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Business project work and additions

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Part 2

Resource Allocation in Project Management

Defining Resources and Assigning Them

Some of the most critical and fundamental aspects of managing projects involve how

resources are allocated against activities. In this planning, we were keen and careful in

identifying resources to be utilized as we applied the WBS produced in week Two with the help

of the Microsoft Project. It helped to outline the project and plan the work into more manageable

parts so that one could easily comprehend the necessities for each work breakdown structure.

Resources were classified into three main categories: The three vital recourses are human,

physical recourses, and financial recourses. HRs were the team of project managers, engineers,

and other employees who participated in the project implementation. Physical resources are tools

and equipment, working space, and environment; financial resources provide the required

budgets for each stage.

The allocation process was started by defining the requirement of each task to identify the

feasible areas of resource distribution. For example, the technical work involved needed

professionals in engineering and some software, while the administrative work required support

staff and standard stationery. Every work breakdown structure that was developed was

associated with the respective resources to fully capture each task that needed to be

accomplished in the project. This rigorous approach avoided situations where resources were

scarce, and hence, the tasks to be performed were not achievable in the required time.

Identifying and Addressing Over-Allocated Resources

It is also usually difficult to find over-allocations in resource usage, which is one of the

critical problems with resource allocation. Over-allocation refers to a situation where a resource,
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whether workforce, time, or equipment, has more work demands than what can be accomplished

in the time available, risking time overruns. Such complications failed to occur within our plan

as Microsoft Project has additional tools for effective resource management. In the case of over-

allocations, the views and reports formulated by the resource usage view helped identify the

over-allocations flagged by the software.

One such instance of over-allocation, witnessed in our project, concerned a complex

project whereby a project manager was assigned to several critical activities. To avoid this, we

used resource levelling, a technique that the PMBOK (Amoah, 2022) defines as adjusting the

project schedule to balance and distribute activity for the available resources. This adjustment

entailed shifting certain activities to a later date and redistributing others to persons skilled in

similar activities and available during the last date. In this regard, we made arrangements so that

none of the resources went overboard, and all the planned work was distributed equally among

all the members of a particular team.

Gantt Chart and Process Explanation

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In the times of tracking the resources, BAC 2 Tracking, and especially the creation of a Gantt

chart according to the Microsoft Project, was one of the main benefits of planning. The Gantt

chart offered an understanding of the overall timeline of the project and what tasks were

encompassed within the project: date of commencement and the completion date of the task in

question, and the human resource that has been allocated in the accomplishment of a particular

project and details of dependencies and timing specifications of the project at hand. Chemicals

are very useful in early planning to identify possible conflicts and over-allocation scenarios.

The process of creating the Gantt chart involved several vital steps

Task Definition and Sequencing: Some of the sub-tasks were grouped according to the

WBS, and the schedule of the tasks was analyzed with the critical path and task dependencies.

Resource Assignment: In each case, the personnel were requested based on the

accessibility and the suitability of the people for the task required in each function as a team.

Identifying Over-Allocations: From the Microsoft Project calendar, work on the

resource view we checked for any over-allocations to enable correction. The positive
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organizational culture empowered me to take the initiative to tackle problems before they

become triggers for project management delays.

Resource Leveling: To address over-allocations, we applied resource levelling, which

involved delaying or extending the duration of some tasks to align with the resource's capacity

(Hart et al., 2024).

Review and Adjustment: The Gantt chart was reviewed continuously to ensure that all

adjustments led to a balanced workload without adversely affecting the project schedule.

Issues Encountered and Corrective Actions

Several issues emerged during the resource allocation process

Resource Conflicts: It has been noted that some key resources were in high demand,

thus causing a lot of scheduling conflicts. To address these issues, we put a lot of effort into

proper scheduling and prioritizing, ensuring that the work that had higher priority due to certain

conditions was provided the needed amount of focus and time.

Skill Mismatch: Especially at the start, there were cases where certain tasks required

specific skills that we did not possess at that time, but also, we were equipped with resources that

the job did not ask for. This issue was addressed by offering them additional training sessions

depending on the gaps arising occasionally and, in some instances, recruiting qualified members

to fill the position temporarily.

Budget Constraints: Managing the project Budget and allocating financial resources to

the given limits was an exercise. Since then, we performed a cost-benefit analysis to decide

which activities should be more focused on, and we provided more money than needed for

crucial activities, withdrawing the funds from less important ones.

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In conclusion, assigning resources is always an essential task connected to managing

projects; it is based on multiple calculations and lasts throughout the project. Suppose the scrum

master successfully implements the scrum framework. In that case, scrum is one of the best

methodologies for managing the project resources, as it was used in this project using Microsoft

Project. The Gantt chart helped track resource utilization and ensured the project was properly

planned and executed and did not stray out of the stipulated financial plan. Thus, this process

made the best use of the available resources and made it possible to deliver the project as

planned and required.

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References

Amoah, R. (2022). Application of Project Time Management and Resource Management to a

Novel Blended Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (BWB UAV) Design. Open Access

Library Journal, 9(9), 1-23. https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?

paperid=120014

Hart, D. L., Deems, S. L., & Herriott, L. T. (2024). From Vision to Evaluation: A Metrics

Framework for the ACCESS Allocations Service. SN Computer Science, 5(5), 490.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42979-024-02787-4