Lecture 6.

1
Resourcing Projects

MN601 Network Project Management

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 Review of Lecture 5

Scheduling Projects
1. What is Project Schedule?
2. Importance of Project Schedules
3. Project Time Management Processes
A. Activity definition
B. Activity sequencing
C. Activity duration estimating
D. Schedule development
E. Schedule control
4. Conclusions

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 Outline of Lecture 6

Resourcing Projects
1. What are resources?
2. Types and goals of Resources
3. Behavioural Abilities Needed when Resourcing
Projects
4. Technical Abilities Needed when Resourcing Projects
5. Project Schedule Compression
6. Conclusion

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 Resource Planning

Copyrighted 2014 Project Management Software - Easy Projects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW7Th9SdfjU

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 What are resources?

Sources of supply/support
such as:
– people
– equipment
– funding
– facilities
– technology
– anything else required This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

for the completion of

project activity
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 What are resources?

• Two primary types:

• Human resources
• Capital resources
• For IS/IT projects resources
may include:
• system developers, system
analysts
• project manager
• Stakeholders
• development environments
• Even, Information!

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 Human Resources

• Human resources (HR)

– include all project
stakeholders
• HR management
– strategic function
performed to facilitate the
most effective use of
people (employees) to
achieve organisational and
individual goals. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

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 Human Resources

• Human Resources Manager

(HRM)
– The person who manages
human resources
– Acquiring human resources
– Maintaining human
resources

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 Human Resources

• Human Resources Manager (HRM)

Acquiring HR
• HR Planning
• Recruitment
• Screening
• Selection
• Orientation
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

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 Human Resources

• Human Resources Manager (HRM)

Maintaining HR
• Training and Development
• Performance Appraisal
• Rewards and recognition
• Retention, and
• Replacement This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

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 Discussion Points

1. We learnt there are two primary types of resources,

namely human and capital. What of them do you
think is more difficult to find?
2. How about maintaining human and capital
resources? Which one is easier?

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 Capital Resources

• Capital resources: are tools,

machines, or locations used to
produce other goods and
services.

• Capital resources can be any

asset, tool, piece of equipment,
or housing facility that is used by This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

a business over an extended

period of time.
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 Activity Resource Estimation

• The goal is to estimate the resources needed for each

activity in the project to be completed successfully.

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 Behavioural Abilities Needed
when Resourcing Projects
• Select the right people
• Identify exactly what each
needs to accomplish
• Ensure performance
capability
• Deal with difficult
individual work schedules
• Schedule overtime when
there are conflicts This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

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 Behavioural Abilities Needed
when Resourcing Projects
• Estimate the amount of work
required to complete an
activity
• Assemble an effective team
• Deal with people from
diverse backgrounds
• Decide where each person
will work This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-ND

• Establish effective working

relationship
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 Technical Abilities Needed
when Resourcing Projects

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 Create a Staffing
Management Plan
• “the document that describes
when and how human resource
requirements will be met.”

– Identify potential resources

– Determine resource availability This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under
CC BY-SA-NC

– Decide timing issues

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 Create a Staffing
Management Plan
Identify Potential Resources:
– Work functions - job titles and range of
responsibilities
– Professional discipline - degrees and professional
certifications
– Skill level - experience and performance ratings
– Physical location - willingness to relocate and
travel
– Organisational / administrative unit - costs and
contractual issues
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 Create a Staffing
Management Plan
Determine resource availability:
• Identify availability of people
• Secure commitment
• Full and part-time resources
• Internal vs external resources

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 Assign a Resource to each
Activity
• Show resource responsibilities on RACI (Responsible,
Approve, Consult, Inform) chart
• Show resource assignments on Gantt Chart
• Summarise resource responsibilities with histogram

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 Assign a Resource to each
Activity
• Show resource responsibilities on RACI (Responsible,
Approve, Consult, Inform) chart

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 Assign a Resource to each
Activity
• Show resource assignments on Gantt Chart

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 Quiz

1. What are the main steps in creating a

Staffing Management Plan?

• Identify potential resources

• Determine resource availability
• Decide timing issues

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 Project Schedule
Compression

• Project Schedule compression is

a technique to shorten an
already developed project
schedule.
• It is done without
compromising the scope of
the project.
• It is done on the critical path This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND

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 Project Schedule
Compression
Why compress project
schedule?
• One reason is that your project
is late (unrealistic schedule, HR,
unforeseen incident, etc.)
• Another reason may be we
intentionally want to shorten
the duration of the project due
to incentives, like customer
willing to pay more.
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 Project Schedule
Compression
Actions to Reduce the Critical Path
• Reduce the project scope and/or
quality
• Assign more resources
• Change sequential activities to
performed in parallel
• Increase the number of work
hours/days
• Decrease duration estimates of critical
activities
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 Project Schedule
Compression
• Two common techniques
used to compress a project:
– Crashing

– Fast tracking

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 Project Schedule
Compression
Crashing – “a specific type of project schedule
compression technique
– performed by taking action to decrease the total project
duration…how to get the maximum schedule duration
reduction for the least additional cost.” – PMBOK
Can we cut short project completion time? If so, how?
– Giving overtime?
– Bringing more resources?
– Crashing costs money!!

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 Project Schedule
Compression
To make decisions concerning crashing requires
information about:
– Time:
• Regular time and crash time estimates for each activity
– Cost:
• Regular cost and crash cost estimates for each activity
– A list of activities that are on the critical path
• Critical path activities are potential candidates for crashing
• Crashing non-critical path activities would not have an
impact on overall project duration
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 Project Schedule
Compression
• The project compression will generally:
• increase direct expenses exponentially (e.g., additional personnel, more
efficient equipment), as project length is reduced
• decrease indirect project costs linearly (e.g., facilities, supervision).

• Best point is the

minima (optimum) of
the Total cost curve.

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 Project Schedule
Compression
• General guidelines for crashing:
1. Crash the project one activity at a
time
2. Crash only activities on the critical
path(s)
3. Crash the least expensive activity
(that is on the critical path)
4. When there are multiple critical
paths, find the least expensive
activity from all critical paths
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 Project Schedule Compression
• Crash
activities one
day at a time
• Path ABEG at
25 days is the
critical path.
• Activities A
and C cannot
be crashed.
NT=CT
• Activity B is
the least
expensive

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 Project Schedule
Compression
• ABEG reduced to
24 days
• ADFG second
critical path 24
days (circular
symbol)
• Crash one activity
on each critical
path.
• B or E on 1st Path
• D or F on 2nd path
• Least expensive B
and F

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 Project Schedule
Compression
• Both Critical
paths
reduced to 23
days
• 2 days
crashing cost
125
• ACFG reduced
to 19 days
• F can not be
crashed
further

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 Project Schedule
Compression
• Continue
crashing until
no longer
worth while.

• D is not
reduced to full
amount
possible since
reducing it
further will not
make any
difference to
overall project
length

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 Project Schedule
Compression
• The most important aspect to keep
in mind with crashing is that it will
add to the cost of the project.

• Consider crashing if there is

additional funds approved. For this
reason aim to do it as cost effective
as possible.

This Photo by Unknown Author is

licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

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 Project Schedule
Compression
Fast Tracking – is a schedule compression technique where
we change the logic of the project schedule by overlapping
critical activities rather than performing them strictly in
sequence.
– The benefit of fast tracking is that it does not cost you any extra
money
– It comes with some increase in risks, because you are
performing many activities in parallel which were originally
planned in sequence
– Fast tracking should only be done if the risk introduced by
changing the order in which activities are executed, can be
managed.
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 Project Schedule
Compression
Fast Tracking
Contd ..
• A and B could be
performed at the
same time to
reduce time, but
there is a risk.
Example:
If A is design and B
is ordering
material. There is a
risk that ordered
materials will not
meet design
requirements.
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 Project Schedule
Compression
When Should You Use Fast Tracking
or Crashing?
 This depends on the situation and
requirements:
1. Start compressing the
schedule with fast tracking,
because this process does
not require additional costs. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

2. Then try crashing, if

necessary.

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 Project Schedule
Compression
Go for Crashing
• If the client wants you to
complete the project earlier
and is ready to pay for the
additional cost.
• Project is delayed and
company’s image is at stake.
• When you have to pay a
penalty to the client for any
delay. Compare the cost of the
penalty with the cost of
crashing.
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Go for Fast Tracking
• If the project is delayed due to
some unforeseen conditions
and you have to bring the
project back on schedule
without additional cost.
• fast tracking should only be
considered if the risk
introduced by changing the
order in which activities are
executed, can be managed.
40
 Quick Quiz
1. You are the Project Manager for XYZ Project. You
realise that the Project cannot be completed within 5
months. You decide to get management's approval to
add more resources to complete the project on time,
without changing the Scope of the Project. The
technique used is?
Crashing

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 Quiz
2. The Project is behind Schedule. The customer has
agreed on a revised delivery date for Project from
Project Manager but the customer has not accepted
an increase in the Project Cost.
Fast Tracking

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 Conclusions

• There are two primary resource types: Human resources and

Capital resources, plus equipment, funding, facilities,
technology & anything else required to complete the project.
• Resources for an IS project can include system developers,
project managers, system analysts and other stakeholders
plus development environments & information.
• Behavioural abilities needed when Resourcing Projects starts
with choosing the right team members and build a cohesive
team.
• Technical abilities needed for resourcing projects include
estimating, identifying, and assigning resources.
• Project schedule compression should be done by first
attempting Fast-tracking and then Crashing as it costs more.
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 References
Acknowledgement: Some of the text in this lecture is taken almost verbatim from the
following references:
• Kloppenborg, T.J. Contemporary Project Management: Organise, Plan and Perform, South-Western
Cengage Learning, (2012).

• Gray, C., & Larson, E. (2011). Project management – The managerial process (Fifth edn). NY:
McGraw-Hill.

• Fuller, Mark A., Valacich, Joseph S., and George, Joey F. (2008), Information Systems Project
Management: A Process and Team Approach, Pearson Education Inc. Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey, 07458.

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