Resource Planning
Resources Planning entails determining what resources (people, equipment,
materials, tools) should be used to perform project activities, and
how much of each resources is required. In a team technology is more
complex and the structure needs to be more specific and concise. In
order to accomplish the goal it is necessary to have a clear understanding
of the reliability of the resources and technologies available. Viewing
your team members as part of the team’s resources is also integral
to the success of the team. On a real project resource planning would
be closely coordinated with cost estimating and budgeting.
Knowledge needed to do Resource Planning
1. List and describe resources (strengths and weaknesses) of each individual
that will be needed for your project (include resources needed to do
experiment, oral presentation and written paper). Resources include
technical knowledge your team already possesses relating to the project.
These technical skills and knowledge will be of interest to laboratory
staff and faculty advisor and other team members. How will each team
member's technical abilities impact upon the completion of the project?
Experiment:
Team Member #1
Team Member #2:
Written Paper:
Team Member #1:
Team Member #2:
Oral Presentation:
Team Member #1:
Team Member #2:
Are there any changes you wish to make in your scope statement now
that you have this new information? If so, go back and change the scope.
Special Knowledge is needed to develop and apply methods, equipment,
and tools to produce a particular outcome. What do you have to read
and learn to perform the experiment, oral presentation and written papers?
Only list those items necessary for the project that will take extra
time to learn.
Other Resources: List the other people and any other resources you
will need - i.e. equipment, other staff members, teaching assistants.
Then remember to include them in your action plan when needed.
Activity Lists and Time Estimating
Activity lists can be used to further break down the project tasks
and help you manage the team's time. They can help to keep the team
focused. The team use the weekly activity list to review and sub-divide
the shorter term goals into weekly objectives (sub-goals) and to plan
specific tasks for each laboratory session. Many teams use the activity
list to review whether or not they have left enough time to accomplish
each task.
Once the tasks are assigned the individual team members integrate them
into their own weekly planners. Each team member must take responsibility
to keep to the committed deadlines and agreements about time spent on
their tasks. The weekly planner is the individual team member's method
of tracking what he/she needs to accomplish to be effective and efficient.
It is a good idea to make sure that the Time Estimates each person is
using for tasks are accurate. Discussions about the accuracy of individual
time estimates should be done before each lab period and at weekly meetings.
There may come a point where the overall objective may need to be adjusted
because of the time constraints of the project. The earlier the team
makes this decision, the better you will be able to redirect your project
to ensure that you still obtain meaningful results.
Teams utilize activity lists more in the formation and criticism stages
of team building. As the team becomes more proficient at collaborating
about time management you will soon notice that tasks are being completed
on time, communicating problems are handled more efficiently and that
planning future activity lists and action plans takes less time. The
team can then direct their focus to fine tuning their activities to
become high-performing.
Example of Some Activities: Project Management
Activity Lists:
List Activities you need to accomplish in the following areas:
Activities for Experiment: (Some of these are listed in the work
breakdown.)
Activities for Oral Presentation:
Activities for Proposal:
Activities for Written Paper:
Time Estimating
Are your goals and activities appropriate for the time available?
This a question that has to be answered before all the tasks are broken
down into weekly activities. The hardest part of the time management
task is assigning the time estimate to the activity. When estimating
time you might want to allocate more time than you think will be necessary
for your team to to complete each goal. Most teams underestimate how
long each task will take. To keep the team on track it is absolutely
necessary to review your time management system at your weekly team
meeting. In the beginning, you will probably notice a discrepancy
between the number of hours the team expected to use in certain tasks
and the actual number of hours the team spent. If the team finds that
more time is spent in one area than calculated and less in another,
this information can be used to plan future experiments efficiently.
Tool - Estimating Activity Time (EAT)
You have some historical data to draw upon for your time estimates.
You know how long it has taken each of you individually to prepare
for some of the tasks. Establishing the amount of time it will take
to collaborate and write a paper, support the oral presentation, run
experiments in the laboratory, etc. must rely upon assumptions. These
assumptions include, the optimistic completion time, the pessimistic
completion time, and the most likely completion time.
Optimistic Completion Times are predicated upon the assumption that
all will go according to your action plans. According to Kerzner (1999)
this occurs about 1% of the time.Pessimistic Completion Times are
predicated upon the assumption that everything will go wrong. This
also occurs about 1% of the time.
Most Likely Completion Times incorporate historical evidence, team
members committed time schedules, and your strategic management skills
to predict the time. This the time that you feel would most often
occur.
You can combine these three times into a single value for expected
timeby making the assumption that the probability distribution of
time required for an activity is expressible as a beta distribution
with a standard deviation that is one sixth of the range. (Hiller
& Lieberman, 1967). The expected time to do the task can be calculated
as:
te = expected time
a = optimistic time
b = pessimistic time
m = most likely time
Example
If:
a = 3
b = 7
m = 5 weeks
t = 5 weeks
Adapted from Kerzner H., 1998. Project Management A Systems Approach
to Planning, Scheduling, and Control.
Assign the activities involved in each Overall Objective to the appropriate
Team Member:
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