An Overview of the Project Resource Plan - Example and Explanation

An Overview of the Project Resource Plan - Example and Explanation
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Why Do Projects Need A Resource Plan?

Resource planning is a key aspect of project management as the success of a project is directly dependent of how the resources are allocated and how optimally they are used. Having a resource plan also means that the teams don’t have to juggle and struggle for resources as and when they need them. Let’s take a look at how a resource plan can be made.

What Goes into a Project Resource Plan?

A quick look at any resource plan will reveal two important things that must be given due attention  –

  • Human and Non-human resources must be accounted for in separate sections, and
  • The resource requirements should be analyzed individually for each phase of the project

Here’s more on what goes into each section of the Excel spreadsheet. The top most section contains some basic details about the project such as the name of the project, the name of the particular process for which the resource plan is being made, the name of the creator and the authorizing personnel, and the date on which the plan was prepared. It’s worth noting here that the resource plan can either be made for the entire project if it’s a small project or for some process which is a part of a larger project.

Project Human Resource Requirements

The human resource and skill requirements will vary considerably during each phase of the project; accordingly our example of a project resource plan shows these requirements in terms of the different type of skilled professionals required for executing different aspects under each phase. The resource details include the following: Task or Deliverables: Here you can have either the name of the task or a short description of it. In our example the tasks identified for the first phase are – site layout and design, developing and installing JavaScript, developing content and procuring images. Resource Type: The resource type refers to what type of a professional is needed to execute the said task. For instance – programmers, designers, writers or photographers, as in our example of building a website, are the different resource types needed. Source: This section is meant for listing the source which will make the desired professionals available for accomplishing the tasks. If the professional is from within the organization you can simply write ‘Internal’ under the source and if you’re outsourcing the process to someone then the name of the agency or the name of the professional can be put here. Skill Level: Some tasks require a clearly identified set of skills to be executed properly, if there are any such requirements these can be detailed out in this section. Continuing with the example these skills may be – knowledge of Macromedia Flash for the designing professionals, APA writing style for content writers, and knowledge of JavaScript for the programmer. Quantity: This is simply the number of professionals needed for completing a task.

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Hours Required: This is an estimate of the total number of hours that will be needed for completion of the task. Controller: Here goes the name of the person or team at whose deposal the resource will be and who will have full authority over allocation of the resource.

Non-Human Resource Requirements

These requirements are again classified along the different phases and for different tasks or deliverables. The fields in this section are similar to the one above, except that it doesn’t require any information about the skill – obviously material resources do not have any skills, and a new field has been added to this section which requires a cost estimate of the resource. The cost estimate can be the cost of purchasing a particular resource or the lease/rent amount in case you’re acquiring a resource on a temporary basis.

Resource Assumptions

Every aspect of a project has some assumptions and so do the resources, so whatever assumptions have been made at the time of resource planning can be detailed out in this section. For instance, the assumptions can be like a ballpark figure for an equipment lease or mentioning an external source while the deal is not yet final.

Resource Risk and Mitigation Strategies

This section is meant to detail out all the risks associated with the project resources and the mitigation strategies that will be used to nullify the risks in case they crop up during the execution of the project.

Detailed List of Sources

The last section is a list of the sources from which the resources are to be procured. This list can either be included within the resource plan as in our project resource plan example or it can be attached as an annex to the resource plan. This must contain some basic details about the source such as the name of the source, the physical location of the agency, the name of the contact person there and the contact details.

References & Credits:

  1. ProjectInsight.net
  2. Fujitsu - Project Resource Planning

Image Credit: Image by – Sidharth Thakur