Lining up Resources

Kenneth has 14 years of healthcare experience in government and private industry. Over eight years of experience managing healthcare IT projects, operations, contracts, and personnel. His work experience includes project management, contracts and procurements, data analysis, claims adjudication, business writing, and business process modeling. Kenneth was certified in 2006 as a Project Management Professional.

  Resource Management  

Resources are the people that actually do the work on a project. If you cannot line up those resources in the correct roles at the correct time, you will not be able to accomplish your project.

This is true from the original initiation of the project to the final closing steps. Everyone plays their part and must be ready at the right time to contribute. Every project succeeds based on the people working on it, and it is up to the project manager to make sure those people are lined up appropriately throughout the project lifecycle.

Identifying Roles
One of the first steps in lining up the resources is to identify the different roles that are needed on the project. You should go through the list of tasks and the work breakdown structure and determine how many different roles there are—from analysts and developers to testers and any other role that is needed to complete the tasks.

In addition, you need to be able to define what responsibilities each role will have. In theory, this list should line up with the people available in the organization, but you may see a gap and be required to fill some roles from outside the company with contractors or consultants. This list of roles will be the starting point in lining up the people that will make your project a success.

Drafting a Schedule
The work breakdown structure and the tasks are only the first step. In order…

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