Process > Resource Management

Results from the 2010 Project Resource Management Survey reveal differences of perception between upper-level executives and project managers.

Let’s assume that we’re all new PMs or new to project management. What do we do with this thing that has been dropped in our lap? It’s all about exuding confidence and following best practices.

Organizations need a clear picture of resource availability to confidently take on new projects and react to sudden market opportunities. Otherwise, valuable resources are wasted or misused. While there’s no silver bullet for capacity planning and resource management, there are four distinct dynamics that improve success.

This series of resource management articles will describe an overview of a resource management model, how to build one, maintain the model and support decision making for the project portfolio.

Project Management Institute is seeking proposals from scholars both within and outside the field of project management for research with a direct application to any aspect of the Project Management Body of Knowledge or its practice.

Once project managers understand the benefits of a resource management model, the next step is to construct the model. The following steps will provide you with a tool to build a resource management model.

The past two articles introduced the resource management model and provided step-by-step instructions to build the model. Now we look at the ever-important updating that needs to be done.

Resource management is indispensable to professional service firms, yet most consulting firms are only able to plan their resources three months ahead and many feel they do not have all the information or formal systems to manage resources effectively, according to a new survey. Here are 10 best practices for effective resource management.

Building a resource proposal using the resource management model doesn’t guarantee resources will be added to your project. But it does provide quantifiable evidence that justifies the resource request...and may provide the cure for your project’s headcount headache.

This article outlines three easy steps to sell the concept of resource management so it can be easily and proactively adopted within a business team and ultimately maintained long term.

During project delivery, the manager often relies on his project team and the extended network of project, program and portfolio managers to solve PM challenges. The Virtual Communities of Practice project provides a useful resource for PMs to leverage.

The past few articles have demonstrated how to build the model. After modeling an organization’s resource capacity, managers can apply the tool to portfolio management.

We're all actors on a project stage...and a well-written planning document sets us up for a successful project. Here, we explore the key elements of this all-important effort.

Many organizations don’t have a formal project management office, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t appointed someone responsible for establishing and enforcing project management processes. If that someone happens to be you, here are some tips for bringing methods to the madness.

Supporting project delivery across project, program, PMO and portfolio management processes, BrightWork is a SharePoint-based collaboration tool that can be adapted to each organization’s capability and maturity level without overwhelming users with unnecessary functionality.

Risk analysis can feel like looking into a crystal ball to tell the future. Having a careful and detailed approach to qualitative analysis can stop the “guessitative” analysis.

Many organizations have not developed human resource management practices and policies to support projects. A new book from PMI seeks to address the need.

On the heels of being named a “Visionary” in the project and portfolio management market by IT analyst Gartner, Sciforma has released the latest version of its web-based PPM solution and joined the ranks of Registered Education Providers for PMI.

Project management tools can improve collaboration, team performanance and bottom-line results, but it doesn't always work out that way. Here are 10 all-too-common mistakes to avoid when implementing an online project management tool, along with some corresponding best practices to get it done the right way.

Lesson Learned #5: Remember to Resource Level the Project Plan.

PMOs might take a page from New York City’s war on crime, which produced a sustained drop in reported crime. By focusing on solutions instead of symptoms, then targeting the most serious strategic or execution-related pain points, a PMO is more likely to make a transformative impact.

Recently we surveyed members of two OPM3 groups and asked them what they thought the generic reasons for using OPM3 may be, and how OPM3 should be used. We also asked them how various stakeholders within an organization may view these questions. Their answers provide interesting food for thought.

In this time of tight budgets and limited resources, the ability to better manage the resources that you do have across the full portfolio of work is vital. Learn more about maximizing your resources--and how you can manage and distribute them more effectively.

When implementating a program or portfolio management solution, it is better to have 80 percent of the potential users of the system (adoption rate) using 20 percent of the system functionality, than to have 20 percent of the users exercising 80 percent of the system functionality.

Project management offices are often viewed as “overhead” by executive management and become the target of cutbacks in tough economic times. In fact, PMOs can help organizations weather the economic storm by prioritizing and aligning projects with strategic goals.

At Central Arizona Project, the IT department had 89 projects with significant resource management challenges. Although it began with all of these projects behind schedule, over budget and with low quality, it corrected these problems with OPM3. This story is about CAP’s Information Technology department and its journey of project management improvement through PMI's OPM3 assessment model.

The project management office has a different role in the operational team than in project teams. In general, there are two major reasons for having a PMO as part of the operational team--and it's up to the PMO to ensure that it is supporting operations instead of hindering them.

The pressure has never been greater to drive efficiency and contain costs, yet, in the words of Tom Peters, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness.” So wise companies use any business contraction to prepare for growth. They also realize that the kind of growth available to companies emerging from recession is not based on old business processes and models, but on innovation.

Portfolio managers don’t always need a full-feature package with all the bells and whistles. Reviewing the variety of solutions available led this writer to generate a basic list of PPM requirements as well as a few nice-to-have features--leading him to a recommendation.

New research publication from the Project Management Institute focuses on the impact of related disciplines such as human resources and supply chain management on trends in the project management field.

How project portfolio management transformed the way the city of Tacoma delivers goods and services to its 200,000 residents.

Recent alliances, acquisitions and implementations in the world of project and portfolio management.

Recent alliances, acquisitions and implementations in the world of project and portfolio management.

What is the most important factor in motivating your teams? Foster a sense of making progress on meaningful work. It doesn’t require a monumental breakthrough; in fact, small wins have the biggest impact. Here are four steps that can help create a more productive, happy and profitable work environment.

Contrary to a recent report, PMO longevity doesn't lead to greater success; PMO success leads to longevity. And PMOs that thrive share fundamental commonalities of alignment, from culture to customer, that they start getting right early in their existence. Here are six ways your PMO needs to be aligned.

Here’s our December 2010 roundup of the latest technology solutions and services for project leaders, teams and organizations, including an application to leverage SharePoint … Agile offerings for distributed environments and portfolio-level planning … mobile capabilities for PPM … a free project management tool for small teams ... and more.

As project managers, we are biologically programmed to groan whenever the thought of planning a new project comes up. Which begs the question: Is it possible to make planning a pleasurable experience? (Baby steps, dear readers...baby steps!)

Collaboration is a common theme throughout many of the leading trends for project management in 2012, as determined by a global panel of senior executives and subject matter experts.

A wide variety of technology solutions and services are available to help organizations implement, customize and improve their project portfolio management processes. Here is our August roundup of recent updates and announcements from CA, Daptiv, Innotas, Oracle Primavera, Planview, PowerSteering, Rally and others.

Is there any advantage to using Cloud-based project management tools to manage projects? Is it cheaper and more effective? Are the tools more feature-rich? And what about the disadvantages? Here is what some research has revealed…

How do you lead and develop resources across the miles? Having a strengthened project team can be hard enough if everyone is located in the same location, but how do you ensure success when the project is global in scope? In this article, we explore different aspects of team and individual development and leadership--and some of the specific challenges that are introduced in a global project.

Recent alliances, acquisitions and implementations in the world of project and portfolio management.

Interviewing candidates for a PMO position is different than hiring for a project manager position. The following interview questions are just a few that can be used to staff PMOs at various levels in an organization, and should be tailored according to the specific PMO’s form and function.

Recent alliances, acquisitions and implementations in the world of project and portfolio management.