How to Successfully Share Resources (Part 1)

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  New Practitioners   Resource Management  

The simple truth for new project managers is that the projects they are assigned to don’t usually matter much to their organization. They are generally small and relatively easier projects that are given to new PMs simply because they represent a fairly “safe” environment to gain experience and begin practicing the discipline. However, those small, straightforward, relatively less important projects can come with some significant challenges.

One of those challenges that happens quite frequently is the need to share resources. It may be that a team member is allocated to two different projects, or that they have to spend some of their time working in an operational or support capacity in addition to the time spent on the project. In theory, this is simple: X% of the individual’s time is spent working on the new PM’s project, Y% of the time is spent on something else.

The reality is rarely that simple. In fact, it can be so complicated that I am actually going to take two articles to address it.

Not all work assignments are perceived to be created equal
Everyone involved with a resource who has to split their time between two distinct work areas will have a perspective on the relative importance of each project (let’s keep it at two for simplicity, though I have seen resources split across more—which is not a good idea). The …

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