Managing Multiple projects with limited resources

Estimating

Fabrizio Longobardi Gy ( Geneva ), Switzerland

Dear all,

I am looking for an easy way to show the impacts on my multi-projects plan of the allocation of one or more resources to a new urgent project. The resources are already working on other projects before re-allocation. Hope it is clear. Do you have an idea ?

Posted: Jun 4, 2002 6:27 AM

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Mike Edwards, PgMP, PMP Sr. Program Manager| Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

I too find this one difficult to deal with. There are two distinct pieces I tend to look at:

1) How long does the other project need them? Obviously this will cause a hole in your project for their availability. This is certainly the easier piece to deal with.

2) How long will it take them to get back into your project? This is much more difficult to quantify. I have used two methods....
a) reduce their availability for a period of time after their return. In essence you're saying their productivity will be lower during this period.

b) add a new 'dummy' task to represent the delay upon their return. The task is real, must have the remaining tasks dependant upon it, but does nothing towards acheiving your objectives.

Regardless of which option in (2) you use...make sure you sit down with the people actually doing the work and have them determine the impact. Much like they own the estimates, you need them to commit to what the impact is, and how much time they need to get back on-line with your project.

Good luck with this! I find this very difficult to quanity, and sell management on why they shouldn't rob you of resources. As PMs we're accountable for the success of our projects...kinda hard to do when you're loosing resources.

Mike

p.s. don't forget change management!! Without it you will have difficulty proving you didn't fail!

Posted: Jun 4, 2002 7:36 AM

Frank Patrick Boonton, Nj, United States

I'm sorry, but i don't see the challenge to this issue. If you have a project plan/schedule that reflects resource dependencies as well as hand-off dependencies, you should be able to easily demonstrate the effect of the loss of a particular resource.

But then again, if you don't have such a plan, or if you fail to faithfully update it, you don't have a leg to stand on.
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Posted: Jun 5, 2002 1:14 PM

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Managing Multiple projects with limited resources

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