Project Management: Resource Factors

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Project ManagementResource Factors

• November 8, 2001
• MBA 253
• The Pegasus Group
• Mario Rosso
• Phil Randolph

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Basic Resource/Project Management Tools

• Gantt Charts
• Program Evaluation Review Technique
• PERT
• Critical Path Method
• CPM

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Gantt Charts

• Developed in 1917 by Henry L. Gantt
• Purpose to better understand and depict the
  progress of an organization in attaining certain
  objectives.
• Primarily used to depict how time is utilized
• Depicts start and end dates of activities as well
  as the duration of the entire project
• Depicts how activities are interrelated

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Gantt Charts
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PERT

• Requires project planners to coordinate the
  entire project in terms of activities and
  milestones
• Each activity contains
• Expected beginning and end dates
• Duration of the activity (number of days)
• Resource usage for each activity
• Personnel requirements
• Equipment requirements

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PERT-Calculating Expected Times for completion
of activities

• Requires predicting
• Optimistic completion times
• Most likely completion times
• Pessimistic completion times
• O 4M P te
• 6
• If O6weeks, M8weeks, and P16weeks then
• 6 32 16 te 9 weeks
• 6

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PERT

• Once estimates are created a PERT chart can be
  created depicting how the activities relate in
  terms of respective time estimates, sequence of
  execution, and relative resource consumption
• At this point, adjustments can be made through
  CPM to ensure proper functioning of the project

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PERT
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CPM

• Allows project planners to identify which path
  along either the Gantt or PERT chart determines
  the overall length or duration of the project
• Determines which activities are critical to
  complete the project on time
• Determines which activities can sustain reduced
  resource input and longer durations

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CPM

• The path containing activities with the longest
  durations is the Critical Path
• Critical activities must be closely monitored as
  any delays will increase the duration of the
  entire project
• Resources can be diverted from other non-critical
  activities to critical activities to ensure
  proper completion or to shorten the time of the
  project.

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PERT and CPM
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Resources Project Management Objectives

• Goal of project management
• Reduce overall duration
• Maximize usage of resources
• Traditional project management only considered
  time factors
• The availability and allocation resources must be
  considered if a project manager is to gain
  control of a project and see it to its optimal
  conclusion.

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Resource Management

• The planning, allocating and scheduling of
  resources to tasks, generally including manpower,
  machine (plant and equipment), money, and
  materials.
• Resource Management typically covers resource
  allocation and its impact on schedules and
  budgets, as well as resource leveling and
  smoothing.

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Resources

• Money
• Manpower
• Machine (equipment)
• Materials

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Categories of Resources

• Renewable
• Constrained on a day-to-day basis
• Ex. Labor
• Non-Renewable
• Constrained to a particular project
• Ex. Raw materials
• Doubly Constrained
• Limited to a single project allocated on a
  day-to-day basis
• Ex. Cash

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Resource Allocation

• Assignment of people, equipment, facilities, or
  materials to a project
• Projects cannot be completed on schedule if
  adequate resources are not provided
• Key task for project manager
• WBS

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Work Breakdown Structure

• Defines activities and resources required to
  accomplish a project
• Planning tool
• Helps compare actual to baseline

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The Resource Allocation Problem

• Determining optimal trade-offs between
• Available resources
• Start dates
• Durations of project activities
• If time and cost/resources are fixed, PM loses
  ability to make trade-offs

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Resource Loading

• Calculate how much each task needs of each
  resource for the activitys duration
• PM must ensure resources are available in the
  required amounts when needed
• Problem occurs when resources are under or over
  allocated

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Over Allocation of Resources

• More resources loaded onto an activity than are
  available
• Typical in environments with multiple projects
  and/or activities drawing from same resource pool
• Requires trade-offs be made
• Crashing a project
• Adding additional resources to an activity to
  expedite it

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Resource Leveling

• Rescheduling activities so resource requirements
  do not exceed resource limits
• Project completion date can move out in the
  process
• Shift activities with float to reduce variations
  in resource loads
• Promotes a smoother distribution of resources

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Resource-Constrained Scheduling

• Scientific method for optimizing resource
  allocation
• Heuristic
• rules of thumb
• Optimization
• Mathematical/Linear Programming

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Thank you for your time