Aligning People and Other Resources With Tasks

Resource Allocation:
Aligning People and Other Resources With Tasks

For the Smythe Project to succeed, Perry must have sufficient resourcesthat is, both people and thingsand use them efficiently and effectively. Resource allocation, a part of the organizing function, allows him to do that.

As Perry knows, a project manager has a wide variety of resources to employ, including people, supplies, equipment, and facilities. People, for most projects in general and for the Smythe Project in particular, are the predominant resource and, consequently, the major focus here to illustrate resource allocation principles.

Resource allocation involves four basic steps:

1. Identify the Tasks Involved

Perry goes directly to the network diagram to identify the tasks involved in his project. These tasks are the same ones as at the work package level in the work breakdown structure (see Chapter 6).

2. Assign Resources to Those Tasks

Perry starts determining how to best apply his resources. When assigning people resources, he considers several factors, including:

Availability

Available budget

Education/training

Equipment to do work

Expertise

Individuals desire or interest

Knowledge

Personality

Teaming

Perry also considers behavioral factors, such as personality. He recognizes that some people may not be suitable to do certain tasks (e.g., an engineer may well be unsuitable to do the work of a salesman).

Perry also considers the motivational tools at his disposal. He will use job enlargement, for instance, to challenge certain people to assume more responsibilities. He uses job enrichment to motivate other team members. And he considers job rotation. Of course, Perry recognizes that there are some risks, mainly the inability of the person to handle different or greater responsibilities. However, Perry is willing to take the chance in applying his people resources, since the potential payback in productivity will easily outweigh the risks.

When allocating resources, Perry applies the following heuristics (or rules of thumb):

With noncritical tasks, give preference to the task with the least float.

Give priority to tasks on the critical path.

If two activities are critical and have the same float, give preference to the more complex task.

3. Build a Resource Profile

The resource profile graphically displays the planned and actual use of one or more resources over the duration of a task, group of tasks, or entire project. The display is often a histogram, as shown in Exhibit 9-1. The x-axis shows a time continuum reflecting the early or late start and finish dates. The y-axis shows the cumulative hours to perform one or more tasks. The continuous vertical bars profile the cumulative hours that someone will work on one or more concurrent tasks.

The initial histogram often has an irregular shape. The high points are peaks, reflecting greater use of resources at a specific point in time. The low points are valleys, reflecting lower use of resources at a specific point in time. Exhibit 9-1 is an example of a histogram with several peaks and valleys.

An irregular shape to the histogram reflects that resources are being employed inefficiently or ineffectively. The peaks may indicate that the schedule is too tight (i.e., compressed durations), thereby requiring extensive overtime to complete the work. The schedule may be too loose (i.e.,

Exhibit 9-1. Unleveled histogram.

durations too spread out). The valleys may indicate that too much time is available to complete a task. Either way, such scenarios can negatively affect motivation, performance, and productivity. Too much duration communicates a lack of importance or urgency. Too little duration can lead to burnout, negative conflict, and work owing to oversights or mistakes.

Therefore, Perry attempts to reduce the number of peaks and valleys by smoothing out the histogram as much as possible, similar to what appears in Exhibit 9-2. The result is called a leveled histogram, and the process of smoothing it out is called level loading. Of course, a histogram is rarely flat.

4. Adjust the Schedule or Pursue Alternatives

Perry can level his histogram in several ways. He can change the logic of the schedule so that the number of concurrent activities someone is as. signed is less. He can change the relationship between two activities (e.g., change a start-to-start relationship to a finish-to-start one) or add lag between the two activities to reduce concurrency. He can also reduce the float of noncritical activities by lengthening their duration without changing the total hours of effort. Finally, he can reduce the output from certain tasks, thereby leveling the work.

When it becomes impossible to alter the schedule, then Perry can rearrange assignments to lower the working hours per day or employ an alternative person, such as a consultant or contract employee (see Consultants and Outsources, below).

Exhibit 9-2. Leveled histogram.

Exhibit 9-3. Work assignments.

Task No. Description Duration (Days) Assigned to Hours/Day

6.1.1.1 Identify limousine service to church 3 Ewing 8

6.1.1.2 Coordinate limousine service to church 1 Ewing 8

6.1.1.3 Identify limousine service to reception 3 Ewing 8

6.1.1.4 Coordinate limousine service to reception 1 Eisenberg 8

6.1.2.1 Determine transportation requirements to church 3 Ewing 8

6.1.2.2 Coordinate transportation to church 1 Eisenburg 8

6.1.2.3 Determine transportation requirements to and from reception 2 Ewing 8

6.1.2.4 Coordinate transportation to and from reception 1 Eisenberg 8

6.1.2.5 Arrange for valet service for church 1 Smith 8

6.1.2.6 Arrange for valet service for reception 1 Smith 8

How Perry Levels the Load

Perry develops a histogram for tasks related to transportation (6.0 in the work breakdown structure). He notices that the histogram for Ewing has high peaks in the beginning and a sharp drop several days later. Exhibit 9-3 shows the assignments of everyone to this task, Exhibit 9-4 shows the original histogram for Ewing, and Exhibit 9-5 shows that portion of the network diagram related to transportation.

Perry figures he has several options:

Switch the start-to-start relationship to finish-to-start for tasks 6.1.1.3 or 6.1.2.3, or both with 6.1.1.1.

Double the duration but not the work effort (hours) for 6.1.1.2, which is a noncritical-path task.

Replace Ewing on certain concurrent tasks (e.g., 6.1.1.1, 6.1.1.3, or 6.1.2.3, or both) with additional help (e.g., consultant, contractor, or outsource). This will reduce the peak for Ewing.

Change the precedence relationships between tasks.

After making the changes to the assignments and changing the precedence relationships (see Exhibit 9-6), he generates a leveled histogram for Ewing (see Exhibit 9-7).

Consultants and Outsources

Consultants

From time to time, project managers will not have sufficient labor resources to complete their projects. A solution is to hire consultants.

But hiring consultants should not be done lightly, since their services can prove expensive and the quality of their output is often debatable.

Take the following steps when hiring consultants.

Know exactly what you expect from the consultant. Is it a deliverable product? Is it a document or just advice in oral form?

Look at several consultants rather than one as a sole source. Reliance on one consultant increases dependency.

Exhibit 9-4. Unleveled histogram for Ewing.

Exhibit 9-5. Network diagram (portion for transportation).

Conduct a background investigation. Who is on their client list? How satisfied are the clients with their work? What is their reputability in performing that type of work?

Monitor the performance. Expect periodic reviews to preclude the unexpected lack of delivery. Have those reviews documented to prevent legal problems regarding the quality of output.

Include the tasks of consultants in the work breakdown structure and on the schedule. If nonperformance occurs, it is easier to show the impact on the overall progress of the project, at least from a schedule and cost perspective.

Ensure that the terms and conditions of an agreement exactly describe the deliverable. Dont rely on general statements, which can eventually lead to disagreements that can only be resolved in the courts.

Exhibit 9-6. Network diagram with logic change.

Outsourcing Services

An alternative to using consultants is outsourcing, by which an independent vendor provides a service and assumes responsibility for the results. For example, a project manager might outsource the development and delivery of a deliverable or component of the product being built.

Outsourcing has its advantages. It can help shift the development of difficult, complex deliverables to expertise that does not exist on the team. It can shift nonessential deliverables to outside vendors so that the team can focus on critical matters. Finally, it can allow for flexibility in responding to a fast-paced environment, since less is invested in a project infrastructure and the outsourcing can be canceled without investing too much.

Outsourcing has its disadvantages, too. The potential for losing control may be high. The work can cost more initially. And it takes time to find a reliable outsourcing vendor.

To ensure that you make a good outsourcing decision:

Do an analysis to determine if outsourcing is a better option than having the team do the work.

Select from several outsourcing vendors. Compare each one, not just on a cost basis but also on reputability of work and service.

Identify what is too critical to outsource. A bad outsourcing decision can have disastrous results on the entire project.

Identify what you can outsource. Often, these are services or deliverables not essential to the outcome of the project.

If outsourcing something critical, then ensure that reviews and audits are stipulated in the contract. Actually, the rights for reviews and audits should be incorporated in the contract as a general rule, but especially for critical services or deliverables.

Exhibit 9-7. Leveled histogram for Ewing.

Summing Up Resource Allocation

The principles of resource allocation apply to inanimate objects such as desks and supplies no less than to people. In either case allocating resources requires identifying the tasks, making assignments, building profiles, and making adjustments to satisfy requirements. There is, however, one major difference. When doing people allocation, Perry must be sensitive to their psychological needs (e.g., feelings, values), which, of course, is not necessary for inanimate objects. This psychological factor becomes especially important not only when Perry assigns tasks but also when he starts to organize his team to efficiently and effectively achieve the goals of the project.

Questions for Getting Started

Did you identify the tasks to allocate your resources?

Do you know all the different types of resources you will need?

Is there a resource pool where you can get all the resources you need? If not, will you need consultants? Will you need to out-source?

Did you assign people to all the tasks?

Did you run a resource histogram for each person?

Did you need to or attempt to level each of the histograms?

When you assign people to tasks, do you consider behavioral as well as technical factors?

If you use consultants or outsourcing, did you perform a background analysis first?

If overtime appears in the histograms, is it constant or sporadic? If the former, what steps are you willing to take to deal with the effects of burnout?