Resource Management: Still Excelling or Already Planning?
April 8, 2024 | 4 min
Even though Excel is probably the most frequently used application for conceptualizing initiatives and projects, successful project managers rely on specialized software when it comes to resource planning. This article reveals why this is the case, the limitations encountered with conventional resource planning methods, and what project managers should consider when transitioning to a professional resource management solution.
Resource management is one of the supreme disciplines in project management: the efficient use of resources, particularly the economical deployment of specialized personnel, is crucial for the economic success of projects and is therefore relevant for the entire company. Even before the shortage of skilled workers, special attention was paid to sensible planning and control of the resources available in the company. As is usual in project management, in this article we understand resource planning primarily as the planning of the deployment of people in a project.
Excel Is No Longer Sufficient
Excel and similar spreadsheet programs are popular in companies when it comes to quickly creating an overview of tasks and smaller projects. There are good reasons for this: They are easy to use at first, offer a variety of graphical evaluations, there are usually no costs for acquisition, and the IT department does not need to allocate resources for providing a tool. A team or a smaller department does not need to allocate resources for providing the tool. A team or a smaller department can thus quickly and easily plan their line activities with Excel & Co., i.e. distribute the tasks usually arise among the individual persons.
But how meaningful is this planning really? Are vacations, sabbaticals, sick days, and training sessions already taken into account when distributing the work? How are the different working time models of the employees handled? How are the different working time models of the employees handled? Is it also reflected that some of them have days off on certain weekdays or, for example, are only available in the mornings? These details are indispensable for reliable resource planning.
High Error Proneness and Version Trap
All this information, along with changes, innovations, and deviations in planning, must be maintained manually. Depending on the size of the team or department, the effort for this can reach alarming proportions. The larger the department and the more projects and tasks there are, the more time must be invested in their planning and control. Time that can definitely be used more wisely.
However, it is not only the excessive maintenance effort for resource management via Excel & Co. that is problematic. It is also very error-prone: if the planning is saved locally in a file, for example, and in the worst case sent to the individual team members by email, the department, the team, quickly falls into the version trap: which is the valid version of the planning? If this dilemma is solved by the individual team members having access to the planning file, the susceptibility to errors increases again.
No Benefit for the Company
Probably the greatest damage caused by resource planning via Excel & Co. is that it is only an isolated solution and therefore brings no benefit to the corporation or the company as a whole. The planning data in Excel can hardly be used outside the team. Typically, different planning templates are usually used in different departments. This means that the organization cannot run data queries across the different resource plans. A holistic capacity planning is not possible.
This particularly hinders cross-team and cross-departmental resource management significantly. Especially in a matrix organization, where project team members come from various functional departments and are engaged in both project tasks and line activities, resource planning poses a real challenge. A frequent point of conflict: the project managers have to find suitable personnel for the various processes in their initiatives, while the department heads have to ensure the operational running of their departments. Here, a comprehensive capacity overview, displaying the utilization of individual employees and departments, provides a solid data foundation for personnel deployment planning (staffing).
Resource Planning across Company Boundaries
Comprehensive capacity planning forms the basis for the optimal use of resources and for ensuring that all projects are staffed with suitable employees. The more complete the information on the capacity utilization of individual employees and departments is, the more precise the planning will be. This also applies to projects involving external employees or even several organizations.
Efficient and complete resource planning has become firmly established as an important success factor in project implementation. The benefits of efficient resource management for portfolio management should also not be underestimated. The basis is capacity planning that is as complete as possible and includes the current and future capacity utilization of employees and departments. This information flows into a portfolio that contains all current projects and approved initiatives. If new initiatives are applied for and checked for feasibility, resource bottlenecks quickly become apparent. For example, a resource report can then provide clarity as to whether another date simply needs to be found for the planned project, whether the use of external employees is a solution or whether another planned or ongoing project with a lower priority needs to be paused.
Finally, comprehensive, efficient resource management also offers role-dependent perspectives:
- Project staff are given an overview of their current and future tasks. They can see the individual tasks for which they are scheduled and how much time they have available to complete the tasks.
- Project managers can easily and reliably identify resource bottlenecks in the project. They can see in which sub-projects, project phases or activities there are too few staff available and can take appropriate countermeasures.
- The management receives a reliable representation of the overall utilization of the workforce. This enables them to strategically manage the portfolio of current and future projects efficiently.
- The HR department can derive from the current workload situation and planned future initiatives where personnel needs exist, and which training measures are required to develop any skills that may be needed in the company in the future.
About the Author
Felix Bernhardt, Product Manager Resource Management, cplace
Felix Bernhardt has been working for cplace in various positions for more than 6 years. Initially, he worked as a consultant supporting customers in the implementation, rollout and further development of their project and resource management. He now contributes his extensive experience and knowledge in this area as product manager for the new resource management of cplace. His focus is on a solution-oriented approach that takes into account different methods and levels of maturity in the planning and management of human resources.
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