As a project manager, understanding your project resources is decisive to achieving your project objectives and goals during the initiation stage. As such, it’s crucial to ask yourself, what are the necessary things we still need to acquire to complete our project successfully?
Project resources include people, budget, and materials. They all depend on one another. The project team can’t do their work without materials. On the other hand, project managers can’t purchase materials without a budget. Therefore, these resources should be managed by selecting suitable tools.
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Why should project managers understand project resources?
Every project manager should be responsible for the project goals and scope. And figure out the different resources you’ll need to meet those goals. It’s crucial to figure out resources before the project begins. That will help your team members to get their work done. As well as you will not be doing this directly, but you should support them to do their work. It is your job.
Following are the benefits of resource identification in the project without delay.
- To avoid accidentally understaffing the project – this may negatively affect the team’s progress. As a result, the project manager can not meet the deadlines of project tasks.
- To avoid mistakes when planning resources – this will help purchase necessary materials, hire vendors, or support overtime requests without wasting money. On the other hand, this is a great way to set up the team for project success.
Read More: 6 steps for creating an an effective resource management plan
When teammates know what they need to do their work, they can work on time and within budget. It will help them better set up to meet the project’s goals. Therefore, every project manager should understand how to manage their project resources effectively and efficiently. That is crucial for the project’s success.
Project Budget
Before beginning the project, project managers should estimate the amount of money. It will cost to complete the project. It’s called a budget. Simply put, the budget is the total cost of the project. Almost all projects have a budget because they need funding for miscellaneous expenses. The following are examples for that.
- Hiring people to complete project takes and milestones
- Buying the right materials or software
- Doing marketing after the project is completed
- Transportation
- Training
- Research and consultants
However, every project budget does not use these categories. It depends on the nature of the project. During the initiation stage, project managers should talk to the primary and secondary stakeholders working on the project to identify and understand the tasks needed to get the project done. When talking with the stakeholders, the following are the efficacious questions to help uncover hidden expenses.
- Are there any extra fees?
- Are there any taxes on products that you?
When creating a project budget, all this information will help you. And that you can use as a source and compare proposals from vendors and identify upcoming expenses. As well as you can track all money in and out of the project.
The project budget is a crucial resource when achieving the project’s goals. Therefore project managers can use specific tools to track project budgets like project management software, For example, Asana, Smartsheet, and Jira.
With this software, project managers can track the budget’s progress on complex projects effectively and efficiently. On the other hand, it’s crucial to ensure the budget is aligned with the project scope.
According to the triple constraint theory, budget/cost is crucial because if project requirements change, it will reflect new costs. On the other hand, it will negatively impact the project scope and time.
As a project manager, understanding the project budget will help secure funding, get insight into future project costs, create companies that operate efficiently, and reflect the progress and success of the project. As such, you should build an accurate and realistic budget as a part of your project plan because 24% of project managers say unrealistic budgets negatively impact projects. And it will reflect high costs and other problems. So, the budget is a vital resource of your project.
Project People
People are vital resources in the project. The project manager can’t complete the project tasks without them. As well as they help execute the tasks of the project. As a project manager, you should believe your team members and their variety of skill sets. And ensure they will complete their tasks by using resources effectively.
Read More: 6 importance of team building in project management
Furtherly, project managers should find the following best partners in the project.
- Who are the people most interested in the project’s work
- Who are the people aligned with the goals of the project
As a project manager, you should understand every person’s strengths and weaknesses. Then you can identify the right people to complete the project tasks. As a result, you can achieve your project milestones at the right time. On the other hand, you can utilize project resources effectively and efficiently without wasting them.
Furthermore, you can use project management software to collaborate with teammates. It will help to achieve project goals and utilize project resources effectively.
Project Materials
Materials are also one of the vital resources of any project. As well as materials may be different on every project. It depends on the nature of the project. For example,
- If you were working on a construction project, the material could include concrete, steel, wood, stone, etc. Those are tangible materials.
- If you were working on an IT project, the materials could include computers, hard drives, etc. It also has intangible materials, for example, software, online storage, etc.
All materials must be executed with the right people for a successful project without wasting the budget. As a project manager, you can use tools to manage the project’s materials effectively and efficiently. By implementing inventory management practices, you can ensure that the right materials are available at the right time. For example,
- Inventory software
- Real-time monitoring system
- Barcoding system etc.
The project manager should understand how to utilize project materials effectively with the right people and within the budget for the project’s success. On the other hand, project people can’t do their work without materials. Therefore, materials are also a crucial resource for any project.
Conclusions
Project resources include people, budget, and materials. Those are dependent on one another. As a project manager, it’s crucial to understand the function of each resource and determine how to manage all of them for the project’s success. As well as project managers can use project management software to track tasks, manage budgets and collaborate with teammates.
