Five Tips for Better Resource Scheduling

Project management comprises of many essential things that form the base pillar. One of them is a resource. Resources are all the necessary items you need while running a project. They form an integral part of the project. They are present in every stage of the project, including the planning, scheduling of the project, and, most importantly, during the execution. Handling resources and using them carefully is one of the most important jobs of a project manager. So, for managing the resources, you need a proper sound method.

What is resource handling?

Resource handling is one of the most important aspects of resource management, where you identify and coordinate all the resources needed during the project lifetime. In resource scheduling, you schedule the time duration of each task in the project based on the requirement and availability of the resources. For keeping the project on schedule, you need to keep a balance between the availability of resources and the working capacity of the team. With the help of resource scheduling, you can easily set the time duration for each task in the project. Besides this, you can also avoid under allocation and over-allocation of resources contributing to the profitability of the company and keep your stakeholders satisfied. 

Benefits 

Resource scheduling allows smart distribution of resources throughout the project. It enables you to identify the availability of the resources and match it with the capabilities and select the best-suited team member to execute the task. Based on reports and analysis of the past projects, resource scheduling lets you make a better time estimation for the present project. It provides one of the best ways to measure your project schedule. For figuring out the capacity and demands of the project, resource scheduling helps you better plan for the future project. It helps you practice smart capacity planning to reduce the over-allocation of resources and increase productivity with great profits. 

Risk and mistakes in resource scheduling

While preparing a resource schedule, you ought to commit certain mistakes. So, here are some of the preventable mistakes which you must keep in mind:

1. Unclear Deadlines and Duties

Timelines are essential in resource scheduling. Unclear deadlines and duties make the project slow. If the team members are unable to complete the deliverables within the defined timeline, the productivity of the company will slow down. It is necessary to define a clear deadline and duties to the team members while defining the resources. 

2. Weak Risk Management

Resources are vulnerable and inconsistent. It is better to have a backup plan ready to avoid the risks. Certain factors like team member take leaves, weather conditions restricting the deliveries of the key product components, lack of financial resources, and budget approval that contributes to the hurdle in the project management. With a backup plan ready, you can easily get over these hurdles. 

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3. Inflexibility

Bake in extra days around the delivery dates of resources to reduce inflexibility. Sometimes project team manager pulls off members from other project manager’s teams. It indicates that they have sudden or shifting priorities that lower the availability of resources. Having extra days around delivery can help avoid such conditions.

4. Failure to Plan for Dependencies and Contingencies 

Past project experience helps a lot in dealing with the present and future hurdles of the project. A project manager must be capable of dealing with different issues like how to handle delays, competitor strategies, rising in the commodities price, client’s behavior and motivation, international issues such as issues relating to import, export or tariffs, exchange duties, etc. Based on the previous experiences and the nature and kind of project, a manager can define dependencies and contingencies.  

Tips for Great Resource Scheduling

If you are facing problems while scheduling your resources, here are some tips to help you perform better resource scheduling. 

1. Prepare a list of tasks

The first step for resource scheduling is listing the tasks. Based on the tasks you will perform and their time duration, you can figure out what resources you will need and in what capacity. The more you know the necessary tasks for project completion, easy it becomes to schedule your resources. 

2. Be Aware of Constraints

There are certain constraints, such as time, scope, and cost, which are the major aspects of resource scheduling. Based on the knowledge of previous project experience, you can easily define how these factors may impact your resources and project and prepare a better resource schedule. 

3. Determine how many resources you need

Resource scheduling is all about determining how much resources you need in every task of the project. The first step of it is preparing a list of the tasks, and identifying, what type of resources you need, how much resources each task will need. You can also express it in terms of the time duration. The knowledge of these different aspects will help you better schedule your resources. 

4. Control Availability of Resources

To control the future availability of resources, you must know the capacity you consist of. To do this, determine the time duration of your team members working. Knowledge of your capacity and available resources helps you in better planning your resources. 

5. Assign wisely

After identifying all the tasks, constraints, the resources you need, and their availability, the final step is assigning your resources. Knowledge of all these factors will help structure better schedule resources to avoid the wastage of the funds. Resource scheduling works a great deal in determining the success of your project and a fruitful future of your organization.

These tips will help you in building a better resource schedule to check on types of resources, availability of the resources, the quantity of resource a task need, and the time duration. Tracking these factors helps you identify whether you are under-spending or overspending your resources. Resource scheduling not only helps in the success of the project but also helps your company to grow higher.