Resource Management

Question 1

Factors that affect resources:

Answer 1

Budget
Resources available
Timing
Skills ( may need training )
Demands
Holidays
Politics ( sponsor involved to resolve situation)
Performance ( people work at different rates)

Question 2

There are two styles of resources :

Answer 2

Re-usable
replenishables

Question 3

Overtime should be used as a tool to help when things are going wrong and it is unwise to rely on overtime to help resolve resource process but a project should be scheduled on a basis of ?

Answer 3

Overtime in the first place

Question 4

Synergy =

Answer 4

The combined action of two or more people etc working together to produce an effect greater that the sum of the individual effort

Question 5

Resource smoothing makes _______ use of resources.

Removing available float make it difficult to deal with _____

Answer 5

Efficient
Delays

Question 6

Resource smoothing - the resource are used ______ as possible whilst maintain the original end date of the project

Answer 6

Efficiently

Question 7

Resources are considered as ?

Answer 7

All the labour and non labour items required to undertake the scope of the work to the required quality

Resource can be : human (labour), materials , plant or equipment and facilities (such as specialist test sites)

Question 8

Each of the resources may drive the project pace by constraining the ____, that can be achieved. Such as a resource cap to a point in time will determine how much work can be completed up to that point.

Answer 8

Output

Question 9

Resources that constrain the project delivery rate are known as ?

Answer 9

Critical resources

• it is likely that the relative importance of each resource will vary depending on project type but also from project to project

Question 10

When projects are using a linear lifecycle , the assumption is that when the schedule is planned initially all resources are available when require. If after reviewing the schedule there are periods where resources are not available, _________ techniques can be applied. Such as ________ and _______ which can try to fit the scope of work into the resource limit and as much as possible maintain schedule and quality objectives.

Answer 10

Resource management
Levelling and smoothing

Question 11

After all possibilities have been considered and resources are still not sufficient it is likely that all planned completion dates of activities are _______ and overall duration is _______.

Answer 11

Delayed
Increased

Question 12

Project using an iterative lifecycle ensure requirements are ______ and implemented within the pre-allocated resources , varying the scope and quality achieved within the time box, if required. However , if all the scope must be delivered to the specified quality and extension of time is inevitable I order to finish on time specific features may be withdrawn from a time box and scheduled for a subsequent iteration.

Answer 12

Prioritised

Question 13

The main objectives of resource management are to ?

Answer 13

Make sure that all resources are used optimally.

• there are two basic options available to the project manager; resource levelling and resource smoothing

Question 14

Resource levelling answers the question :

Answer 14

With the resource available when will the work be finished ?

Question 15

Resource levelling is used where resource availability is ___________ .

Answer 15

Limited

Question 16

Resource levelling can be achieved in a project by:

Answer 16

• redefining the scope of the activities undertaken by the particular resource concerned __ given some of the work to an under-utilised resource.
• redefining the specification ( avoiding if possible , any compromise to the quality of the final product)
• increasing task duration to reduce overall resource requirements
• increasing resources on earlier tasks to bring workload forward , such that peaks in the future are reduced - this will have cost and possibly quality implications

Question 17

Resource levelling is used when ?

Answer 17

Resource availability is limited

Question 18

When all levelling options have been considered and a solution is still unavailable the project duration will ___but imperially this is minimised to the least possible extent.

Answer 18

Extend

Question 19

Resource levelling = ()

Answer 19

Resource limited scheduling

Question 20

Resource smoothing = ()

Answer 20

Time limited scheduling

Question 21

Resource smoothing is used when ?

Answer 21

Time is more important that cost

Question 22

The objective of resource smoothing is ?

Answer 22

To deliver the work within the fixed timescales

This may involve reducing the duration of activities by adding resources.

Such as - more people or the same number of people Working longer hours or additional equipment & then trying to get a smooth usage of resources avoiding peaks and troughs of resource demand and optimising their flow from one piece of work to another.

Question 23

Resource smoothing needs to be considered on a ____________ particularly if the reason for applying smoothing is in response to a request to reduce the overall duration of the schedule.

Answer 23

Resource by resource basis.

Question 24

Resource smoothing: applying additional resources to the critical path activities if the only way the overall schedule will be impacted. If additional resources were applied to activities float it would just _____

Answer 24

Apply additional float to those activities with no impact on duration overall

• these situations can lead to a build up of resources , particularly on those critical activities resulting in large peak and troughs appearing in the resource demand profile.

Question 25

Applying smoothing will ensure that additional required to meet the new end date are applied on ________ across the whole schedule rather than in selective areas.

Answer 25

Critical activities

Question 26

To achieve a smoothed resource profile may require some __________ of the order of some of the work. Achieving the optimally resource schedule can be a creative process requiring multiple iterations to get the best possible results.

Answer 26

Redefinition

Question 27

Resource smoothing - there is a finite limit to the resources that can be put into some tasks due to the nature of the tasks and the environment . If resource really is finite there no more hours available from skilled people or no more equipment available then there is no option buy to ?

Answer 27

Extend durations and the overall project plan to accommodate this .

Question 28

The result of resource optimising whether a involving the critical chain approach or resource levelling or smoothing of a critical Plath based schedule is a ?

Answer 28

Curve that shows the planned deployment of resources ( and therefore cost) to complete the scope and quality overtime