How to Allocate Resources on Projects
Apply these five practical tips for allocating resources to ensure your project's success and your team's
satisfaction:
1. Every Task Has an Owner
Each task on your project schedule must be attached to one team member whose job it is to see it
through completion. If you're not delegating work, then you're not managing. It's as simple as that.
You're responsible for knowing the individual team members, their strengths and weaknesses, and
then fitting them to the appropriate tasks for their skills. Do this by making a profile for everyone in
your online project management tool, including listing their skills and availability. Then you can
allocate them to individual tasks and manage their workload.
2. Assign Work to the Right People
This cannot be stressed enough. If you're allocating tasks to someone who is overburdened with work
then they'll likely fail to accomplish their assignments or do a poor job across multiple tasks, neither of
which is a viable path to project success.
You also need to assign tasks to team members with the right skillset to do them. There are resource
planning features in ProjectManager.com that make it easy to see who on the team has time available
in their schedules, as well as group resources according to skills and abilities. You will always know at
a glance who is available and skilled for the task.
3. Reports Can Help
You may wonder if you have time to create reports when you're busy manaing your teams and their
tasks. Well here's a secret: reports can be created in minutes if you have the right tools. With
simplified resource reporting tools in your online planning software, you can track the progress of your
team on individual projects or across all your projects, drill-down to each individual member, and
make sure they're working within the time allocated... all with the click of a couple buttons.
4. Get Real-Time Progress Monitoring
If you can see your project in real-time (and not snapshots that are already antiquated by the time
they've developed), then you're truly monitoring your project. When you have real-time date you can
adjust the team accordingly in context to what they're doing right then and now.
Accurate timesheets are crucial for this, so make sure your team records their time regularly so your
dashboards are always up-to-date. Then you have the visibility to tweak the schedule or re-allocate
work on the fly, and prevent potential delays before they happen. Not only does this support the
project, but it also maintains a high morale among your team because they know you're actively
managing them.
5. Re-allocate work as needed
The one thing all project managers know is that projects change. You can make a beautiful plan, but
people, tasks and deliverables will shift and change throughout. You need to be able to re-allocate
work easily to meet changing needs within the project.
But before you start re-allocating work in your online plan, take the time to talk to your team. Explain
to them individually the reasoning behind your actions and how it's best for the project. This way
you'll get the work done and keep good relations with the team.
