How to Ensure Effective Project Resource Planning in 2024

In this article, you’ll learn how effective resource planning can help you drive efficiency, boost productivity, and scale up your operations.

Ask any project manager what the first step of a successful project is, and you’re bound to hear something about the importance of accurate planning.

The process of planning resources helps address some of the most important questions a project manager can have:

• How can we finish this project on time and within budget?
• How can I deliver that without overworking my team?

Resource planning helps organizations ensure that all their resources, both human and non-human, are optimally used across all operational areas. For a company without a proper well-defined resource plan in place, making any decision will feel like wandering around in the dark.

In today’s article, we’ll explore the significant benefits of resource planning and showcase how managing resources efficiently can help businesses maximize workforce potential and boost profit margins.

Resource Planning: Definition

On a basic level, resource planning involves understanding the requirements of upcoming projects and reacting accordingly through proper identification, recruitment and allocation of best-fit resources, such as human resources, equipment, assets, and facilities, to said projects at the right time and cost.

However, if you want to fuel sustained business growth, you’ll need to be more thorough with your planning and think proactively rather than reactively when it comes to resource management. You’ll need to build an in-depth knowledge of future projects, create segmented talent pools based around specific skills and understand the costs associated with deploying different resources. 

Let’s say your company has a software development project in the pipeline received from a global client. Here, the process of effective resource utilization would look something like this.

Project managers will look after the client’s requirements, assess the scope of the project and evaluate the resource demand. They will then request resources from resource managers to fulfill this demand. Resource managers will assess the new requirement, find out the gap between the demand and the available workforce and look for different ways to fill this gap. This will include hiring new workers from the market or redistributing the resources available within the company. 

Therefore, resource planning requires the ability to plan, allocate, schedule and effectively utilize available resources.

There are two types of resource planning in businesses:

• Operational resource planning addresses the day-to-day business activities and operations as per organizational guidelines. It covers everything, from management of FTE and contingency resources to forecasting billable and total utilization.
• Strategic resource planning is usually undertaken by senior management to decide the future direction. It covers the entire organization, looking into the overall long-term resourcing strategy. It can change drastically based on individual priorities. For example, if an IT firm is planning to outsource a temporary requirement, the resourcing strategy will shift from FTE to contingent staff for IT infrastructure improvements. 

Importance of Resource Planning

Effective resource planning provides a reliable basis to deliver projects on time and within budget. Here is a list of top five ways comprehensive resource planning can make a difference in the project management landscape:

1. Bridging the capacity gap

   Intelligent resource planning helps managers identify the excess or shortage of resources through a demand vs. supply gap analysis. If there is an excess of resources, project timelines can be brought forward. A shortfall of resources can be mitigated by providing training/upskilling programs or hiring a permanent or contingent workforce based on project duration. This helps with the timely fulfillment of the project and eliminates the risks of last-minute hiring.

2. Minimizing project resource costs

   Effective resource planning enables managers to make data-driven decisions to eliminate the deployment of over/under-skilled resources on project tasks. This allows managers to implement suitable resourcing measures at the right time. For instance, they can allocate a cost-effective global or local resource to a task. They can even conduct planned hiring to address any shortages and create the right resource mix to better manage the project budget.

3. Maximizing profitable resource utilization

   Structured resource planning establishes clear utilization targets for each resource category, be it permanent, contingent, full-time, or part-time. This clarity allows managers to compare the actual time spent by team members against initial estimates and take corrective actions as needed. For example, if specialists are spending excessive time on non-billable tasks, managers can quickly reallocate them to revenue-generating activities.

4. Ensuring competent resource allocation

   Comprehensive resource planning helps managers gain a centralized view of all employee-related information, such as their skill sets, cost rate, location, and resource capacity. This visibility helps with assigning the right resources to the right project at the right time and cost, thus ensuring competent resource allocation. Simultaneously it reduces the risk of errors and delays, thereby enhancing project execution and performance.

5. Delivering project on time and within budget

   Efficient resource planning ensures that all project resourcing requirements are identified and fulfilled. Additionally, it ensures competent resource allocation by matching resource competencies with appropriate project tasks. This helps improve employee productivity, which contributes to the timely completion of the project within budget.

Common Mistakes of Resource Planning

Without effective resource planning, a project can suffer significant setbacks, leading to compromised quality and a reduced ROI. Here is a list of five most common mistakes project and resource managers can make in this area:

1. Using spreadsheets for resource planning

   Despite numerous limitations, many organizations still use spreadsheets to plan their resources. And even though Excel resource planning approach is easily accessible and widely used, in fact, it is rather limiting and tiresome to maintain. Additionally, the lack of forecasting capabilities makes it impossible to forward plan resource demand, which could lead to project delays and costly last-minute hires.

2. Planning resources without full visibility

   When managers allocate resources without having total visibility into their attributes like skills, competencies or availability, it becomes rather challenging to assign the right resources to suitable projects at the proper time.

3. Lacking resource forecasting for pipeline projects

   Resource planning for future projects often gets overlooked. Ideally, it should start well before the deal is signed, after the opportunity reaches a certain probability of closure so that there is sufficient lead time to address resource requirements.

4. Not maintaining the right mix of permanent and contingent workforce

   Project requirements tend to be fulfilled using full-time employees as it’s perceived to be a more cost-effective solution. However, if a company hires a niche resource for a short duration, it could become challenging to redeploy them after the completion of the assignment. Hence, for short-term assignments, a contingent workforce could present a less expensive option rather than hiring full-time resources.

5. Allocating under or over-skilled resources to the projects

   One of the common mistakes of resource planning in project management is assigning under or overqualified resources to tasks. Resources that are under-skilled for the job cause project delays. Over-skilled resources, on the other hand, spike project costs. In order to avoid decreased employee engagement and loss of productivity tasks should be assigned based on employees’ skills and interests.

5 Steps to Effective Resource Planning

Here are five strategies for managers to ensure efficient project resource planning:

1. Assess and audit your project resources

   In the ideal world, managers start the resource planning process by fully understanding the project requirements, including the project scope, objectives, timelines, and budget. Such initial evaluation helps managers determine whether the existing skills of the workforce align with the overall project goals, thus avoiding any last-minute troubles and ensuring successful project delivery.

   Next, resource managers through a capacity vs. demand gap analysis meticulously assess shortages or excesses of resources. In case of shortages, organizations may facilitate re-training/upskilling resources, juggling project priorities or hiring a permanent/contingent workforce. On the other hand, when the resources are in excess, managers can potentially bring forward project dates.

2. Allocate the right resources to the right project

   Effective resource allocation is a critical step in the planning process. Managers can strategically allocate resources based on their availability, skills, competencies, location, costs, and interests. They can also create the right resource mix of senior/junior employees or contingent/permanent workforce, depending on the project requirements.

   To effectively allocate skilled resources to projects, managers should consider the following guidelines that will help assign tasks effectively:

   • Tasks should be assigned based on the team member’s strengths.
   • Tasks should be assigned based on the team member’s availability.
   • Tasks should be assigned with clear guidelines and expectations so that the team knows exactly what is expected of them, and how they can be successful in achieving the project goal.

3. Monitor and optimize project resources

   Once resources have been allocated to project tasks, it’s important for managers to regularly track and monitor their utilization. This provides valuable insights into resource efficiency and enables timely adjustments to prevent instances of under or over-utilization.

   In case of underutilization, managers can bring forth project timelines. On the other hand, to mitigate overloading, managers can implement optimization techniques such as resource leveling and smoothing, which will ensure timely project delivery within the budget.

4. Conduct a post-project analysis

   Upon project completion, it is crucial for managers to conduct a thorough post-project analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of the resource plans and identify areas for future improvement.

   With insights into questions like whether resources were allocated efficiently, if project deadlines were met as planned, if any unexpected circumstances arose, organizations can refine and enhance future resource planning efforts by identifying areas of success and potential improvement.

5. Use advanced resource planning software

   Modern resource planning software provides comprehensive visibility into companies’ most valuable resources – the employees, including their skills, experience, capacity, and availability. This helps managers identify and assign the most suitable resources with the right skills to projects, ensuring optimal resource utilization.

   Project management tools help busy project managers create and follow a fleshed-out resource management plan. These tools will help you create a resource schedule and work toward achievable due dates.

Ensuring Proper Resource Planning with Kickidler

Summarizing today’s findings, even though spreadsheets and DIY solutions (including keeping everything in your head) can get the job done, they can also easily become a nightmare. As your team grows, you will be in dire need of digital resource planning tools.

An example of such software is Kickidler. It provides real-time business intelligence reporting and analytics to enhance decision-making. With its configurable dashboards and custom reports, the software empowers managers to slice and dice relevant information effortlessly and equips them with valuable insights through visually intuitive graphs and reports. 

Kickidler’s benefits include:

1. Multi-project organization features. You can plan different projects in one tool and have a central view of how the allocation looks as a whole. You can even plan resources using the Agile project management features that the software offers, from planning out sprints to visualizing timelines and roadmaps.
2. Real-time updates. Updates happen in real time, which means that as soon as something changes and project timelines change, everybody on the team is notified of the new resource plan. 
3. Full-scale overview of team schedules and resource availability. The solution helps visualize the entire team’s availability on one screen and decide how to assign (or reassign, if necessary) each task to a resource based on their skill set and capacity. Managers can get an at-a-glance sense of key information on the employees, such as their daily project schedule, job titles, and work hours.
4. Project reporting tools for smarter decision-making. Kickidler’s essential feature is its reporting dashboard where precise analysis of project vitals is presented.
5. Active management of work schedule calendars. Managers have the ability to track the hourly and daily availability of individual resources. Be sure to take into account global or regional time differences.
6. Workload allocation review. Checking on workload is a daily part of keeping your resources well allocated. If all the work is being laid on the shoulders of only a few team members, while the others are idle, then you’re going to need to reallocate your resources.
7. Productivity monitoring through resource reports. When you’re watching your resources in real time and the project’s success is on the line, you’re going to need to make decisions swiftly. Reporting features of Kickidler project management software help managers with its reports on resource allocation, as well as task progress by individual employees. 

Conclusion

Chances are, if you still use spreadsheets for project planning, you’re not maximizing your team’s time or their productivity. And that’s exactly how project deadlines and budgets get thrown off track. 

It’s imperative to implement effective resource planning to utilize the workforce to its maximum potential. When resources are planned efficiently, it helps businesses manage risks, reduce delays, optimize resource utilization, etc.

With a tool like Kickidler, planning your team’s time and allocating your resources can save you up to four hours a week!

But the real win comes from keeping every team member on the same page. They will know what projects they’re working on, when they need to be finished, and what the overall project pipeline looks like.

And by implementing the processes we’ve described in today’s article, businesses can manage their resources intelligently, enhancing project outcomes, improving profitability and increasing client satisfaction.

Unlock the full potential of your business through strategic resource planning with Kickidler!