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The corporate challenge to continue to “do more with fewer resources” is a realistic scenario for corporations streamlining their operating budgets. Unsurprisingly, the cost pressures driving cost cutting and resource consolidation rarely seem to slow the work pipeline. Managers and business customers rarely ask project managers to “stop doing what you’re doing because you’re losing resources”. Instead, they are asked to find creative ways to deliver. Managers often hear the request for additional staff to support a project. Requests can be ineffective if they don’t have the supporting data to justify additional resources. The end results are headcount headaches that leave the project manager feeling frustrated, project resource risk unmitigated and the management team feeling like the project team is simply complaining. Does this scenario sound familiar? Instead of walking away with the ineffective mantra “work smarter not harder” ringing in your ears, a properly crafted resource proposal can increase the chances to increase in headcount for your project. In 2007, I wrote a series of articles on “Meet the Resource Management Model” that demonstrated how resource graphs can be used to model resource forecasts for current and future work in the project pipeline. The resource modeling technique can be used to develop a resource justification proposal. On a recent outsourcing program, an additional resource was needed to manage production support or manage the upcoming software release for the next phase in the program. Senior management believed the company resource requirements would be minimal since the project was heavily outsourced to various suppliers. The reality was the company’s project team comprised of a program manager and another project manager that were overloaded with juggling project delivery while responding to daily production support problems. Instead of simply complaining about the need for an additional resource, the team developed a resource management proposal that included a current AS-IS snapshot of resource allocation and a TO-BE snapshot that included the additional resources to effectively manage the current and future workload in the pipeline (Figure 1): Figure 1: AS-IS Resource Model The graph was able to illustrate the over-allocation of resources working. During various months in the project, the resource allocation ranged from 2.3 FTE to 2.94 resources. The team was able to clearly provide quantifiable evidence that the amount of work required to deliver their portion of the project was unrealistic given current staffing demands. The model also reported all the scheduled tasks the team was working on throughout the project. Instead of complaining about the lack of resources, the team provided a proposal that provided clear evidence that the team was over-allocated. The second graph was a TO-BE resource model assuming the project could add one additional project manager. The model illustrated all three resources being allocated to project activities with no over-allocation (Figure 2). The model also included a six-month resource forecast after the project completion. Management was able to see how resources would be allocated to support the project and then reduced to accommodate the reduced workload: Figure 2: TO-BE Resource Model The resource proposal contained the following key sections: The end result was that additional funding was allocated to add another project manager to focus on the upcoming release. The proposal was instrumental in clearly describing the problem, presenting objective evidence and building a case for additional resources. Building a resource proposal using the resource management model doesn’t guarantee resources will be added to your project. However, it does provide quantifiable evidence that justifies the resource request and may provide the cure for your project’s headcount headache. It will also help explain how current resource levels are affecting service level agreements or team project performance. To get started building your own resource proposal, download the attached resource justification template and review Part 1 and Part 2 of the “Meet The Resource Management Model” series.
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