Fear No Project Blog – Focusing on the Management Side of Projects

I often think that resource management presents the single greatest challenge to project managers (Of course, that is on days other than the ones when I think that managing clients is the greatest challenge or days when I seem to be at odds with stakeholders in the organization). However, I can say with confidence that no project manager disputes that accurate and effective resource management is critically important to achieving project success.

A year ago when I reported on the challenges uncovered in a resource management survey done by an intern at Cognitive Technologies, I noted that the highest-ranking challenge was “Over-allocation of key resources and under-utilization of others.” So, I appreciated the Knowledge Nugget™ put together by one of our staff, Jennifer Jackson, on using Microsoft® Project server’s Project Web Access’ Resource Center to provide a quick visual of resource loading.  Being able to see resources and the loading that they have is key to understanding what I will call “the critical resource path.”

In her short Inside Tip article, Jennifer tells you how to search for specific resources, find projects using those resources and identify resource conflicts. Once you enter your query, the program provides a stacked bar chart of hours assigned to individuals organized by a date range and selectable time units. Here is an example she pulled together for her article.

Quick note:

The 2010 Resource Management Survey has been completed and I will be presenting some of the findings at the PMO Symposium in Dallas next week on Wednesday.  I will try to write up some of the findings in a future post next month.

Come by and see me at the Cognitive Technologies booth if you are in Dallas next week!