Balance Supply and Demand with Realistic Resource Management Practices
Balance Supply and Demand with Realistic Resource Management Practices
Create capacity forecasts that you can stand behind.
Onsite Workshop
Without a realistic strategy for resource management:
The steering committee will continue to approve more projects than resources can handle.
Resources will be overallocated, and there will be no statistical evidence of why or how too many tasks are allocated to staff.
With too many projects approved and not enough hours to complete them, projects will be delayed or sent to the backlog.
A realistic resource management strategy will result in:
An accurate, realistic picture of the time spent on different types of work.
The ability to forecast resource requirements to ensure that there is capacity to take on new projects in the future.
Opportunities to reclaim project capacity through minimizing work in progress, distractions, and interruptions.
Module 1: Take Stock of Organizational Supply and Demand
The Purpose
Obtain a high-level view of current resource management practices.
Identify current and target states of resource management maturity.
Perform an in-depth time-tracking audit and gain insight into how time is spent on project versus non-project work to calculate realized capacity.
Key Benefits Achieved
Assess current distribution of accountabilities in resource management.
Delve into your current problems to uncover root causes.
Validate capacity and demand estimations with a time-tracking survey.
Activities:
Outputs:
1.1
Perform a root-cause analysis of resourcing challenges facing the organization.
Root-cause analysis
1.2
Create a realistic estimate of project capacity.
Tab 2 of the Resource Management Supply-Demand Calculator, the Time Audit Workbook, and survey templates
1.3
Map all sources of demand on resources at a high level.
Tabs 3 and 4 of the Resource Management Supply-Demand Calculator
1.4
Validate your supply and demand assumptions by directly surveying your resources.
Complete the Time Audit Workbook
Module 2: Design a Realistic Resource Management Process
The Purpose
Construct a resource management strategy that aligns with your team’s process maturity levels.
Determine the resource management tool that will best support your processes.
Key Benefits Achieved
Identify the ideal dimensions to move forward with for the resource management project.
A tool selection that is appropriate for your processes and that your team will be able to support.
Determine a realistic amount of time and effort to dedicate toward maintaining the strategy.
Activities:
Outputs:
2.1
Action the decision points in Info-Tech’s seven dimensions of resource management.
A wireframe for a right-sized resource management strategy
2.2
Review resource management tool options, and depending on your selection, prepare a vendor demo script or review and set up Info-Tech’s Portfolio Manager Lite.
A vendor demo script or Info-Tech’s Portfolio Manager Lite.
2.3
Customize a workflow and process steps within the bounds of your seven dimensions and informed by your tool selection.
A customized resource management process and Resource Management Playbook.
Develop a plan to pilot your new processes to test whether you have chosen the right dimensions for maintaining resource data.
Develop a communication plan to guide you through the implementation of the strategy and manage any resistance you may encounter.
Key Benefits Achieved
Identify and address improvements before officially instituting the new resource management strategy.
Identify the other factors that affect resource productivity.
Implement a completed resource management solution.
Activities:
Outputs:
3.1
Develop a pilot plan.
Process Pilot Plan Template
3.2
Perform a resource management start/stop/continue exercise.
A refined resource management process informed by feedback and lessons learned
3.3
Develop plans to mitigate executive stakeholder, team, and structural factors that could inhibit your implementation.
Stakeholder management plan
3.4
Finalize the playbook and customize a presentation to help explain your new processes to the organization.
Resource Management Communications Template
Book Your Workshop
Onsite Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn’t enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our Project Workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a road map in place to complete your project successfully.
Book Your Workshop