.
These situations are easier to handle if they have a backup plan. Projects will always have risks. Resource managers must, therefore, improve their risk management and forward-planning skills to keep projects moving.
Conclusion
Six best practices for IT resource management can ensure success in any organization or project.
Once the team members are involved at different stages, the process will flow smoothly. A top-down/bottom-up integrated approach also enhances transparency and cooperation. Remote hiring is also essential to any modern organization.
Hiring remote developers, for example, is a good way to access a wider pool of talent.
