Chapter 9 Flashcards
Plan Resource Management:
the process of identifying resources and required skills for the project, defining and assigning roles and responsibilities to all the resources, developing a reporting hierarchy, and communicating expectations
Resource management
A process of assessing all types of resources—people, materials, tools, & equipment (along with quantities)— required for each activity to complete it as specified in project scope.
Resources: People: Identify potential resources. Identify an adequate number and mix of people. Determine resource availability. Decide timing issues. Core team should participate in chartering the project
Staffing management plan: a proposal focused on acquiring, developing, and retaining human resources for as long as you need them on the project. Assign a resource to each activity. This may require negotiation and flexibility.
Buildings
Materials
Facilities
Supplies
Timing issues when resourcing projects:
When to bring people on board. Get team functioning
effectively. Plan for keeping the team motivated & on schedule. When to reward & recognize
the project team. When & how to release project participants. Is the solution to outsource? Co.locate? Virtual? Cross-functional approach?
Project team composition issues:
Cross-functional teams
Co-located teams
Virtual teams
Outsourcing
Assigning a resource to each activity:
there are different methods to do this,
RAM matrix, responsibility assignment matrix (RACI chart): R A C I – a popular form of Responsibility assignment matrix that presents roles of key stakeholders and their roles defined as responsible (R), accountable (A), consult (C), and inform (I) for project activities required to produce work packages in a matrix form. RACI charts depict work activities on a vertical scale.
Agile team members decide among themselves who will do each work activity; when finished, they begin next-highest-priority work
Resource leveling:
A project execution technique of adjusting the use of resources based on availability and the amount of float on activities to accomplish work as soon as possible, given the limited resource availability. The easiest way to understand the work demands and be able to adjust the schedule within the limits of the available work time starts with creating a critical path schedule. Resource leveling is a combination of art & science:
Delay activities so person doesn’t perform as many activities at the same time (most common)
Delay noncritical activities by an amount no more than their slack
Allow project to slip
If non-critical activities must be completed at rate of effort in original schedule, reassign activities to another worker.
Compress the project schedule:
Once the schedule is prepared and loaded with resources, the project manager will know the project duration. Then she can compare it with what the sponsor or customer wants. If the expected time is too long, she will need to reduce the critical path to reduce the total completion time (remember that because the critical path is the longest, it dictates the total project duration). Ways to reduce the critical path:
Reduce the project scope and/or quality,
Increase the number of work hours per day,
Schedule activities that are normally in sequence at the same time,
Shorten the duration of critical activities,
Shorten activities by assigning more resources,
Shorten activities that cost the least to speed up, and
Shorten the activity with the least probability of increasing project risk.
Agile planning:
Collaborative approach with workers and stakeholders. Stakeholders want cost, schedule, & functionality data before approving a project. Avoid stringent change control, Projects planned in short increments called sprints, Schedules based on accomplishing Sprints, Produce very little written documentation.
Critical chain (CCPM): (Alternative scheduling method for resources: )
is an alternate scheduling technique that modifies project schedule by taking resource constraints into account. It makes use of principles of theory of constraints. This method allows the project team to place buffers on any project schedule path to manage constraints associated with limited resources and project uncertainties. Solves several problems, see page 309*. Simply put, rather than calculate the critical path based upon predecessor–successor relationships alone, it also incorporates calculations on resource availability. Once the resource that is most in demand is identified, efforts are made to keep that resource appropriately busy on critical chain activities.
Adv: major innovation that helps to overcome scheduling and resourcing problems.
Dis adv: requires reeducation and communication, might lead to more work.
Reverse phase: (Alternative scheduling method for resources: )
sometimes used in the construction industry. The reverse phase schedule is developed by the people closest to the work (often either the hands-on workers or the forepersons who directly supervise work) by starting with the final project deliverables and continually asking what needs to be completed prior to starting work on this deliverable. As each activity is defined, its order is established, and the person proposing it verifies that their company has manpower to complete the activity as shown in the tentative schedule.
Adv: easier to identify missing deliverables and activities backwards.
Dis adv: not specified.
Rolling wave: ((Alternative scheduling method for resources: )
The idea behind rolling wave planning is to plan the first part of the project in as much detail as needed and to plan later phases only at a high level.
Adv: this allows the project team to focus on the near term without ignoring the longer term.
Note*: the extreme of rolling wave is AGILE.
Agile: (Alternative scheduling method for resources: )
he fundamental ideas behind agile project planning are to use a collaborative approach with the project team and other stakeholders heavily involved in planning;
Auto/manual scheduling: (Alternative scheduling method for resources: )
When people are chartering a project and want to show the few milestones without committing to dates, manual scheduling may be a good starting point. Also, for projects with few predecessor–successor relationships, manual scheduling may sometimes be useful.
Dis adv: not enough.
CARD FEEDBACK: this explains when it is useful but how does the method actually work?
Why do we use so many different tools?
Use critical path schedule, resource assignments, & the resource histogram to determine who is overloaded, when, & by what activities.
Use resource leveling to reduce peak demands by postponing non-critical activities
My (teacher’s) advice: Keep it basic and simple. However, practice and familiarize yourself with different tools and techniques
In addition to technical skills, what other skills must a project manager have in order to success- fully resource a project?
MISSING ANSWER.
suggestion: soft skills and open for feedback??
