Fundamentals of Efficient Resource Allocation in Project Management: How Resource Management Software Can Assist

No projects can be delivered without resources. Resources are the prime engine of any project, and the success of any project depends of resource efficiency and productivity, especially if we’re talking about multi-project environments with a shared resource pool. Efficient resource allocation is a guarantee of smooth and timely project delivery. Let’s figure out how to ensure that the right resources work on the rights projects and tasks at the right time and what hurdles can be on the way to flawless resource management and how to resolve them.

The role of resource allocation in project management

Resource allocation is an essential part of any project management strategy. To put it simply, it’s a process of assigning tasks to employees based on projects’ and tasks’ priorities and resources capacity, availability, skills, and experience. The main goal of resource allocation is to make the right people do the right tasks at the right time to ensure smooth project delivery. 

What are the most common resource allocation challenges?

Though a plenty of resource allocation challenges can happen at all the stages of the project life cycle, let’s distinguish the most common ones:

Bridging the demand for resources coming from projects with available capacity

Examining your resource pool is an essential step in project planning and further resource allocation. Being sure that you have enough resources to staff the required projects is a guarantee of their on-time completion and prevention of extra expenditures because of last-minute hiring. 

Coping with changing project requirements

If project’s requirements are unexpectedly changed which results in adding extra tasks to the schedule, this may significantly affect resource workload. In this case, a project manager should either control and prevent project requirement changes or implement some resource optimization techniques to deliver the required scope of work with available resources. 

Collecting and managing resource-related information: experience, skills, location, and other attributes

In enterprises with hundreds of projects and thousands of resources involved, keeping track of all essential data is extremely difficult. At the same time, efficient resource allocation is impossible without managing and matching the resources’ and tasks’ attributes. 

Real-time tracking of resource availability and performance

Even if resources are properly allocated from the first glance, some problems may occur in the middle of the process, at the project execution stage. This is why it’s so important to track not only project progress but also resource performance in real time to make sure resources are effectively handling their duties.  

Timely detection of bottlenecks and optimizing the workload

A resource bottleneck occurs as a result of overload of even one employee and its harmful effect spreads throughout the whole project team blocking the workflow. Timely detection, and even better – prevention, of bottlenecks is a key to smooth project flow and timely delivery. 

Uncertainty and risks

Any employee may fall ill, and a project manager cannot predict things like this. But what any project manager can and should do is to be prepared for uncertainty and be able to mitigate risks. Capacity planning, project prioritization, and proper buffer management are the examples of how to get prepared for uncertainty in project management. 

What is efficient resource allocation?

Efficient resource allocation is using your resources’ potential to the full for the project’s sake. The efficiency of resource allocation is difficult to evaluate but at the same time, if they’re allocated improperly, you’ll notice some signs that will show you that you need to change something. 

What are the signs of inefficient resource allocation?

Overloaded and idle resources

Uneven workload is one of the first signs of bad resource allocation. It happens when some resources are overloaded, while others become idle waiting for their tasks to be completed by predecessors. The more overloaded the employee, the more unbalanced workload through the whole resource pool. 

Unmotivated employees

People lose motivation and become disengaged if they’re constantly assigned to the tasks that don’t match their skills and experience levels. Too difficult tasks can overwhelm inexperienced employees while too simple tasks can disengage competent and experienced resources. 

Constant errors and need for rework

Multi-tasking and overload are one of the main reasons for errors. Unfocused employees can’t do their job at a high-quality level and regularly do mistakes. This, in turn, increases waiting times and can lead to overload in other resource groups and result in missed deadlines. 

Missed due dates

If milestone due dates are regularly missed, this is one of the most critical signs of bad resource allocation in project management. This means that resources can’t cope with their job, which may result in missed project due dates and cost overrun. 

How a resource management software solution can simplify and improve resource allocation

Let’s have a look at some of the benefits resource allocation software can provide project managers with:

It helps plan resource capacity before starting your projects.

Predictive analytics automatically bridges the demand with available capacity within minutes, which contributes to more efficient and faster project planning with confidence in project success. 

It helps assign tasks to resources based on their competence and experience levels.

Machine learning tools easily detect coincidences and simplify resource allocation by suggesting the best matches between resources and tasks taking all related data into account. 

It lets you track real-time resource performance.

Project managers can be always in the know of the states of their projects and the efficiency of their resources by examining the analytics that a resource management software solution provides in handy graphs, boards, or tables,  

It helps you keep your workflow smooth even if project requirements change.

Resource management tools adjust project schedules and resource allocation in real time if any changes to the project plan happen. 

With its help, you can test resource allocation decisions.

Some resource management tools like Epicflow have AI-powered features like scenario analysis, which helps project managers test resource allocation and project management decisions and see their consequences in the future. Therefore, this contributes to stressless delivery because a project manager is always confident in the reasonableness of every project management action. In fact, Epicflow has all the functionality described above, so if you’re looking for a resource management tool, this innovative software solution can be a good choice for your company.

Conclusion

Efficient resource allocation is a cornerstone of effective project management and successful delivery. Correctly allocated resources can deliver excellent results and contribute to flawless project outcomes, while bad resource allocation can lead to cost overrun and missed due dates. The best recommendation one can get to improve resource allocation at an organization is to adopt a resource management software solution which will significantly improve resource allocation and enhance resource productivity, contributing to stressless delivery of projects.