Project Resource Planning

This post discusses the case study, Bird in the Bush.

Resource planning of a project often makes or mars it. Please do not take a decision whether to do a project or not based only on the total strength required for the project. I use a spread sheet to plan my resources, though something like MS Project is equally helpful.

I find XLS useful to draw a Gantt chart. List the projects - current and expected - and draw a bar in front of them to make a Gantt chart. Then in the cells that is covered by the schedule bar, fill in the number of employees you will require for that period. Once you have this in place you can very easily figure out the human-resource requirement for a given period. Suppose each cell represents a week. Clicking and highlighting on the top of the week gives you the total strength required for the entire company. So simple.

Now, once you have the Gantt chart and the human resource requirement with you, you should be able to make a better judgment of whether to take on a new project.

The situation in the case study being discussed is not new. You always need to juggle with resources. And I am not talking of human resource alone. You may be in the position to employ 50 employees who are on bench, but should you do that? What about tool constraints? Do you have enough licenses? Communication is a major problem in a big team.

Taking a decision is never easy. But putting all your options on a spread sheet will help. You will also be in a position to negotiate with the customer. Schedules can be stretched, you know!

One last thing. Refusing a project that is available is foolishness. Especially if your engineers are on bench. In business, especially in business, a bird in hand has more value than the the bird in the bush. But be prepared to handle more than one bird, should all the birds come to your hand. That's what planning is all about.