Topics Covered

Resource Management


Sample Problems





Each activity of the project has certain resource
requirements i.e. people and machine. These
requirements (usually) vary with activity duration.

For example, an activity has a total requirement of 12
days (man-days) of a welder and a helper. With the
normal activity duration of 6 days, 2 welders and 2
helpers available will perform the task.

By crashing, this activity can be completed in 4 days.
One additional welder and helper has to be hired on
job basis or on contract.
Resource Management






Determining

What resources will be required (labor,
equipment, material)?

What quantity for each resource will be
required?

When are resources available to perform
project activities?
Estimating Resource Requirements
(For Scheduled Activity)
Resource Estimating Techniques

Expert Judgment Any group or person
with specialized knowledge.

Bottom-Up Estimating Decompose
activities into smaller work components.

Three Point Estimating Optimistic,
pessimistic and most likely values are
determined to calculate estimate.


The four major stages of resource scheduling process are

Resource definition
Resource allocation
Resource aggregation
Resource leveling
Resource Smoothing

Resource definition

Resource definition involves identifying the critical
resources that need to be planned and managed
for the successful completion of the project.




Resource Scheduling Process
Resource allocation, is concerned with assigning
the required number of those resources identified in
the previous step to each activity identified in the
plan.


More than one type of resource may be attributed
to a specific activity. For example, fixing the plates
on a ship's hull may require 10 fitters, 20 welders,
15 laborers and a certain type of welding machine.

Resource Allocation
Resource aggregation, or resource loading, is simply the
summation, on a period-by-period basis, of the resources
required to complete all activities based on the resource
allocation carried out in the previous stage.

The results are usually shown graphically as a histogram.
Such aggregation may be done on an hourly, daily, or weekly
basis, depending on the time unit used to allocate resources.

When a bar chart is used as the planning tool, the resource
aggregation is fairly simple and straightforward. For a given
bar chart, there is a unique resource unit aggregation chart
which can be drawn underneath the bar chart.

A separate graph will be required for each resource unit.
Resource Aggregation
An example is shown in figure 01 below, where, for a
particular resource, the required resource units for each time
period are annotated on the bar chart. The total number of
resource units for each time period can then be summed and
a resource aggregation or load chart can be produced.
Figure 01


Resource Unit Aggregation Chart Showing Resource Requirements
Associated with Earliest and Latest Start Along with Highlighted Resource
Unit Requirements for Critical Path Activities.
Resource leveling ensures that resource demand does not
exceed resource availability.
Resource Leveling
Resource Leveling is a process used to examine a project
for an unbalanced use of resources (usually people) over
time, and for resolving over-allocations or conflicts.
Resource
Demand
Compared to
Resource
Availability
A bar chart has been used as the primary planning
technique for analyzing the issues involved in
resource leveling.

The reason for this is that resource leveling must
be considered within a time framework and bar
charts are drawn to a time scale while networks
are not.

In figure 01, the time-scale for the activities
comprising the project are shown in a bar chart,
which also shows resource requirements for one
particular resource unit.


An examination of the bar chart and its associated
resource chart in figure 01 shows that
improvements can be made to the level of
resource requirements by:

Delaying or bringing forward the start of certain
activities

Extending the duration of certain activities and
so reducing the demand for resources over the
duration of the activity or by a combination of
both of these adjustments

Resource Smoothing

Resource smoothing is part of the resource leveling process.

Resource smoothing process attempts to determine a
resource requirement that is "smooth" and where peaks and
troughs are eliminated.

For example, even if 7 units of a given resource are available
at any one time, utilizing 5 of these units each week is
preferable to 4 one week, 7 the next, 2 the next and so on.

Even if there is no limit to the amount of any one resource
available, it is still desirable that resource usage is as smooth
as possible.
EXAMPLE

ON THE BOARD





The DURATION of a task is the time required for its
execution and depends upon the units of resources
involved in the task.

The duration is most often measured in days or in
working hours. (16 hours)

The UNITS are the resources available to perform the
task. For human resource, we speak of people.
(2 people)

The WORKLOAD of a task is the result of duration
multiplied by the units. This assessment is often
measured in people-days or in people-hours.
(32 people-hours)

DURATION = WORKLOAD / UNITS
16 hours = 32 people-hours / 2 people
Workload and its Calculation
A team composed of two workers
do a task in six days at 100%
efficiency.

HYPOTHESIS:

If the efficiency of a 4 workers
team is only 75%, what will be the
task duration?

ANSWER:

4 days = 12 person-days / (4 x .75)




Discussion