Streamlining resource planning and optimizing utilization is vital to project success. Understanding the role of each asset and mapping their profile through a resource management software is critical to enhancing their output.
Managers have greater control over progress, while being able to perform course correction seamlessly. Through the integration of technology and strategic planning, organizations can boost resource output and productivity for better project outcomes.
Let us review the top strategies leveraged by the leading project managers to managing resources effectively.
1. Using resource management software for all projects
It is vital to use a robust resource management software for all projects, to better manage key areas such as forecasting, documentation, progress, and monitoring. Resource management software solutions help bridge the gap between planning and execution by allowing complete control over booking, allocation, resource planning, resource pool analysis, and requests handling.
2. Improving forecasting for better resource management
Forecasting is a vital planning stage function that helps in predicting the requirement for resources across projects. It also helps ensure adequate availability of resources to avoid the risk of shortages for seamless delivery. By improving forecasting, through leveraging data analytics or using a resource capacity planning tool, firms can lower project costs and improve output efficiency.
3. Strengthening revenue-focus through financial mapping
Effective financial mapping is vital to long-term project success, which is why managers should focus on closely understanding the role of resource budgeting and revenue impact. Assets across domains, can be mapped for their revenue-based output and impact on project profitability. Resources that are output-negative can be retrained and replaced with other teams.
4. Documenting resources for end-to-end tracking
For projects to move seamlessly from stage to stage, it is important to document resource output. This can help managers gain key insights into productivity, allowing them to allocate new resources to ensure effective delivery. Teams can track project progress through an ERP solution and communicate directly for updating and reporting. Managers can also make streamlined decisions on new resource hiring based on domain-specific requirements.
5. Creating dashboards for insight generation
Having the right dashboards in place for resource output analysis is vital to enhancing their productivity. Managers can drive deep insights from the data captured about resource performance and make strategic hiring decisions based on competency analyses. Dashboards also allow for faster resource matching for projects, based on their core strengths, functional expertise, and experience.
In conclusion
Key strategies in resource planning help optimize execution for product manufacturers, professional services firms, and project management firms across the board. By following the above guidelines closely, firms can soft-book/hard-book, allocate seamlessly, and track resource pools throughout the project lifecycle.
TouchBase-Resource Management provides the right set of customized features to provide complete visibility into resource utilization, productivity, and effectiveness. Companies can enhance project performance by leveraging TouchBase-Resource Management for their projects.
