An Approach to Information Technology Resource Estimation and Scheduling

The success of any project (particularly information technology projects) hinges on the skills, abilities, and, most importantly, the availability of the resources that will work on the project. Accurately estimating and scheduling these resources are challenging at best and very difficult to near impossible at worst. Nearly all of the organizations I have come in contact with about this topic have echoed the same concern: resource estimation is difficult, time consuming, and sometimes the most challenging aspect of project management.

The Possible Causes of the Difficulties with IT Resource Estimation

I believe that the root cause of the difficulties associated with information technology resource estimation can be traced back to the following items in some way:

• Resource estimation is often confused with resource scheduling (these are separate activities).
• Resource estimation processes themselves may not be well understood.
• Information technology work can be highly variable in terms of scope and can often have many dependencies associated with task performance.
•  Information technology resources are often not solely dedicated to project tasks (split responsibilities of daily support and maintenance work).
• The same resources are often needed on multiple projects (e.g., multi-tasking dilemma).
• The culture …