Our present is shaped by rapid advancements and the raging demand for quick results. Often, we are left with managing multiple tasks simultaneously. Troubles faced, such as strict deadlines and workload stress, can be managed effectively through proper resource planning. This crucial management component enables your business to utilize its resources to the fullest.
This article serves as your guide to building a successful resource allocation strategy, outlining six practical steps for developing an effective enterprise resource management plan that will make your business future-ready.
What is resource planning?
Generally, resource planning is defined as a process that involves the evaluation and allocation of multiple types of resources, such as time, people, or tools, to achieve a desired deliverable in sync with the deadline.
It counters stress, last-minute burnouts, and resource wastage. Resource planning ensures that your team delivers high productivity by understanding what they need to do, when, and how.
For example, capacity planning in a construction project ensures that contractors, engineers, and suppliers properly coordinate, tasks are performed as per schedule, and unnecessary delays are avoided.
Benefits of Resource Planning in Business Operations
Business operations that match the proper skill set with the right task improve the project success rate and bring job satisfaction amongst your team members.
Let's have a look at some of the benefits of resource planning for an organization:
1. Effective Time Management
Resource planning helps us understand the gap between what we need for the project and what we have. It prevents time waste, overlapping efforts, and keeps the schedule realistic by aligning tasks with available capacity. Here, we prioritize saving what matters the most, our valuable time.
2. Balanced Resource Allocation
As per the PMI 2022 Pulse of the Profession report, 50% of projects fail to deliver on time, and 23% cite poor resource management as the primary cause. This statistic highlights the need for balanced resource allocation.
When the workload is distributed evenly, the team functions at its best. Resource planning is about mapping tasks based on availability and skillset.
3. Cost Efficiency
When a project requires overtime or gets delayed, it results in extra expenses. Implementing resource planning ensures that your valuable efforts are not wasted, and you not only adhere to the schedule but also stay within the set budget.
4. Balanced Workload Lowers Stress
Anyone would like to be part of an enterprise that offers clear visibility and makes responsible project plans, rather than one that fluctuates between extremes. Resource planning ensures that no team member is over-occupied to the point of exhaustion.
With a balanced workload, the team members contribute to the project with the best of their skill sets, as they are motivated and stress-free.
5. Enhanced Productivity
Resource allocation enables the team to focus and tackle tasks efficiently. Every member is well aware of the task at hand and the means to achieve it, and avoids situations where one resource person from the team might slow down the entire schedule.
Six Steps for Effective Enterprise Resource Planning
The main objective of an efficient enterprise resource planning is to drive projects to success and expertly manage resource allocation. And this isn't a one-person job. Multiple experts, project managers, and heads of operations work together to formulate and execute a sound resource plan.
The steps are outlined as follows:
1. Outline Your Project Tasks
In this step, you list down your project tasks and the necessary resources for completing them. As a manager, at this stage, you tackle the questions like which task should be of high priority? Which resource is being shared the most? What deadline would ensure quality deliverables while fitting within the timeframe?
Finding answers to all such questions will ensure that you and your team are prepared for any last-minute surprises and can make informed decisions.
2. Map Tasks to the Team Based on Skills & Expertise
Once you have an outline ready for your project, it's time to map each task with the most suitable, efficient resource to achieve it. For example, in a software development company, the engineers with the right coding expertise are assigned the development, while the QA specialists look after the testing process.
If tasks and resources are distributed based on the right skillset, experience, and availability, no one on the team gets overwhelmed, and the project runs smoothly.
3. Translate Resources to Cost Estimate
Once the project requirements are precise, it is time to set the budget by considering factors such as the team's tentative rates and the total time frame required. This visibility helps you determine the project's cost, margins, and qualitative trade-offs before the assignment is finalized.
This estimate sets your reference point for the upcoming adjustments to the project, and you can now analyze the impact of schedule and scope adjustments on your timeline and profits.
4. Allocating Buffers for Unexpected Resource Needs
Not all projects stick to the planned script. Hence, it is sensible to arrange some space for last-minute additions or delays. Multiple tools support this step by providing a project health report that gives a bird's eye view into the project's progress and the immediate actions required for the project to be on schedule. Such tools are helpful for stakeholders and project leads to evaluate resource planning at every step, making them integral to the entire process.
5. Gather Stakeholder's Feedback to Optimize Resource Allocation
Continuous evaluation and fresh perspectives from stakeholders can help teams catch any specific issues that might have been overlooked. There may be estimation or overestimation of the resources allocated to a team member in a particular task multiple pairs of eyes can help determine the optimal resource allocation for the project.
The key goal is to leverage collaboration among teams within the company, improving work quality, sharing feedback, and learning from one another.
6. Develop a Flexible Resource Strategy
Resource planning isn't a one-shot fix. It is a continuous cycle of regular re-evaluations of the project. Hence, a flexible resource allocation strategy ensures that the necessary updates are incorporated easily. With the help of automated monitoring and time-tracking tools, projects can easily adapt to revisions, stay on schedule, and reduce unnecessary stress among team members due to untimely scope changes, slow approvals, etc.
Technology Trends in Resource Planning
We find technology shaping recent advancements in resource planning by integrating automation and cloud-based platforms, which provide scalability and flexible access to resource data anytime and anywhere. This trend leads to the streamlining of routine tasks, such as scheduling and monitoring, which saves a lot of time and minimizes human error.
Final Thoughts
Resource planning is essential to keep your enterprise efficient, balanced, and future-ready. By following structured steps, you can optimize resources, reduce stress, and improve productivity.
Moreover, leveraging technological solutions can further simplify the process.
One such solution is Effivity, which can completely automate your resource management through its quality management software. The platform can efficiently allocate resources to specific projects, track how much workload resources can handle, and identify overallocation or underutilization. It also creates visual schedules, and matches the right people with the right tasks based on their qualifications, experience, and current workload. In other words, Effivity does the heavy lifting for you so that you can focus better on the growth of your business. Explore Effivity today to begin your successful resource planning.
