How to estimate the resources of a project
- Resource estimation. The objective of the resource estimate is to allocate the necessary resources to each activity on...
- Estimation of activities’ duration. Once you have finished estimating resources per activity, you have everything you...
- Project planning and critical roadmap. The project program must be approved and signed...
Full Answer
How to estimate the resources of a project?
How to estimate the resources of a project 1 Resource estimation. The objective of the resource estimate is to allocate the necessary resources to each activity on the list. 2 Estimation of activities’ duration. ... 3 Project planning and critical roadmap. ... 4 Resource balancing. ... 5 Start now estimating correctly. ...
What are the requirements of a project program?
The project program must be approved and signed by the stakeholders and functional managers. This ensures that everyone is familiar with the program, including dates and resource commitments. In addition, (written) confirmation will be required that resources will be available as indicated in the planning.
How do I determine the resources required for each task?
Once the tasks within the project have been defined, the resources required by each task must be determined. To do this, we consult the PMBOK’s Estimate Activity Resources process.
Why is it important to identify the resources needed for projects?
Identifying what types of resources will be needed for a project, their quantities and time-periods of requirement will help with budgeting appropriately for all inputs required over a projects duration. This is an important process that will help to create a cost effective and time sensitive project.
How do you calculate resource requirements?
1:519:29How to Deduce Project Resource Requirements - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipEither by breaking down the entire work in terms of activities. Or by breaking down the work inMoreEither by breaking down the entire work in terms of activities. Or by breaking down the work in terms of the products or deliverables.
How do you determine resources required for a project?
5 Tips for Identifying Project ResourcesTip #1: Know what work is required. Make sure that you have a clear brief before the project starts. ... Tip #2: Plan in advance. It's better to plan your resource needs in advance. ... Tip #3: Confirm resource availability. ... Tip #4: Check their skills. ... Tip #5: Remember to book equipment.
Is there a formula for resource planning?
Use the following formula to calculate resource capacity Multiply the number of workdays in the period you are measuring, such as a week or month, by eight to determine the total number of work hours in the period. Subtract the amount of time you have allocated for team meetings to determine your net work hours.
How do you estimate the resource requirements for work activities?
Estimate Activity ResourcesFind out the resources necessary and their quantity.Examine the scope statement to ensure all resources have been identified.Identify alternatives for unavailable resources.Consider organizational policies affecting resource acquisition and usage constraints.
What are the 3 types of resources in project management?
In Microsoft Project resources can be anything required to perform tasks – people, equipment, facilities, materials, and even costs. These are categorised into three main resource types: work, materials and costs.
Why is it important to determine resource requirements?
Identifying what types of resources will be needed for a project, their quantities and time-periods of requirement will help with budgeting appropriately for all inputs required over a projects duration. This is an important process that will help to create a cost effective and time sensitive project.
What is resource capacity formula?
You can determine your resource-based capacity by looking into your full-time equivalent (FTE), and you can use this formula for making your FTE calculations: Resource Capacity in FTE (time period) = Resource Capacity in Hours (time period) ÷ Working Time of the Standard Calendar in Hours (time period)
How do I create a resource utilization report in Excel?
You can see the exact process for creating a resource utilization report.Step 1: Enter team members. ... Step 2: Enter projects and tasks. ... Step 3: Assign projects and tasks to team members. ... Step 4: Generate the resource planning sheet. ... Step 5: Enter the planned effort for each team member.
What is resource requirement in PMP?
Resource requirements are defined by the Project manager to establish the resources needed to execute the work on the project. Complete the following steps to define a resource requirement. In the Work breakdown structure, create one or more tasks. Assign a generic team member to each task.
What is activity resource requirements in project management?
Activity resource requirements are defined as the types of resources for different activities involved in a particular project management package. It also involves the quantities, amount, skill level of the resources needed to be involved in the projects.
Which of the following are types of resources required for a project?
There are three types of resources − work, material, and cost. Work resources − People and equipment to complete the tasks.
How an entrepreneur determines the required resources for an entrepreneurship?
All entrepreneurs need to determine the resources required for addressing the opportunity. This process starts with an appraisal of present financial and nonfinancial resources (e.g., technical skills, team competencies, licenses, patents, customer contacts, and location).
What are project resources?
Project resources are anything that is necessary for the project to be completed. Without them, it's impossible for a project to be completed successfully. A key element of a project's planning phase is centered on the identification of resource requirements and how they will be allocated.
What is resource identification in project management?
It identifies the resources the project will need, how they will be acquired, and how they will be managed. Identification of Resources. A simple list of resources, for even the smallest projects, ensures that nothing gets forgotten.
What is resource in a project?
Resources are people, equipment, places, money or anything else a project needs to be executed.
How to estimate resources?
There are five tools and techniques for estimating activity resources: 1 The judgement of experts: this means involving experts who have already performed this type of work before and obtaining opinions on what resources are needed. 2 Alternative analysis: this means considering different options on how to allocate resources. This includes changing the number of resources and the type of resources used. Many times, there is more than one way to perform a task, and alternative analysis helps you decide between different possibilities. 3 Published estimation data: something that project managers in many industries use to understand how many resources they need for a specific project. These are based on articles, research and studies that collect, analyze and publish data from other people and organizations’ projects. 4 Project management software: these often feature functions designed to help project managers estimate resource needs and constraints and find the best combination for the project in question. 5 The bottom-up estimate: this means splitting complex tasks into simpler tasks and processing the resources needed for each small step. The need or cost of the resources of the individual tasks is then added together to obtain a total estimate. The smaller and more detailed the task, the greater the accuracy of this technique.
What is the objective of resource estimate?
The objective of the resource estimate is to allocate the necessary resources to each activity on the list.
What is twproject project?
Twproject can help a project manager during assignment showing the resource workload, in order to understand if he/she is able to accomplish the task in the given time.
What is project management software?
Project management software: these often feature functions designed to help project managers estimate resource needs and constraints and find the best combination for the project in question.
What is resource balancing?
Resource balancing is used to examine and resolve the unequal use of resources, usually related to people or equipment, over time.
What is a three point estimate?
The three-point estimate, i.e. when three numbers come up: a realistic estimate that is more likely to occur, an optimistic estimate that represents the best scenario and a pessimistic estimate that represents the worst scenario. The final estimate is the weighted average of the three.
What is the best way to approach a project?
Prioritizing your priorities will come in handy here as well. If time is of the essence, Top-Down might be the best way to approach a project, while when precise figures are more important, Bottom-Up could be the way to go.
Can you break down a project into phases?
Since we live in a real world (sadly), I am pretty positive that, most of the time, neither of the above mentioned work on their own, so using a mix of both methods might be a good solution. For example, you could break down the project into a few phases and implement Top-Down for the phases you know everything about, and ask your team to brainstorm on the ones you feel uncomfortable with.
What is resource in project management?
Resources is a general term for all the assets required for an organization’s successful functioning or meeting given objectives. Therefore, resources cut across the supply of money, materials, staff, and any other asset ...
When estimating project resources, do you need to review organizational policies on resource usage?
When estimating project resources, you need to review organizational policies on resource usage to know the limits you can go. Different organizations have policies and rules on how to ask for resources, assign projects, monitor work, and so on.
What are resources cut across?
Therefore, resources cut across the supply of money, materials, staff, and any other asset that goes into the project’s execution. However, knowing how to estimate all the resources required for a given project may not be as easy as it sounds.
Why is it important to divide the cost of tools and equipment over a low number of projects?
An important hack is to divide the cost of the tools and equipment over a low number of projects to have a realistic estimate of what will be spent on them.
What are the different types of resources?
Here are the common types of resources needed for different projects: 1. Labor. Labor is normally divided into three main categories: direct, indirect, and overhead labor.
When to decide how to get resources?
Once you have involved expert opinion to come up with a recommendation of the resources needed, it’s time to decide how to get them. If the resource has to be outsourced, you should consider whether it will be leased or hired.
When estimating the tools and equipment needed for a project, do you have to factor in those that the company may?
When estimating the tools and equipment needed for a project, you may have to factor in those that the company may have to outsource. Generally, these tools and equipment are used for more than one project, and therefore, when coming up with the estimates, you should remember to factor in the available ones.
What is the purpose of estimate activity resources?
Estimate Activity Resources is the process of estimating the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment, or supplies required to perform each activity. The key benefit of this process is that it identifies the type, quantity, and characteristics of resources required to complete the activity which allows more accurate cost ...
What is resource calendar?
A resource calendar is consulted to determine if the resource is available. This can be a simple listing of when Bill or Mark will be on vacation or occupied on another job site. Or it can be an actual calendar within software that manages the workforce of an organization. Although the exact placement of each task is determined at the very end of the scheduling process using a technique called resource levelling (described at the end of this tutorial) at this point it is sometimes beneficial to consult the resource calendar to make sure the schedule isn’t seriously out of whack due to resource availability.
What is labor required to produce deliverables but doesn't directly translate into production?
Work that is required to produce deliverables but doesn’t directly translate into production. This includes things like quality control, production supervision, and yes, project management. This type of labor needs to be included in estimates to give an accurate project cost.
What is parametric estimate?
Parametric Estimating. In this method the work is drilled down into a unit cost, for which an estimate exists from published data or prior experience. For example, the cost per square foot of log home can be gleaned from previous projects. In the engineering industry almost everything is done this way, from the engineering time down to the construction materials.
What is the term for the portion of the organization's administration cost that the project must pay for?
Organizational/Administration. The portion of the organization’s administration cost that the project must pay for.
Why is it important to divide the cost over a conservative amount of projects?
In this case it is important to divide the cost over a conservative amount of projects to get a realistic idea of how much the project is “paying” for it. Conservative means a low number of projects – You want to make sure you are justifying the cost of the equipment.
Is CEO's salary a project expense?
Overhead. Organizational administration costs like CEO’s salaries are not attributable to the project but, de pending on the organizational structure, sometimes must be paid for by all projects. Normally the organizational administration (non-project) expense is calculated yearly and divided among the number of employees to arrive at a unit rate which is added to the direct labor rate.
How to figure out how well your resources are used?
This helps you determine how well your resources are used. You come up with that figure by dividing the planned hours by the total workable hours in the project. Multiply that by 100, and you have a percentage to find out how effective your resource is working. You want to see about 80 percent, for less than that is under-utilized and more leads to burn out.
Why is resource utilization important for project managers?
Finally, the process of resource utilization gives project managers the tools to work more agilely. They have the flexibility to reschedule their resources fast, which means they can avoid problems or untangle themselves from issues quickly. It keeps the project on track.
Why Is Resource Utilization Important?
It should be clear why resource utilization is critical to running a project, but it doesn’t hurt to get deeper into the benefits of such a process. For one, utilizing your resources is key to staying productive in your project. If your team is overburdened, they’re not going to perform at their optimum level.
Why is resource management important?
It’s best to have a resource management tool that gives you a centralized location by which to see all your projects, tasks and resources, so you can make more informed decisions. Being able to adjust your team’s workload is essential to good resource utilization.
What is resource allocation?
Resource allocation is how a project manager picks his team for the project, and manages them throughout that project. This includes any reassignments and changes to their workload as needs arise.
What is the most important resource in a project?
Your most important resource when managing a project is your team. They need tools, equipment, materials and more to get the job done, of course. But without people who have the skills and experience to use those tools and materials, your project isn’t going anywhere. Therefore, those who are tasked with managing a project ...
What is FTE in project management?
Depending on your project, you might want to do so more regularly. There’s also something called full-time equivalent (FTE), which is also a means to figure out the available work hours of your team. Basically, it’s the hours worked by one full-time team member.
Why is it important to identify what resources are needed for a project?
Identifying what types of resources will be needed for a project, their quantities and time-periods of requirement will help with budgeting appropriately for all inputs required over a projects duration. This is an important process that will help to create a cost effective and time sensitive project.
What are the inherent uncertainties in planning resource requirements?
There is an inherent element of uncertainty in planning resource requirements for a project, particularly for projects running over a long period of time. It may be useful to look at the resource requirements of similar projects to gain a better understanding of what could be needed. Unforeseen issues may be encountered, such as loss of staff, external delays or changes to the local context, which will generally be beyond the projects control. To overcome these issues, the project may need to be modified which can require additional resources. Resource suppliers may not always be dependable and it is therefore important to assess their reliability. This can be done through speaking to local stakeholders to learn about their previous experiences.
What is project requirement?
Project requirements refer to the actions, processes, and conditions of the project, for example, milestone dates. Quality requirements describe any conditions or criteria used to validate project deliverables. Common examples of project requirements include: Uptime requirements for a service.
What are the different types of project requirements?
Types of Project Requirements. Project requirements are typically categorized as functional or non-functional requirements: Functional refers to the capabilities, usability, features, or operations of a product. Functional requirements describe the response of a system to inputs such as user behavior or data.
What is functional requirement?
Functional requirements describe the response of a system to inputs such as user behavior or data. Non-functional requirements are often directly related to functional requirements, for example, how quickly an app loads in a browser.
What is a project?
A description of how a system should behave. A property or attribute of a system. The final outcomes of the project – a product, service, or result – are measured against the agreed requirements. Requirements drive every stage of the project. A project is initiated to solve a business need.
What is project scope?
Project scope refers to the work, and only the work, needed to deliver the project on time and within budget. Scope is recorded in the Project Scope Document, which describes project deliverables, the required work, expected business value, ...
How many projects fail due to requirements?
According to the Project Management Institute, up to 70% of projects fail due to issues with requirements.
What is a stakeholder requirement?
Stakeholder requirements, the needs of a stakeholder or group. As the project manager, you will work closely with stakeholders to select high-value requirements in the project plan.
How to calculate the number of employees needed for a project?
To determine the number of employees a project will need for completion, you’ll start by calculating the total FTE required for the project. To do this, divide the number of Man Days (MDs) or the number of days it would take one individual to complete the project by the length of the project (also expressed in days):
How to calculate FTE for a project?
Your project FTE is 2 (10 divided by 5). You then divide 2 by 0.8 to get 2.5. This means you’ll need two full-time employees and one part-time employee for the project. Of course, the number of employees needed for any project can be divided however you like. You could use one full-time employee and three part-time employees or two-full time employees and a third full-time employee for half of the project.
How much time does a person spend on non-project work?
The exact amount of time a person spends on non-project work will vary by company and role. You can conduct an internal analysis to find this number, or you could start your planning with an educated guess and update as needed. At Meisterplan, we estimate that employees spend approximately 20% of their capacity on tasks that are outside of project work. That leaves 80% capacity per employee for project work. This means that each person working full-time hours actually has an FTE of 0.8 and not 1 (because we’ve reduced their FTE by the amount of time they don’t have to work on projects). If your organization experiences a lot of resource constraints, overestimating the real capacity of employees could very likely be the culprit. Using an FTE of 0.8 for full-time employees is a great place to start if you aren’t sure about real capacity in your organization.
How to calculate FTE?
Once you’ve defined full-time hours, you can calculate FTE by dividing the amount of time an employee works by your full-time hours: If an employee works 40 hours a week and your organization has defined full-time hours as 40 hours a week, then that employee counts as 1 FTE.
What is a role in a project?
A role describes the primary task area of a person on a project. The PMO (particularly in larger companies) often plans with roles such as project manager, junior consultant or senior consultant instead of planning on a resource level.
Can a resource planning formula transform?
While a resource planning formula isn’t a magic wand and can’t instantly transform your planning , we can show you how to better improve your planning process with a few straightforward calculations.
What Are Resources in Project Management?
- When it comes to project management, resources include items needed to deliver a project, programme or portfolio. These could include: 1. People 2. Funding 3. Machinery 4. Labour 5. Time 6. Materials 7. Technology 8. Property 9. Anything else required to deliver the work. Resources c…
Resource Planning Definition in Project Management
- Before thinking about executing a project, a manager must understand the project in its entirety and have a firm grip on how it will proceed through its lifecycle. And resource planning should be an integral part of the preparation stage. According to Project Management Institute’s Certification Academy, resource planning is the “process of estimating the types and quantities …
Improving Your Project Resource Planning
- Resource planning happens right at the start, and it can set your project on a pathway to success. Your next project can beat the odds by staying within your budget and fulfilling your client’s needs. Here at MetaPM, we tailor cost-effective resourcing solutions to help you meet your targets. Whether you need a couple of days of high end consulting or full-time, hands-on support, our exp…
Resource Estimation
Estimation of Activities’ Duration
- Once you have finished estimating resources per activity, you have everything you need to understandhow long it will take to complete each activity. Estimating the duration of a task means starting with information about that specific task and then working with the project team to develop a time estimate. Most of the time you will start with a rough estimate and then refine it. …
Project Planning and Critical Roadmap
- The project programmust be approved and signed by the stakeholders and functional managers. This ensures that everyone is familiar with the program, including dates and resource commitments. In addition, (written) confirmation will be required that resources will be available as indicated in the planning. Once approved, the program will become the baseline for the rest o…
Resource Balancing
- Resource balancing is used to examine and resolve the unequal use of resources, usually related to people or equipment, over time. During the execution of project planning, the project manager will attempt to plan certain activities simultaneously. As the project progresses, however, there are situations where more resources – such as equipment or people – may be needed than are …
Start Now Estimating Correctly
- Regardless of project size or budget, estimating activitiescan be a challenging task and a project management software could be of great help!7 Twproject can help a project manager during assignment showing the resource workload, in order to understand if he/she is able to accomplish the task in the given time. It can also help balancing resources: Twproject can help you scheduli…
Estimating Techniques
Types of Resources
- At this stage each task on the task list is scrutinized and the resources required to perform the task are identified. For small projects there are four major types of resources: 1. Labor 2. Tools & equipment 3. Material & supplies 4. Fixed cost items like subcontractors, etc.
Labor
- Accountants divide labor into three categories: 1. Direct.Work that results in production units. The hourly unit rate of a laborer, or a salary divided into the number of days or hours they work on the project. It must also include benefits, retirement contributions, bonuses, and any other expense associated with the employee. 2. Indirect. Work tha...
Tools & Equipment
- This category generally includes all of the items that do not go into the finished product. Things like drill bits that are used up during a project, or the addition of new tools that the company doesn’t already own, and equipment such as software, forklifts, and excavators. Often the tools and equipment will be used over multiple projects. In this case it is important to divide the cost o…
Materials & Supplies
- This includes the items that become part of the finished product, like timber for a log home or gravel for the driveway. Often these items are quoted by the unit, such as per footof timber. Normally you have to calculate the exact quantity and include a bit extra, for things like: 1. The material is not produced in the exact lengths required. 2. The project will generate some waste. …
Fixed Cost Items
- Often everything else can be lumped together into fixed cost items. For example, subcontractors are a common requirement which must be tracked under each task. But be careful to read the fine print or you might discover the hard way that it isn’t as “fixed cost” as you think. Contracts, by definition, identify a scope of work and a price associated with it, and in every industry that I kno…
Other Resources
- For larger projects, or where greater project management effort is justified, the following resources can also be used. 1. Organizational/Administration.The portion of the organization’s administration cost that the project must pay for. 2. Facilities. The purchase or rental of buildings to perform the work. 3. Financing costs.The interest cost for loans required to carry out the proj…
Example
- An example resource list for a log house project might look like this. It is broken down into tasks and each task is assigned resources, to whom quantity and cost estimates are produced. Therefore, once all of the individual tasks are added up the total cost for the log house is: