RESOURCE

ALLOCATION
Chapter#8
1
Nature of resources
2
Labour
Equipment
Materials
Space
Services
Time
Money
Identifying resource
requirements
3
List of resources required
With their expected level of demand
Resources:
Also includes those are not part of activity specific
E.g. project manager, office stationary, office space etc
Allocate resources to critical activities first
Schedules
4
Activity schedule - indicating start and
completion dates for each activity
Resource schedule - indicating dates when
resources needed + level of resources
Cost schedule showing accumulative
expenditure
Resource allocation
5
Identify the resources needed for each activity
and create a resource requirement list
Identify resource types - individuals are
interchangeable within the group (e.g. VB
programmers as opposed to software
developers)
Allocate resource types to activities and
examine the resource histogram
Methods used in allocating and
scheduling resources
6
Precedence graph
Activity bar chart
Resource histograms
Resource histogram:
systems analysts
7
WEEK 1 2
3
4
5
6
7
1
2
3
4
5
Resource smoothing
8
It is usually difficult to get specialist staff who
will work odd days to fill in gaps need for
staff to learn about application etc
Staff often have to be employed for a
continuous block of time
Therefore desirable to employ a constant
number of staff on a project who as far as
possible are fully employed
Hence need for resource smoothing

Resource smoothing
9

WEEK 1 2
3 4
5
6
7
1
2
3
4
5
8
Procedure for resource leveling
1
3
2
4
a,2
b,3
c,5
(4)
(2)
(2)
a
b
c
1 2 3 4 5
days
8
6
4
2
0
a
c c
c
b b
After leveling
a
b
c


8
6
4
2
0
w
o
r
k
e
r
s

1 2 3 4 5
days
a b
c
12
Id. Duration (weeks) Precedents
A 2
B 2 A
C 2 A
D 2 B
E 4 C
F 1 C,D
13

A
B
D
E
F
C
Bar chart
14

A
B
C
D
E
F
Histogram
15

After smoothing
16

A
B
C
D
E
F
Histogram after smoothing
17

Activity bar chart
SPM (5e) resource allocation The McGraw-Hill Companies,
2009
18

Resource histograms
19

20

21

Resource clashes
22
Where same resource needed in more than
one place at the same time
can be resolved by:
delaying one of the activities
taking advantage of float to change start date
delaying start of one activity until finish of the other
activity that resource is being used on - puts back
project completion
moving resource from a non-critical activity
bringing in additional resource - increases costs


Prioritizing activities
23
There are two main ways of doing this:
Total float priority those with the smallest
float have the highest priority
Ordered list priority this considers a set of
simple criteria.
Burmans priority list
24
Give priority to:
Shortest critical activities
Other critical activities
Shortest non-critical activities
Non-critical activities with least float
Non-critical activities
Allocating individuals to activities
25
The initial resource types for a task have to
be replaced by actual individuals.
Factors to be considered:
Availability
Criticality
Risk
Training
Team building and motivation

Cost Schedules
26
Staff Costs
Overheads
Usages charges