Resource Plan: The Ultimate Guide to Resource Planning

Desktop and online resource management software share many features. This can make it difficult to choose which is the right solution for your project. They both allow managers a high-level view of the project resources. This makes it easier to quickly view the resources needed and provide just the right amount.

You can also generate reports with both a desktop and online application. For example, project status reports are critical to make sure you’re not overspending. They’re also a communication vehicle to present to project stakeholders and keep them updated on progress.

The main advantage of desktop-based software is that it’s not at the mercy of the strength of your internet connection. If your internet connection is severed or the server is under maintenance, then your online tool will not function at all.

Online has other advantages that desktops can never achieve. The major difference is that an online resource management tool is going to have real-time data, which is crucial when managing resources to keep the project running smoothly.

Also, online resource management software can be accessed anywhere and at any time, if there’s online connectivity. That means teams that are distributed across the globe have access to the tool and can even work together. It also means that all your project documentation is centrally located and also available when and where you need it.

ProjectManager is an award-winning project management software that’s designed to identify, organize and monitor your resources with robust online Gantt charts, real-time dashboards and one-click reporting.

Start a free 30-day trial of ProjectManager and follow these simple steps to make a resource plan that will allow you to schedule resources, estimate costs and keep track of your project budget.

Create a project by clicking “New” and select “Project” and a window will pop up. Then name the project and decide whether you’d like to import a file or start a new project from scratch.

Next, onboard team members by inviting them to the project. Add their names, email and role in the project. They’ll receive an email with a link. Once they follow that, they’re in and ready to start tracking their work.

Make sure you add your team members’ hourly pay rate when you invite them into your project. ProjectManager will use this value to automatically calculate the labor costs of tasks as team members log their hours.

As stated above, you can create a resource calendar using ProjectManager’s Gantt chart. Begin listing project tasks and details such as their name, due dates, estimated duration and costs using the grid on the left side. You can then assign them to team members and monitor their availability.

Add estimated start and end dates to populate the project timeline on the right side of the Gantt chart. Then, once you’ve listed all your project tasks and estimated their costs, you may set a project budget value, which is used to populate budget tracking dashboards. You can also collect all your tasks on the task list, kanban board, or project calendar view in our software.

Once the project starts, it’s crucial to balance your team’s workload using the workload management page. Here, there’s a color-coded chart that shows whether team members have too many or too few tasks. If needed, you can then reallocate their tasks from this page.

Monitoring their logged hours is how you make sure they’re adhering to the project plan, schedule and budget. Use timesheets to track your team’s work hours and their corresponding costs. Time updates automatically reflect throughout the software.

Calculating the cost of your resources is how you manage your budget. Keeping track of those costs is how you maintain your budget. One of the main advantages of using ProjectManager’s Gantt chart to manage a resource plan is its ability to compare cost estimates against actual project costs to monitor your project budget. You can also visualize this information using real-time dashboards.

Stakeholders are the people who are invested in the project. They will want to stay up-to-date on progress and performance. Generate reports on workload with a single click. Filter to show the data you want, then easily print or save as a PDF to share with your stakeholders.

That’s the makings of a solid resource management plan. Now you need to know how to actively manage your resources as your project progresses.

You can do this when you have visibility into resource availability and workload. Because work shifts from person to person, as people collaborate back and forth, work can easily end up on the shoulders of only a few key team members.

This can mean others are sitting idle waiting for them to reply or toss the work back. You need to be able to monitor those workflow management trends and be able to quickly reallocate idle resources. So how do you do this? There are four ways you can keep on top of the resources workload.

You need to be able to track the hourly and daily availability of individual resources, as well as track their planned holidays and vacations. Be sure to take into account global or regional time differences, as well as different global holidays that might differ from your home office holiday calendar.

You can also consult the planned versus actual progress of your overall project to get a head’s up if there’s a problem with resources. A Gantt progress bar should tell you how much progress is being made on a specific task according to the planned effort. You should also be able to see whether progress is made on individual tasks with shading on the larger task bars.

You should also be able to get a view of the whole project’s progress both by looking at a rolled-up view of the Gantt tasks or on a dashboard report. If you’re falling behind, usually moving around resources is a way to get back on track.

The team’s workload is another metric you’re going to need to keep close. 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.

Another way of looking at this is leveling your resources by ensuring that they are equally distributed across your team. Checking on workload is a daily part of keeping your resources well-allocated.

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. Use the reporting feature of your project management tool to produce reports on resource allocation, as well as task progress by an individual. It’s important to monitor resources regularly with deep dives into data to measure productivity KPIs like output and actual effort.

Remember, resource management is heavily linked to your scheduling and management of your project management schedule. These are different but complementary disciplines, and the more holistically you approach managing your resources, the more you’ll be able to act in a timely manner to keep your project moving toward success, on time and within budget.

Therefore, you want to have the right resource management tools to keep you informed of your resources while the project is in progress, whether that’s collecting data in an Excel spreadsheet or a more robust online PM tool. Using an online Gantt chart gives you a visual view of the project’s tasks, their durations, and whatever dependencies are linking one task to another, so you can note bottlenecks and easily reallocate resources to get the project back on track. Try ProjectManager today to take advantage of the best resource management tools on the market.

We’ve gathered the most frequently asked questions internet users make about resource planning so you can learn more about this important project management process.

Businesses, nonprofit organizations and even government agencies need resources to operate, which means there are countless resource planning applications across industries such as project management, manufacturing, construction and many others.

Resource planning is important because it helps you ensure your business or project won’t come to a halt because of a lack of resources and allows you to control costs to make it as profitable as possible. It also helps you develop a clear understanding of the resource requirements of your organization, the costs that will be incurred and the spending limits that you’ll need to track along the way.

Resource capacity planning is the process of measuring the resource capacity of an organization, which is the maximum amount of work that can be done with the resources that are currently available.

In project management, the resource capacity is then compared against the resource requirements of a project proposal to determine whether it’s feasible to complete it on time, within budget and meeting quality standards for project deliverables.

Resource capacity planning also helps manufacturing businesses understand whether they can manufacture the production volume that’s needed to meet the forecasted customer demand for a given period.

The term manufacturing resource planning refers to a computerized system that allows manufacturing businesses to manage resources such as labor, machinery, equipment and other tangible resources.

Some of the main functions of a manufacturing resource planning system include allowing you to make a production schedule, manage production inventories, monitor production capacity, track quality control procedures among other things.

Enterprise resource planning or ERP is software that helps businesses manage key aspects of their operations including production, accounting, customer relationship management, human resource management, payment processing and more.

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