Project resources are one of the important assets of the project. Without adequate resources, the project cannot be completed. Having resources alone is not enough. Managing them properly and effectively is the thing that matters. An effective management of project resources is the best way to complete all the project tasks at time. When the resources are made available and monitored properly, project deliverables can be prepared and delivered accordingly. Be it team resources, physical resources or both, they need to be effectively managed.
One thing to remember is that resource management is not any high-end scientific task. With some healthy approaches and a proper strategy, it can be dealt very efficiently. A good project manager is capable of adopting healthy approaches and developing a proper strategy. However, the process can be a little complex at times due to several risks and uncertainties that come in the way. But, you do not have to worry about that as our tips are going to make it easier for you.
In order to manage project resources effectively, following are 11 powerful tips that will help you greatly:
1. Centralize All The Resources In A Single Pool
It is a good way to centralize all the resources in a single pool when working on multiple projects or multiple dimensions of a single project. It helps the project manager in acquiring resources whenever need with great convenience. When you have a centralized resource pool, you and your team can determine the limitations of the resources. This saves the resources from being wasted and overused.
This also helps in making aware all the team members of their tasks and roles as per the resources. When every person involved in the project has a clear view regarding resources, they can perform their individual tasks in a better way. Also, they can be delivered on time. In this way, having a centralized pool of resources is an efficient way of managing resources rather than creating a separate resource center for every project or every little task of a single project.
2. Determine The Skills You Require To Manage Resources Effectively
Management does not come without skills. Before hiring a team, you need a set of skills that’s serve as a parameter of hiring people for the project. The most important skills can be good communication, positive interaction, intellectual enough to understand his roles and staying motivated all the time.
As you will be wanting an efficient team for your project, they need to have these skills in order to understand the aspects of resource management on the whole as well as specifically for the current project. With limited knowledge and inadequate skills, it is difficult to manage the resources. If resources are not managed in a proper way, it becomes impossible to perform the respective roles and responsibilities.
Therefore, determining a set of skills that is required to manage resources effectively is a pro tip.
3. Inculcate Those Skills In Your Team
Now, determining the skills alone is enough as long as you use them as criterion to hire a new team. But if you are going to work with the same time, you need to examine whether your team members possess the required skills or not. In order to do that, start with conducting various individual and group tests. Make sure they do not look like primary school tests though.
Another way to examine you team skills is to conduct various team building activities, interactive sessions and workshops. During these, you can stage several ideas that help in inculcating these skills in your team. After a good training, you can be rest assured that your team is ready to manage the project resources effectively.
If observed, team resources are more important than the physical resources. Therefore, if the team is able to manage their resources in a better way, management of physical resources to produce project deliverables becomes easier. That is why inculcating all the required resource management skills in the team is important. It greatly helps in making the team see a ‘bigger picture’ and get going with their defined roles.
4. Increase Collaboration To Increase Productivity
Here comes the most important and helpful tip. In order to increase the team productivity, you need to increase the interaction and collaboration among the team members. For that, you can utilize various collaboration tools. Once team members are affiliated with each other, they can get affiliated with the project better. It helps them getting along with project resource management.
In order to increase collaboration, hold various interactive sessions and meetings where everyone can contribute in their ideas and plans to manage the project resources. You might get a better idea than the one you were holding onto for so long. Getting a feedback from every team member fosters creativity and productivity. Also, it helps the team members in getting to know the mentality and thinking approach of each other in a better way.
When the collaboration is increased, everyone gets on the same page. This leads to effective management of the project resources.
5. Ensure Working On A Common Objective
Ensuring that everyone is working towards a common objective is an extremely powerful idea. It lets the teamwork become transparent and enhance the trust among team members. Once everyone is working to ensure transparency, this means they are heading towards the same goals to fulfill the same objectives.
Also, a common objective helps in holding open discussion regarding any potential risks or uncertainties that can affect the project resources. When everyone is having the same mindset, it will be easier to come up with beforehand solutions for any incoming risks or determining the right way to get away with any existing crisis. This leads to effective management of project resources.
Another thing a common objective helps with is prioritization of tasks. When each member has a common objective, he/she knows what need to be prioritized in order to achieve that objective. So, ensure that every member in your team knows what is important so they can be clear in their prioritization of tasks.
6. Build A Proper Strategy
It is a great tip as well as one of the fundamental necessities of a project to have a proper strategy for the management of its resources. When you build a proper strategy, you get a base upon which you can plan your actions and implement them. For example, a Resource Management Plan can be an effective strategy to stick to.
As there a number of resources in a project, it often gets difficult to manage them without a healthy strategy. It is the most effective and efficient way to organize your resources so they can be used appropriately where needed. Therefore, building a proper resource strategy is extremely important.
To build an effective strategy/Resource Management Plan, you need to determine all the important resources, the time period they will be required through, and the amount of work that can be done with them. Once all these aspects of project resources are looked into, you are ready to document them into a strategy. The remaining task is to hold onto the strategy throughout the project. Also, do not hesitate to make any changes if you see something going wrong.
7. Prioritize Resources
Most of the times, you have a plethora of resources but you are uncertain of which resource will be required at what time, for how long and during which process. Before managing the resources, it is important to prioritize them according to the project tasks.
In this way, all the resources for the incoming tasks will be made available and the ones for the later tasks can be looked into later on. If you do not prioritize your resources according to the tasks, you might end up having ample resources for the tasks that come later in project and are empty handed for the tasks that need to be done within few hours or days.
Hence, prioritizing your resources greatly helps in managing them effectively.
8. Make A ‘Plan B’ To Stay Prepared For The Worst
Unfortunately, there might be several times when you face any potential risk or uncertainty in resource management. For example, you might not have enough budget to get the resources that are important for the project deliverables.
In these cases, it is important to have a Plan B. It makes you stay prepared for the worst case scenarios. This plan will help you in dealing with potential disasters as you already have the best procedures to mend them.
By having a Plan B, you can have a better and in-time access to the external resources if the project resources run out. A Plan B helps you stay confident and at times, this alone is enough to manage the resources effectively. When you do not have any procedure to deal with the potential risks, you cannot be good at managing the project resources.
Therefore, make sure you have a Plan B to let delays not happen.
9. Implement The Strategy Carefully
Implementing the strategy carefully is a pro tip. Most of the times, project managers and the team think it enough to document the strategy and do not focus on its implementation. Action without implementation is of no use. So, once you have prepared a specific strategy for managing your project resources, share it with all your team members. You can assign different roles and responsibilities to your team member as per the strategy. This gets the strategy implemented as everyone will be performing their roles properly.
10. Specify Some Incentives For The Team To Keep Them Stick To The Strategy
Team members are the most important resource of the project. You can never be able to manage other project resources without them. It is important to keep them motivated so they fulfill their roles and implement the strategy. Now, what is the best way to keep someone motivated other than granting them the incentives?
Spending a little on the incentives for your team can help you save from other disasters that might require more cost and thus, the budget is distorted. Distortion of the budget means inability to access the adequate resources.
Therefore, being a project manager, if you view the bigger picture of the project it will be clear that specifying some incentives for the team will keep them stick to the strategy. It will keep them motivated for their allocated responsibilities as per resource management strategy. Hence, the resources will be effectively managed.
11. Integrate Technology To Keep A Good Check On Resource Management Plans And Processes
Last but not the least, who would not want to take some benefits when technology is there? In order to keep a good check on resource management plans and processes, technology must be used.
As it comes without human errors, it can contribute a lot in managing the project resources effectively. Mostly, resource management software makes the entire process efficient. It can help with better calculation of the resources that are spent and the resources that are further required. It can keep a healthy track of the project resources.
Using technology can save time as well as improve accuracy. Having smart technological tools can help in generating reports as well as extracting the required information. It saves human labor and so, the team members do not have an additional duty to perform.
Integrating technology also lets project managers to keep a check on whether all the plans have been implemented as per strategy or not. Therefore, use of technology is a powerful way to manage the project resources effectively.
Conclusion
Therefore, these are the 11 powerful tips from our side that can help you in effective management of the project resources. If you take into account these helpful tips, you will be less worried about project resources as they are getting managed properly. As a result, you will not be facing any delays in the project deliverables due to insufficiency or unavailability of the resources.
