Resource management

Resource management is the planning and assignment of people to project work. It covers who is available, who has the skills the work needs, and who is already committed elsewhere. Resource allocation is the part of it that assigns named people to specific work.

What does resource management cover?

Availability, skills, commitments and the forecast. Availability says how much time exists, skills say who can do what, commitments say what is already promised, and the forecast says whether the next quarter fits. Allocation follows from those four rather than preceding them.

What is the difference between resource management and capacity planning?

Capacity planning asks whether the volume of committed work fits the people available. Resource management goes further and decides who does what, with which skills, over which window. One is arithmetic, the other is also a judgement. Resource allocation is the part of resource management that assigns named people to specific work.

Why does resource management fail in practice?

Because the information sits in different places. Absences in an HR system, commitments in project plans, skills in somebody's head. Any one of the three being out of date makes the other two misleading. Resource management depends on all three, because it decides who is available, who has the skills and who is already committed.

What does good resource management produce?

Not full utilization. A plan that can absorb one disruption without renegotiating three projects, and assignments that can be defended with a figure when a fourth request arrives. It rests on current availability, skills, commitments and a forecast that says whether the next quarter fits.

Related terms

• Capacity planning
• Capacity utilization
• Workload management

troi keeps availability, skills and commitments in one view. See resource planning.