Project Portfolio Management - Projects Must Effectively Use The Firm's Resources

In my last article I talked about the need for projects to contribute to a positive cash flow

. To continue with the series, I want to talk about some ways to effectively use a firm's resources.

1.Be aligned with the firm's strategy and goals

2.Be consistent with the firm's values and culture

3.Contribute (directly or indirectly) to a positive cash flow for the enterprise.

4.Effectively use the firm's resources - both people and resources

5.Not only provide for current contributions to the firm's health but must help to position the firm for future success.

Projects Must Effectively Use the Firm's Resources

In project management, resources are often referred to as anything required to complete a project task. This includes people, equipment, facilities, funding, or practically anything else capable of a definition. For project portfolio management to be effective, managers must learn to manage, allocate, schedule, and otherwise optimize the use of the firm's resources.

Here are a few ideas to help your company manage resources better:

1. Use Project Portfolio Management Software

With such a broad definition of resources, you need to be able to quickly and effectively move around resources to meet the varying needs of each project. The best way to do this is to let project management software do the work for you. With project management software, you can manage multiple projects from a single location. Good software allows you to quickly create projects and task lists, organize teams, and better control the flow of information and resources, saving you valuable time and money.

2. Organize Your Resources

One of the big advantages of using project management software is that it lets you organize your resources in a way that is simple and intuitive. Start by creating a simple organizational chart. Identify every employee, assign job roles, list skills and talents, and enter their current work schedule. By correctly identifying every employee and their role in the business, you can simply drag and drop users or roles into the various projects.

3. Establish Processes

Now that your resources have been organized, it is time to create project templates and establish workflow processes. Project templates are an easy way to layout routine projects. They identify the tasks, job roles, and scheduling requirements needed to complete the projects. These templates can increase productivity and shorten the time it takes to setup and manage projects.

When establishing the processes, be sure to identify the job roles needed to complete the various steps. If your software is setup correctly, you should be able to simply drag a user with the given job role and place him/her into the process. That user is then automatically scheduled to work for a given period of time and the resource grid will show him/her as being unavailable during that time frame.

4. Manage Resource Conflicts

Resource grids let you see in a calendar where your team is over- or under-utilized and where each team member is allocated. By seeing each team member, you can quickly identify resource conflicts and then resolve those conflicts with the Resource Leveling tool. With the click of a button, resources are reallocated and project completion dates are automatically adjusted to accommodate for the new resource restrictions. Additionally, the Capacity Planner lets you see the impact of adding to or changing your current plan. You can adjust the schedule or the resource budget and push your changes "downstream" to your project managers.

Conclusion

By following the steps listed above, your company will be in a better position to select projects that effectively use your firm's resources. Project portfolio management is about choosing the right projects at the right time. As your company better understands and manages its resources, it will be in a better position to select projects that fully utilize its available resources.

by: Jessie L. Warner

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