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Resource Loading an Integrated Master Schedule John Faucette Thurmont, Md, USA Hello everyone, This is my first post, but I figured what better forum to get information from a wide range of PMs. Our organization is combining multiple programs/projects into an organizational IMS, primarily for dependencies between programs/project- noble cause, makes sense. What doesn't make sense is that they want to resource load (and manage) from the organization level (e.g  Organization manager sees that Joe Engineer works 5 hrs on this task - 10 hrs on another...., within each program/project) Currently there are around 8K lines in the IMS, and it is expected to grow. I believe this is a very bad idea to manage at such a low level, from a high level, within a large IMS. I have been tasked to put together talking points as to why it's a bad idea. I would like to back my thoughts up with real-world or academic articles/evidence. What I would like help from the group with is to point me to some articles which I could reference, and/or pull statistics from to support my believe this is a bad idea And if you disagree with me, that's fine also, I'd like to know your reasoning Thanks in advance Saving Changes... Posted: Mar 21, 2024 6:47 AM (Updated by author: Mar 21, 2024 6:55 AM)

Sort By: Newest First Chronological Votes Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada John - Some concerns with this. 1. It will be impossible to ensure the data is accurate & complete. Some functional managers might be diligent and others won't so garbage in, garbage out. 2. It might illustrate but won't address the issue of having folks working on too many things. Leadership teams need to understand that you get better efficiency and effectiveness by letting people focus and if you are lacking sufficient bench strength in a particular competency then stretching folks thinner on multiple projects is not the way to go - learn to cut your coat according to your cloth! 3. Technical performance limitations will likely make using the scheduling tool and reporting from it extremely painful. 4. It also reeks of micromanagement. Kiron ... 1 reply by John Faucette Mar 21, 2024 8:00 AM John Faucette ... Thanks for the response 1. - agree, but that is possible in any scenario 2- agree 3 - not so much of an issue in this case 4 - EXACTLY! Saving Changes... Posted: Mar 21, 2024 7:27 AM John Faucette Thurmont, Md, USA Mar 21, 2024 7:27 AM Replying to Kiron Bondale ... John - Some concerns with this. 1. It will be impossible to ensure the data is accurate & complete. Some functional managers might be diligent and others won't so garbage in, garbage out. 2. It might illustrate but won't address the issue of having folks working on too many things. Leadership teams need to understand that you get better efficiency and effectiveness by letting people focus and if you are lacking sufficient bench strength in a particular competency then stretching folks thinner on multiple projects is not the way to go - learn to cut your coat according to your cloth! 3. Technical performance limitations will likely make using the scheduling tool and reporting from it extremely painful. 4. It also reeks of micromanagement. Kiron Thanks for the response 1. - agree, but that is possible in any scenario 2- agree 3 - not so much of an issue in this case 4 - EXACTLY! Saving Changes... Posted: Mar 21, 2024 8:00 AM Keith Novak Tukwila, Wa, USA Your organization would not be the first to try this, and likely to fail in predictable ways. Two practical issues that Kiron did not mention: 1) Moving people between projects takes real thought if done well. What are their strengths, what are they working at right now, etc. some of which is directly related to my second point. By the time you've spent the effort to evaluate the needs, who can move where, and tell everyone to switch chairs, the administration and delays outweigh any advantage you thought you might have. 2) As proven with studies on multitasking, human brains don't work that way. It requires stopping one thing and physically and/or mentally putting the tools away, switching to the new task, figuring out where it is at, and mentally engaging another subject. That is the absolute antithesis of one-piece-flow, which is a primary concept in Lean. We use an alternate method where we gather all the managers and senior managers each morning (we run 3 shifts 7 days a week), discuss what developments have happened, what's hot, what's paused, and then the managers decide who from their team can shift to help out a specific project. The simplicity and lack of fake computer aided precision works better at a practical level. Saving Changes... Posted: Mar 21, 2024 9:36 AM (Updated by author: Mar 21, 2024 12:57 PM) Rami Kaibni Community Champion Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada John, my fellow colleagues provided solid input. My concern is that resource loading at a granular level may result in resource fragmentation, where individuals are spread too thinly across multiple tasks and projects which can lead to decreased productivity and increased multitasking. What are your thoughts on this? Saving Changes... Posted: Mar 21, 2024 11:42 AM (Updated by author: Mar 21, 2024 11:42 AM) Sergio Luis Conte Helping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based Organizations Buenos Aires, Argentina You can find a lot on this searching the internet. But my recommendation is asking ChatGPT creating the question in the right format OR BETTER, ask to the new PMI AI Tool. Saving Changes... Posted: Mar 22, 2024 5:56 AM

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