"The supreme discipline in project management" - that's what the consultants at Can Do call resource management. This article explains why this is and why it is crucial for project success to use resource planning software such as Can Do.
Resource planner: This is what makes it so important
Planning and managing resources are core tasks of project management: planning human resources in a way that is appropriate for the project, assessing resource risks sensibly, and allocating employees to project teams according to their skills - this is the stuff that successful projects are made of. But because all of this is about people, project managers and project planners also have to deal with human issues - for example:
- The actual resource requirements repeatedly deviate from the original project planning. Reasons for this are fluctuations in other project parameters (time, budget, quality).
- Employees are absent - due to illness (unplanned) or vacation (foreseeable) - which the resource planner overlooked.
- Overloads are ignored - by employees, resource planners or project managers - until they become a real problem.
- Other departments withdraw employees who are actually permanently assigned by the resource planner.
- Resource planners, project staff and project management have misjudged the workload and time requirements.
- Because employees are repeatedly withdrawn across projects and departments, the project becomes unbalanced.
What can resource planning software like Can Do does change about this? To put it simply: Everything! Simply because the digital and automated approach to project planning eliminates many "typical human" problems in project management and enables a much more agile response to project risks. Can Do's resource planner is also equipped with AI, which, for example, enables resource planning based on skills and ensures that resource allocation follows objective criteria.
Resource planner and skills
Successful projects are brought to the finish line by successful teams - and teams are successful when the employees have the right skills for a project and their abilities complement each other.
Can Do's resource planner software is able to create the conditions for exactly this: it puts together project teams based on individual skills - even across departments. If project members are working on several projects in parallel, the Can Do project planner ensures that resources are distributed in such a way that as few idle times or absences as possible occur. Especially in portfolio management, the Can Do digital resource planner can react much faster and more effectively than humans. With positive effects on the entire portfolio.
Resource planner and the objectivity
As a project manager, you have probably already experienced this: there is a constant scramble for the most capable employees and their skills in the projects. And once you have your ideal candidate in the team, you won't give them back - even if this person's skills would be much better used elsewhere or another employee would have better qualifications at the current stage of the project. Discussions between project managers then often only lead to hardened positions because they are conducted too emotionally. Here, too, a digital resource planner can help, especially if it is AI-supported, as is the case with Can Do: It allocates resources according to facts instead of feelings and supports its suggestions with an AI that makes a realistic risk assessment from these facts.
Resource planner: advantages overview
Especially when it comes to resource management, which is so much characterized by human aspects, the advantages of project digitization in the form of resource planner software become apparent. Such a resource planner is integrated in Can Do and additionally relies on the insight of the AI integrated in Can Do. Thus, the digital resource planner makes project management and resource allocation more "human". Here's an overview of what such a resource planner brings to your projects:
- There is less competition between teams because they are all staffed according to an objective evaluation system and resources are reallocated according to actual need.
- Encourage and challenge, but don't overload: this is the premise on which resource allocation is based with Can Do's resource planner.
- Project management can concentrate entirely on controlling and managing the projects and can leave the resource issue to a large extent to the software. In the case of Can Do, the software also provides objective risk assessments and concrete recommendations for action.
Conclusion
More credibility and acceptance in project management decisions, optimally distributed resources and AI support, especially for extensive multi-project portfolios: Can Do's resource planner has full control over the planning, distribution and management of resources in your project management. And when you look at how much the improvements in resource management have an impact on the success of each individual project, it also becomes clear why resource management is called the supreme discipline in PM.
Would you also like to give your project management a significant push forward and use your resources in the best possible way? Then talk to one of our consultants and let us show you what Can Do can contribute to the success of your projects - and thus of the entire company!
