Managing resources properly is a challenge. The optimally suited resource management tool provides the appropriate support.
Resource management comprises resource planning, including the identification and allocation of appropriate resources. It also includes the optimization of the use of resources within the specified time frame as well as the continuous monitoring and control of resources (IPMA Competence Baseline). The selection of the appropriate resource management tool is therefore particularly important, as the correct use of resources is a central success factor for successful projects.
Conversely, the wrong use of resources - insufficient or even the wrong resources - is one of the most common reasons why projects fail. Many studies and textbooks therefore rightly call resource management the supreme discipline in project management. The basic prerequisite for successful resource management is to choose the right resource management tool.
Resource Management Tool Function - What are the benefits of a Resource Management Tool?
Who does what when?
This question is central to the capacity planning of companies - whether for work in individual departments or in interdisciplinary projects.
Due to the progressive spread of project-oriented, multidisciplinary work, a central resource planning software is becoming an important success factor for project management throughout the company. Because only those who are able to implement projects "in time, budget and quality" with the right project management software in the long term can survive.
Another reason for using a comprehensive resource management tool is the optimized utilization of all departments and teams and their individual members.
Why is resource management software important for you?
Find out here where a good resource management tool can help you:
Create the central resource pool
Your planning is only complete when all your employees, if possible also all external employees, are collected in a central resource pool and distributed from there.
Working with several isolated applications is doomed to failure, at the latest when several interdisciplinary projects have to be implemented simultaneously with the same employees.
The basic loads must be observed
Answering e-mails and accounting for travel expenses are activities that are referred to as basic workload. Realistic models assume that employees spend around 20% of their time neither on activities in their departments nor on project work.
A holistic capacity planning takes this into account as well as vacation and other absences (training). Some "surprising" vacations have already endangered an entire project
Keeping the project plans up to date
Projects have a certain dynamic and are completely normal. In the rarest of cases, projects therefore run exactly as planned.
It is important for you that your project plan always reflects the latest state of knowledge and includes all actual values such as time feedback.
To consider the line activities
Employees from the individual departments are increasingly involved in overarching projects. The project managers must know to what extent the individual specialists are available to them for the project.
A well-chosen resource management tool shows you and your project managers immediately which capacities the individual departments can provide for projects.
To consider the projects as a whole
If projects are only considered individually and not in combination with other projects, many risks, bottlenecks and overlaps remain undiscovered in planning. Conflicts with parallel running projects only arise during the project.
One solution is then usually expensive or is at the expense of the other projects. Therefore a comprehensive multi-project management via a good resource management tool is indispensable.
Admitting ignorance
At the beginning of a project, rarely all details are known. Details such as "effort 30-40 hours" or "end of 3rd quarter 2020" are more the rule than the exception. Apparent accuracy leads to a lack of acceptance of the system and to a high maintenance effort.
A better alternative is planning with realistic, inaccurate values, ideally flanked by the use of a suitable resource management tool.
How does an optimal resource management tool help you implement your digitization strategy?
The development or further development and implementation of a digitization strategy is the core task of every company.
Resource and skill management are among the basics of digitization.
Innovation topics should be managed centrally so that the organizational change of a company can be carried out seamlessly. To achieve this, the business model must be aligned with the market and the prevailing customer requirements. On the other hand, implementation depends on the availability and skills of a sufficient number of qualified employees.
A good resource management tool supports you in this task.
How can you create the necessary framework with the help of a suitable resource management tool?
From the constellation, market orientation and at the same time resource orientation, it is clear that the new digital business model cannot be developed de facto independently of existing framework conditions.
But the good news is that you can actively shape these framework conditions with the help of a suitable resource management tool.
The focus here is on people and their skills. The first step is to take stock of the company's strengths and the availability and skills of its employees.
Ideally, your company has already set up a central employee pool and a central, up-to-date skills library in which the skills of the employees are collected.
With the establishment of a central resource and skill pool you will get an overview of the quality of your company (skills) and the amount in which this quality is available (capacity of skills).
Please note that skills are usually needed in combination with other skills. This results in significant limitations in the availability (capacity) of skills.
A modern tool for resource management as a component of a project management tool is able to solve this combination problem in skill-based resource planning and to give you a realistic overview of the skill capacities (also combinations) available in the company. In other words: Resource Management made easy!
The Resource Management Tool, as a compilation of versatile and comprehensive project management tools, is of course also applicable for agile project management and hybrid project management.
