It’s frustrating to realize that your project is not on track, and this is the reason why you must define well your resource planning strategy. As a leader, you have to make sure that new projects are launched only if the resources are in place.

Lack of resources means that the project will not be completed on time or within budget. Therefore, ensure that project managers have a preliminary schedule indicating the resources they need and the time period these resources will be needed to finish the project.

Here are 5 steps to define your resource planning strategy.   

1. Roles and skill levels

It’s always important to begin by identifying the roles and skills of employees required for the project. Use the historical information to uncover how each employee performed in their previous projects. It will help you to know how to assign the roles in the new project.

It requires a high level of planning so you should use an ERP system to find out the roles needed in various projects or departments and the performance of each employee. This will ensure the success of your project as you utilize your manpower optimally.

2. Determine the type of resources needed

When you use historical information, it will provide you with a better understanding of various aspects of the project. You will get to know the previous projects and the type of resources required for each role. The trick here is to be realistic so that you can utilize the resources appropriately.

For example, if the past project used 10 employees to complete it successfully, you don’t have to plan for 10 people too when you can do it with 8 employees. It’s also crucial to conduct research and get approvals to have a successful project.         

3. Assigning the roles

Once you understand the roles required for the project, you must match employees with those roles by taking into consideration their availability and capacity. While identifying the right individuals to take up those roles, give special attention to their skills-set and years of experience while performing the same tasks.

HRM is integrated into ERP systems to help you understand an employee’s history. It shows you a wide range of aspects such as visual reports.

As a project leader, you are in a great position to know the tasks for each project. The ERP system also assists you to understand the time period when your team members are busy. In this way, you can make plans for their time offs and do labor forecasting.

You must be in a position to know that there are some roles without the right people who can do the tasks. If this is the case, try hard to find someone one who fits in that role before beginning the project.

4. Get approval

Every resource plan has to be approved from the right stakeholders before you can implement it. Taking the resource plan to the project committee will mean that you have the necessary authority to work on your project.

This is a major step because you will require resources for the project. Importantly, the team will have a lot of respect for your leadership skills. Every project leader aspires to accomplish this step as it gives you a better opportunity for future work to be approved.  

5. Working on the first draft

Now that you have resources for the project, you can now create the work breakdown structure (WBS). At this stage, there is no point in doing it alone because you can seek help from your team members. After the WBS is formally approved by the stakeholders, you can now begin implementing the project.