James Brown Importance of Resource Mana 1152660

Get Ready! MS Project 2010

The Importance of Resource ManagementJames C. BrownPgMP, PMP, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP, PMI-ACP, OPM3 ProfessionalDuPont Pioneer

2012 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.


Intelligence, Integrity and Innovation

IIL-OB2010Project Orange Belt 2010 2011 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Getting Started with Project 20102-1 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:The efficient and effective deployment for an organization's resources when they are needed.Resources may include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology. What is Resource Management?



So just what is Resource Management?

While this presentation does focus mainly on the people part of resource management, there is much more. Resource management is all encompassing to include these and other resources.

Webinar Learning Series1-2IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Simplistic Example (Moving)



Lets first show how many Project Managers focus on building their schedules which is mainly built by identifying task and perhaps who may be assigned to perform those tasks.

Here is an example of a schedule that most project managers may relate to. In this case, it is a very simple project plan that was put together to support one of my relocations during my career. Webinar Learning Series1-3IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Simplistic Example (Critical Path)

Critical Path2012 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.


Now we add the critical path so that we can see what activities are at highest risk of impacting the relocation completion date. Notice that I have a critical path. Now I know the activities I must complete in order to relocate to my new location to meet the needs of my new employer. It looks like a very good schedule to me!

Or does it?

Webinar Learning Series1-4IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Simplistic Example (Upset Spouse)



But how does it look now?

While it looks good to me, Lorri (my wife) will disagree since you will notice that she has the bulk of the work to do. As she can attest from previous moves, she is overworked. Did the critical path from the last slide tell me this information? Webinar Learning Series1-5IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Resource Leveling (aka Smoothing)The main objective is to smooth resource requirements by shifting slack activities beyond periods of peak requirements. Simplistic Resource Management



Taking into account the natural ebbs and flows of any project, a project manager should spend time to really understand the resource timing needs. This is critical when a resource is a shared resource across two or more projects.Webinar Learning Series1-6IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:The critical chain is the sequence of both precedence- and resource-dependent elements that prevents a project from being completed in a shorter time, given finite resources. If resources are always available in unlimited quantities, then a project's critical chain is identical to its critical path.

Critical Chain



Where scheduling classes and now with more advanced scheduling software, more emphasis is being placed on resource loading. Projects and organizations are more complex than ever, so looking at the concept of a projects critical chain is becoming more important.Webinar Learning Series1-7IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Resource Overload



Resource Management is becoming so important to many organizations that now many are generating dashboard views just to look at resource forecast. So in addition to time, cost and schedule, which resources certainly affect, many organizations are peering directly into the resource availability including availability of key skillsets.Webinar Learning Series1-8IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Resource Overload



For example, notice the red line placed horizontally in this view shows the maximum availability of hours that each resource is available, but you can see the leveling of these two resources needs to occur. One is certainly overloaded while there is availability of the other resource.Webinar Learning Series1-9IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Critical chain is used as an alternative to critical path analysis. The main features that distinguish the critical chain from the critical path are:The use of (often implicit) resource dependencies. Implicit means that they are not included in the project network but have to be identified by looking at the resource requirements.The identification and insertion of buffers: Project bufferFeeding buffersResource buffers (most companies are reluctant to give more resources)Why is Critical Chain Important?2012 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.


I recommend that project managers who are experiencing difficulties in hitting their delivery dates within their projects begin to look at the critical chain in more detail. We have been taught very well at adding buffers to schedule timelines based upon various dependencies related to timing of activities (for example, leads and lags), but many times we overlook the same importance of adding buffers to schedule timelines due to resource dependencies especially when resources are shared across several projects.Webinar Learning Series1-10IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Monitoring project progress and health by monitoring the consumption rate of the buffers rather than individual task performance to schedule.Aggregates the large amounts of safety time added to tasks within a project into the buffers in order to protect due-date performance, and to avoid wasting this safety time through bad multi-tasking, student syndrome, Parkinson's Law, and poorly synchronized integration.

Why is Critical Chain Important?2012 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.


However, we must also be careful that we do not fall into the trap of adding buffers to each individual task to ensure that we meet our timelines and here is why.

Discuss a trip to airport: Fly each week and normally leave house 1.5 hour before flight. Now buffer each step find keys; perhaps wife moved them 2) traffic time; road construction, accident 3) park car; garage full 4) check bags; lines at ticket counter 5) security line; how many lines are open, how many families or casual travelers in front of me.

Bad multi-tasking - explanation coming up Student syndrome beginning of course we know when something is due, but we work on it the weekend for it is due.Parkinsons Law work will expand into the time allowed11 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Critical chain project management uses buffer management instead of earned value management to assess the performance of a project. Some project managers feel that the earned value management technique is misleading, because it does not distinguish progress on the project constraint (i.e., on the critical chain) from progress on non-constraints (i.e., on other paths).Why is Critical Chain Important?



So why not just use Earned Value? One issue is that Earned Value calculates based upon the progress of the entire project which can be misleading. For example, you could be looking at the values calculated based upon Earned Value formulas, but still have potential issues on activities or tasks on the critical path or on activities or tasks where there are resource conflicts.Webinar Learning Series1-12IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Business instead of busynessPeople need slack to be effectiveTask switching reduces effectiveness dramaticallyHow long does it take you to get into a flow?How many things do you work on?Task Switching



13As Project Managers, are we becoming out teams enemy when developing schedules and assigning resources? Do you sometimes hear people complain or brag about how many tasks they are assigned to? 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Multi-tasking causes delays

Instead of multi-tasking, use small units of workYou want work to flow as fast as possibleMore efficient transfers to next personMulti-tasking



14Here is an example of why multi-tasking can cause delays. Look at task A. It should take 10 days to complete Task A, but if we interrupt Task A, with starting on Task B and then perhaps Task C, then Task A will not be finished until 20 days later. 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Clark and Wheelwright (1992) studied multi-tasking and determined that when working on more than two tasks, a persons time spent on value-adding work drops rapidly.

Multi-tasking



15There have been actual studies which support the theory that once a person has to concentrate on more than two tasks, their productivity drops. Why do we see the optimal number of tasks in this study as being 2 tasks? Simply because if we hit a stopping point on one task, we have another to work on while the issue with the first is worked out. 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:To do two things at once is to do neither.Publilius Syrus (a dead Roman)When we multi-task, execution of each individual task takes 20-30% longer.The loss is greater on complex tasks.Context Switching Time Adds UpSource: Human Perception and Performance in Journal of Experimental Psychology, August 2001.



16An even larger study shows that when we multi-task, we take 20-30% longer on tasks. A Zen Master once said "The hunter who chases two rabbits, catches neither one."

2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:With traditional project management methods, 30% of lost time and resources are typically consumed by wasteful techniques such as bad multi-tasking, student syndrome, in-box delays, and lack of prioritization.Resource Vacuum



As Project Managers, we must be aware of this resource vacuum that we could create if we are not paying attention and using the correct methodologies. This is an extreme example of bad multi-tasking. On our projects, we might get distracted while multi-tasking and causing harm to the overall deliverables either by missing deadlines or delivering the wrong things.Webinar Learning Series1-17IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Strategic resource planning is a plan for using available resources, for example human resources, especially in the near term, to achieve goals for the future. Strategic Resource Planning



So why are the previous points so important? Because resource planning is strategic! I am seeing more and more leadership executives focusing in this area.18 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:A good strategic plan has two parts: First, there is the basic allocation decision and secondly, there are contingency mechanisms. The basic allocation decision is the choice of which items to fund in the plan, and what level of funding it should receive, and which to leave unfunded: the resources are allocated to some items, not to others.

Strategic Resource Planning2012 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.


So with resource planning being strategic, we must help leadership with determining where resources are allocated.Webinar Learning Series1-19IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:There are two contingency mechanisms: There is a priority ranking of items excluded from the plan, showing which items to fund if more resources should become available.There is a priority ranking of some items included in the plan, showing which items should be sacrificed if total funding must be reduced.

Strategic Resource Planning2012 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.


As Project Managers, we need to ensure that we have contingency resource plans for those items that are excluded but could be included if additional resources become available. And just as important, we need to have contingency resource plans to show which items should be stopped if total funding is reduced.Webinar Learning Series1-20IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:Ultimate Goal2012 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.



And why do we spend so much time developing, updating and monitoring resource plans?Webinar Learning Series1-21IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:

The Elusive Efficient Frontier2012 International Institute for Learning, Inc., All rights reserved.


It is to reach the ultimate goal of reaching the Efficient Frontier where we can apply the best mix of resources to deliver the most valuable projects.Webinar Learning Series1-22IIL-Webinar 2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:We invite you to take a closer look at what we can accomplish together. Please visit iil.com or contact [email protected] to learn more about our training, consulting, coaching, customized courses and other pathways for professional development.

Intelligence Integrity Innovation

Connect with Us:facebook.com/IIL.Inc bit.ly/IILgoogle @IILGlobal youtube.com/IILGlobalbit.ly/IILlinkedin allpm.com



2009 International Institute for Learning, Inc.Participants Notes:

Documents

James Brown Importance of Resource Mana 1152660