Human Resource

Management
Resource Optimization
Resource Levelling and Resource Smoothing
Resource Levelling
One type of Resource Constraint
 Resource levelling
• Resource levelling is a technique for resolving resource conflicts by
delaying tasks which may result in project timeline being extended.
Examples:
• When we assign a resource to two or more activities at the same time, it is over-
allocation. A resource cannot work beyond 8 hours in a day. Here, it needs
resource-leveling. We need to take care of available supply and based on that we
can adjust work duration.
• Only one resource can do a given activity. If that resource is occupied doing
another work on the critical path, the path itself needs to change to include that
dependency.
• Project managers need to analyse network diagrams to identify areas of
resource conflicts.
Simple problem of Resource Levelling

Resource X
Activity A
Duration 1 day
Resource Z
Activity C End
Start Duration 1 day

Resource X
Activity B
Duration 1 day

Project Duration:
2 days
1 day = 8 hours
Resource Levelling
16

14

12

10

Hours per Day 8

0
Resource X Resource Z
Removing Conflicts for Resource Levelling

Resource X Resource X Resource Z

Start Activity A Activity B Activity C End
Duration 1 day Duration 1 day Duration 1 day

Project Duration:
3 days
Resource Levelling
8

Hours per Day 4

0
Resource X Resource X Resource Z
 How to meet schedule constraint

• Change the project schedule to incorporate resource constraints and also the critical
path
• In case we want to preserve the deadline we have to resort to
• Fast Tracking
• Doing activities in parallel that would normally be done in sequence. For example coding can start
before all the requirements have been gathered thereby shortening the time needed to complete
the project. The main disadvantage is that it can lengthen a project schedule because starting some
tasks too soon often increases project risk as it could result in rework.
• Crashing
• A technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest schedule compression
for the least incremental cost. We examine all the tasks on the critical path and the cost of
shortening it and then choose one where the trade-off is maximum (i.e. we get maximum
shortening for the minimum incremental cost)
• Show Resource Levelling on Microsoft Project
 Resource Smoothing
Adjustments without disturbing Critical Path (Schedule)
If over allocation of resource can be removed by delaying certain non critical tasks which do not result in overall delaying the
project schedule then we have a case of resource smoothing. Note in levelling the project length has been increased to 9 weeks
 Example
• The number of resource required and days to complete are:
Activity Days to Number of manpower
compete required

Activity A 2 days 2
Activity B 5 days 4
Activity C 2 days 2

The following network diagram shows that Activities A, B and C can all start at the same time.
Network Diagram based on Activity on Node

0 2
Task A (Slack 3 days)
Duration : 2 days
3 5

0 5 5 5
Task B (Slack 0 days) Task J
Duration : 5 days Duration :0 days
0 5 5 5

0 3
Task C (Slack 2 days)
Duration : 2days
2 5

Critical Path: BJ
 Resource Smoothing
Achieved by delaying non-critical activity C
Advantages of Resource Smoothing
• Resource Smoothing reduces Project manager’s time and effort in
managing manpower resources as resources are used on a more
constant basis.
• It helps the project manager to manage his manpower resources
effectively
• It helps in reducing cost of manpower.
• It improves morale of the employees as they prefer stability.
 Summary
Resource Levelling
It applies the resource constraints to the project and
may result in a change in project duration.
Resource Leveling is primarily driven by resource
constraints like you do not have more than 45 hours of like we do have 45 hours available for a given resource
the given resource for a week.
The allocation limits identified in resource leveling
must be applied.
When Resource Leveling changes the project dates,
may also change the critical path, since constraints
drive it.
Resource Smoothing
We apply resource smoothing after doing resource-
levelling. Since we need to first accommodate the
resource constraints before we can optimize it.
Here we make use of slack, and will not result in a
change of project duration. Because the total
allocation of a certain resource remains the same.
Resource smoothing is more to do with desired limits
but we wish that we allocate 38 hours per week so we
have some breathing space.
The desired limit identified in resource smoothing may
not be applied in some cases, if we do not have slack.
It is optimized within the float boundaries
Resource smoothing will not change the critical path;
it tries to make the best use of slack.
Project Integration
Management
Let us return to the Process Groups
Source:https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog871/l1_p6.html
Initiation
 Developing a Project Charter
Project Charter
After top management decides which projects to pursue, it is
important for the rest of the organization to know about these projects
A project charter is a document that formally recognizes the existence
of a project and provides for direction on the project’s objectives and
management
It authorizes the project manager to use organizational resources
The only output of the project charter development process is the
charter itself.
 Inputs in Project Charter
Project Statement of Work (PSOW): A document that describes the products or
services to be created by the project team and includes the business needs of
the organization and how it aligns to strategic goals
Business Case: Information in the business case such Project objectives, high
level requirement, time and cost goals etc. are included in the charter
Agreements: If a project is for external customer then contract information;
some contracts are difficult to read so it is a good practice to write a charter
Enterprise Environmental factors: Government or industry standards, market
place conditions etc.
Organizational Process Assets: Organizational policies, guidelines, documents,
lessons learned from the past (historical information)
 Project Charter (PC)
The output to the process of PC development is the PC. It should include the following
information:
1. The projects title and date of authorization
2. A summary schedule including planned start and finish dates; if summary milestone
schedule is available, it should be included
3. A summary of the project’s budget or reference to budget documents
4. A brief description of the project’s objectives including business need or justification
5. Project success criteria
6. A roles and responsibilities matrix
7. A sign off section for signatures of key project stakeholders
8. A comments section in which stakeholders can provide important comments
Tools and Techniques for Project Charter
9) A summary of the planned approach for managing a project which
should describe stakeholder expectations and needs, important
assumptions and constraints and should refer to related documents
such as a communications plan as available
• An example of project charter is available on page 159
Important
• Project charters are not difficult to write. The difficult part is getting
people with proper knowledge and authority to sign the project
charter
Tools and Techniques for Project Charter
• Many projects fail because of unclear requirements and expectations so
starting with a charter is very sensible. In case the project managers face
problems later on, they can refer to agreements listed in the project charter
• Expert judgment
• Experts within and outside the organization should be consulted to make sure it is
realistic
• Facilitation Techniques such as:
• Brain Storming
• Meeting Management
• Facilitators make it easier for experts to collaborate
Project Management Plan in
Planning Phase
Let us return to the Process Groups
 Project Management Plan (PMP)
• A PMP is a document used to coordinate all project planning
documents and help guide execution and control
• To coordinate and integrate information across project management
areas there must be a good project management plan(PMP).
• A small project of a few people working for a couple of months may require
only a project charter, scope statement and Gantt charts, bigger projects
involving hundreds of people over several years requires a detailed project
plan.
• To create a good project plan information is required from all the the
project management areas (so there is need for good collaboration)
 Project Management Plan (PMP) contd.

• The PMs have to be dynamic and flexible and subject to change when the
environment or the project undergoes changes
• Working with the project team and other stakeholders to create a PMP
will help the project manager guide project’s execution
• The main inputs for developing a project management plan include the
project charter, outputs from planning processes, enterprise environment
factors, and organizational process assets
• The main tool and technique is expert judgement
• The main output is the PMP
 Project Plan
The Project Plan should have the following main components:
• Introduction: Project name, brief description, sponsor’s name, deliverables of the project,
list of important reference material, list of definitions and acronyms of the project
• Project Organization: Organizational charts, project responsibilities, Process related
information
• Management and Technical Approaches: Top management’s view of the project, Project
controls, risk management, staffing, technical processes
• Work to be performed and scope: Broad work break down structure, key deliverables,
major work packages other work related information like certain specifications
• Project Schedule: Summary of overall schedule, detailed schedule, other schedule related
information (assumptions on which schedule is based)
• Budget: Summary Budget, detailed budget
 Project Plan contd.
Introduction
Deliverables of the project: This section should briefly describe the
products that will be created as part of the project: software packages,
pieces of hardware, technical reports, training material etc.
Reference Material:
List of important documents or meetings related to project helps
stakeholders understand the project
Reference and summarize important parts of the scope management
plan, schedule, cost, quality, HR, stakeholder management plan etc.
 Project Plan contd.
Project Organization
Project Responsibilities: This section should describe the major project
functions and activities and identify people responsible for them
A Responsibility- Assignment matrix is used to display this information
Process related information: Documenting of major processes: in case
of a major software change, a diagram or timeline of the major steps
involved in the process
 Project Plan contd.
Management and Technical Approaches
Project Controls: This section should describe how to monitor project
progress and handle changes:
• define periodicity of reviews,
• documents generated in the review (forms or charts),
• define metrics (earned value management),
• process of change control,
• hierarchy for approval of change control
• Technical Process: the specific methodologies used for software
development (CASE); some companies have specific formats for
documentation
 Project Plan contd
Work to be performed and scope
Key Deliverables: This section should describe the key products
created as part of the project and quality expectations
Major work packages: A PM normally breaks down the scope of the
project into several work packages using a work breakdown structure
(WBS). This section should summarize the main work packages
Other work related information: specifies the hardware or software to
be used on the project
 Project Plan contd.
Project Schedule
Summary Schedule: This section gives one page summary of the overall
schedule for large projects showing key activities; for smaller projects
more details could be given
Detailed Schedule: This section gives the full details. It should
reference the schedule management plan and discuss dependencies
among activities (for example it could be pointed out that a major part
of the work cannot start unless an external agency provides funding)
Other schedule related information: Major assumptions made in
making the schedule
 Project Plan contd
Budget
Summary Budget: The summary budget should include the total
estimate of the projects budget, year wise or month wise (for short
duration projects). Some assumptions should be clarified (is it a hard
budget constraint or an estimate)
Detailed Budget: Gives more details like fixed and recurring costs,
projected financial benefits, types of resources and labour costs
Monitoring and Controlling
Let us return to the Process Groups
 Directing and Managing Project Work
• Directing and managing project work involves managing and performing the
work described in the project management plan.
• The majority of the time and effort is put in project execution as also the
budget
• The project manager needs to focus on leading the project team and
managing stakeholder relationships to execute the project management
plans successfully
• A common sense approach to improving the coordination between project
plan development and execution is to follow the rule: those who do the
work should also plan it i.e is PMs should solicit inputs from all the project
team members.
Directing and Managing Project Work
Providing strong leadership and supportive culture
• Strong leadership: many project plans contain tasks to be performed
by the project leader. The project leader must lead by example to
demonstrate leadership.
• Some times project requires breaking the organizational rules. The
project manager must use political skills to convince concerned
stakeholders that breaking the rules would be in the interests of the
organization. This requires excellent leadership, communication and
political skills.
 Directing and Managing Project Work
Capitalizing on Product, Business and Application Area
In small projects the PM would be required to do some technical tasks
and so the focus area of the manager would be technical and he would
be required to have experience in this area to guide the team
If project manager were leading a Joint Application Design (JAD) team
to help define user requirements, it would be helpful to understand the
language of business and technical experts on the team
If CASE tools are being used for software development, then the
process should be understood
 Directing and Managing Project Work
However in large projects the PM does not have the time to do
technical work even if he had the experience.
Many large projects have been executed by PMs who were business
leaders. Like NW Airlines upgrade of reservation systems. They can
compensate this lack of technical knowledge by proper team selection.
In large project the PM must understand the business and application
area of the technology more than the technology itself.
Directing and Managing Project Work
Project Execution Tools and Techniques
Expert judgement: Project managers should not hesitate to consult experts on
different topics such as what methodology to follow, what programming
language to use, what training to organize
Meetings: Meetings are crucial for project success. Face to face meetings or
phone meetings allow people to develop relationships, pick up on important
body language or tone of voice, and have a dialogue to resolve important issues
Project Management information systems: Several open source tools like
www.achieve.org, www.ganttobject.biz are available. The standard tool is
Microsoft Project. For enterprise portfolio management the standard tools are
Daptiv, Innotis, HP, Oracle, Microsoft etc.
Directing and Managing Project Work
• Although PM information systems tools can aid in project execution
PMs should remember that: “Positive leadership and strong team
work are critical for PM”
• PMs should delegate the detailed work involved in using these tools
to other team members and focus on providing leadership of the
whole project to ensure project success
• Project managers and teams are remembered for how well they
executed the project and handled difficult situations
• Good project management is ultimately about winning as in a sports
match
 Monitoring and Controlling Project Work
• On large projects PMs say 90% of the job is communicating and
management changes
• Monitoring project work includes collecting, measuring, and
disseminating performance information. It involves assessing
measurements and analyzing trends to determine what process
improvement can be made
• The PMP, schedule and cost forecasts, validated changes, work
performance information, enterprise environmental factors,
organizational process assets (formal and informal policies, plans,
guidelines etc.) are important inputs for monitoring and controlling work.
Monitoring and Controlling Project Work
• The project management plan (PMP) provides the baseline for identifying and
controlling project changes.
• A baseline is the approved PMP + approved changes. The most important base
line on which projects are monitored are: the key deliverables identified in the
PMP and the planned dates for completing them
• Cost forecasts and work performance information also provide how the project
is going.
• In case of problems the outputs of the process are called Change Requests:
recommended corrective and preventive actions and defect repairs.
• Work performance reports including status reports, progress reports, memos
and other documents used to communicate performance.
Integrated Change Control
Let us return to the Process Groups
 Performing Integrated Change Controls
• Beginning 1990s it was realized that project management is a process
of constant communication and negotiation about project objectives
and shareholder expectations
• The assumption is that changes could be beneficial to some projects
(e.g. if there is improvement in hardware or software technology).
• Some changes while making sense may be so large that they cannot
be accommodated into the current project scope. So if an
organization wants to meet time and cost goals it must control
changes to project scope.
Performing Integrated Change Controls
Even if the project team is flexible, it is important that projects must have a
formal system of change control
Integrated change control involves:
• Influencing the factors that create changes to ensure that changes are
beneficial. (That a change helps in meeting project scope, schedule, cost, quality
cost etc.)
• Determining that the change has occurred the PM should know the status of key
project areas at all times. In addition the PM should also communicate the same
to top management as they do not like surprises relating to scope, time or cost
• Managing actual changes as they occur: Managing change is a key role of project
managers and their teams. It is important that project managers exercise
discipline managing the project to minimize the number of changes that occur
 Change Control System
• A change control system is a formal documented process that
describes when and how official project documents may be changed.
• A change control board (CCB) is a formal group of people responsible
for approving or rejecting changes to a project. An organization could
have key stakeholders for the entire organization on this board
• The primary function of the CCB is to
• prepare guidelines for preparing change requests
• evaluating change requests
• managing the implementation of approved changes
 Change Control System
• Limitations of CCB
• CCBs meet only once a week or once a month
• May not make decision in one meeting
So some companies apply the guillotine process
 Software Configuration Management (CM)
• SCM is another important part of ICC
• The SCM process defines the need to trace changes, and the ability to verify
that the final delivered software has all of the planned enhancements that
are supposed to be included in the release.
• It identifies four procedures that must be defined for each software project
to ensure that a sound SCM process is implemented. They are:
• Configuration identification
• Configuration control
• Configuration status accounting
• Configuration audits
 Role of Communications in ICC
• The inputs to change control process are all the documents in the project plan
along with change requests, work performance information, enterprise
environment factors, and organizational process assets.
• The outputs are approved change requests, change log, updates to the PMP.
• While documents are important the most critical factor for the success of
integrated change control (ICC) is good communications.
• Besides written or formal communication oral and informal communications are
important.
• Some project managers have stand up meetings once a week or every morning with all team
leaders
 Suggestions for Integrated Change Control
• View project management as a process of constant communication and
negotiation
• Plan for change
• Establish a formal change control system, including change control board (CCB)
• Use effective configuration management
• Define procedures for making timely changes for small changes
• Use Project Management software to help manage and communicate changes
• Focus on leading the project team and meeting the overall project goals and
expectations
Closing
Let us return to the Process Groups
 Project Closing
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/importance-of-closing-process-group-9949

Project Closing is the combination of the following when applied to a

project:
• Assurance that all the work has been completed,
• Assurance that all agreed upon project management processes have
been executed, and
• Formal recognition of the completion of a project—everyone agrees
that it is completed.
 Closing Projects
• The main inputs to the process are PMP, accepted deliverables,
organization process assets
• The outputs of closing projects are:
• Final product, service, or result transition: For items produced under contract,
formal acceptance or handover or handover including statement that the
terms of contract were met.
• Organization Process Assets update: Final project report which includes a
transition plan (describing work to be done as part of operations).
• The Final Report should have a lessons learnt section
Thank You
Human Resource
Resource Optimization
Resource Levelling and Resource Smoothing
Resource Levelling
One type of Resource Constraint
 Resource levelling
• Resource levelling is a technique for resolving resource conflicts by
delaying tasks which may result in project timeline being extended.
Examples:
• When we assign a resource to two or more activities at the same time, it is over-
allocation. A resource cannot work beyond 8 hours in a day. Here, it needs
resource-leveling. We need to take care of available supply and based on that we
can adjust work duration.
• Only one resource can do a given activity. If that resource is occupied doing
another work on the critical path, the path itself needs to change to include that
dependency.
• Project managers need to analyse network diagrams to identify areas of
resource conflicts.
Simple problem of Resource Levelling

Resource X
Activity A
Duration 1 day
Resource Z
Activity C End
Start Duration 1 day

Resource X
Activity B
Duration 1 day

Project Duration:
2 days
1 day = 8 hours
Resource Levelling
16

14

12

10

Hours per Day 8

0
Resource X Resource Z
Removing Conflicts for Resource Levelling

Resource X Resource X Resource Z

Start Activity A Activity B Activity C End
Duration 1 day Duration 1 day Duration 1 day

Project Duration:
3 days
Resource Levelling
8

Hours per Day 4

0
Resource X Resource X Resource Z
 How to meet schedule constraint

• Change the project schedule to incorporate resource constraints and also the critical
path
• In case we want to preserve the deadline we have to resort to
• Fast Tracking
• Doing activities in parallel that would normally be done in sequence. For example coding can start
before all the requirements have been gathered thereby shortening the time needed to complete
the project. The main disadvantage is that it can lengthen a project schedule because starting some
tasks too soon often increases project risk as it could result in rework.
• Crashing
• A technique for making cost and schedule trade-offs to obtain the greatest schedule compression
for the least incremental cost. We examine all the tasks on the critical path and the cost of
shortening it and then choose one where the trade-off is maximum (i.e. we get maximum
shortening for the minimum incremental cost)
• Show Resource Levelling on Microsoft Project
 Resource Smoothing
Adjustments without disturbing Critical Path (Schedule)
If over allocation of resource can be removed by delaying certain non critical tasks which do not result in overall delaying the
project schedule then we have a case of resource smoothing. Note in levelling the project length has been increased to 9 weeks
 Example
• The number of resource required and days to complete are:
Activity Days to Number of manpower
compete required

Activity A 2 days 2
Activity B 5 days 4
Activity C 2 days 2

The following network diagram shows that Activities A, B and C can all start at the same time.
Network Diagram based on Activity on Node

0 2
Task A (Slack 3 days)
Duration : 2 days
3 5

0 5 5 5
Task B (Slack 0 days) Task J
Duration : 5 days Duration :0 days
0 5 5 5

0 3
Task C (Slack 2 days)
Duration : 2days
2 5
 Resource Smoothing
Achieved by delaying non-critical activity C
Advantages of Resource Smoothing
• Resource Smoothing reduces Project manager’s time and effort in
managing manpower resources as resources are used on a more
constant basis.
• It helps the project manager to manage his manpower resources
effectively
• It helps in reducing cost of manpower.
• It improves morale of the employees as they prefer stability.
 Summary
Resource Levelling
It applies the resource constraints to the project and
may result in a change in project duration.
Resource Leveling is primarily driven by resource
constraints like you do not have more than 45 hours of like we do have 45 hours available for a given resource
the given resource for a week.
The allocation limits identified in resource leveling
must be applied.
When Resource Leveling changes the project dates,
may also change the critical path, since constraints
drive it.
Resource Smoothing
We apply resource smoothing after doing resource-
levelling. Since we need to first accommodate the
resource constraints before we can optimize it.
Here we make use of slack, and will not result in a
change of project duration. Because the total
allocation of a certain resource remains the same.
Resource smoothing is more to do with desired limits
but we wish that we allocate 38 hours per week so we
have some breathing space.
The desired limit identified in resource smoothing may
not be applied in some cases, if we do not have slack.
It is optimized within the float boundaries
Resource smoothing will not change the critical path;
it tries to make the best use of slack.
Thank You
 Project Plan
The Project Plan should have the following main components:
• Introduction: Project name, brief description, sponsor’s name, deliverables of the project,
list of important reference material, list of definitions and acronyms of the project
• Project Organization: Organizational charts, project responsibilities, Process related
information
• Management and Technical Approaches: Top management’s view of the project, Project
controls, risk management, staffing, technical processes
• Work to be performed and scope: Broad work break down structure, key deliverables,
major work packages other work related information like certain specifications
• Project Schedule: Summary of overall schedule, detailed schedule, other schedule related
information (assumptions on which schedule is based)
• Budget: Summary Budget, detailed budget