"I don't manage them, I inspire & lead them". Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I manage resources as though they belong to someone else and I am only the custodian. In the case of people, it's easy: they truly belong to no one but themselves. Saving Changes...
I would give a practical answer rather than the generic charming answer. If your boss asked you why you are 6 months behind and only using 50% of your budget, "I'm leading not managing." might not impress them.
I try to understand both the current and future staffing needs. There are 2 sides to that: 1) The requirements of the planned work and 2) The capabilities and capacity of your team.
For the planned work, I would need to understand the nature of the ongoing work such as the skillset involved, the current staffing level and skill mix required, and the health of the ongoing projects. For the future work I would want to consider both the ongoing projects, and the new work expected.
For the team, I would want to understand the capabilities, capacity, and interests of the team members. That must be considered within the context of the organization such as do they work for you full time, is it a weak matrix org., etc.
If certain people are required on certain projects, such as they are the only ones with the skillset, I would create some sort of resource calendar to track when those critical people are required so they are available and not overloaded. I would try to ensure that each person is aligned to projects that fit both their skills and interests to the best extent possible. I would monitor the workload of each individual and whether they have enough work assigned which is about 70% of full time to account for overhead like training, and for surge capacity. Looking forward, I would add more planned work as people's current assignments start to wind down. Sometimes I might wait to assign someone more work if I know that I need to save them for a future assignment. I might also describe tools I use to do this such as the resource calendar, visual indicators of who's busy and who's not, etc.
In my humble opinion, approaching the question that way would be better to describe your ability to manage your staffing levels and skill mix considering current performance (including variances from the plan), as well as the longer term business plan for the organization. Saving Changes...
Abdelhamid CHELGHOUMProject construction manager | Sonatrach groupBatna, Batna, Algeria
in HR when they ask who to manage , don't think on the method, focus on what they are looking for, the answer can be found on the job discription Saving Changes...
Phil AkinwaleProject Management & Leadership Speaker, Coach, Trainer & Author| PRAIZIONMesa, Az, United States
I would answer from both the physical and human perspectives. You need to demonstrate thought regarding both resource dimensions which means having a plan and executing it to both manage/control the physical resources and influence/lead your people, develop them and build them up as well as manage the structure and administrative aspects. Saving Changes...
Marta Castro RodríguezProject Manager| iSoftStone Information Technology (Group) Co., Ltd.Beijing, Beijing, China, Mainland
I too agree that a more practical approach like Keith suggested would be a good response. ‘Resources’ is a broad term: equipment, people, money… and providing an application case example will give a better idea to the interviewer of how you can apply your knowledge and skills in resource management. Saving Changes...
Jessica MooneySenior Project Manager| PPDOrlando, Fl, United States
In this interview, they are probably asking for an actual example of your management skills and trying to establish your experience. Tell them the tools/processes you have in place (team development, team management, procurement, inventory, etc) and one example of how those methods have helped you. Saving Changes...
As a project manager, while managing resources I follow my basic principles which are below
* Understand which resources are in short supply and focus on them
*Agree on a common approach to prioritizing work across shared resources
*Embrace different ways of working across the organization and resources
* Realize resource management is an ongoing process
I recommend you to read this to crack PM Interview Questions.
https://www.projectcubicle.com/project-man...stions-answers/ Most probably you will encounter a few of them in your next PM Interview. Saving Changes...
