ENGINEERING

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

LECTURE 12
ASST PROF. ENGR

ALI SALMAN
alisalman@ceme.nust.edu.pk
DEPARTMENT
DEPARTMENT
OF
OF
ENGINEERING
ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT
MANAGEMENT
COLLEGE
COLLEGE OF
OF EE &
& ME,
ME, NUST
NUST
 Topics Covered

 Resource Management

 Sample Problems
 Resource Management
Each activity of the project has certain resource
requirements i.e. people and machine. These
requirements (usually) vary with activity duration.

For example, an activity has a total requirement of 12

days (man-days) of a welder and a helper. With the
normal activity duration of 6 days, 2 welders and 2
helpers available will perform the task.

By crashing, this activity can be completed in 4 days.

One additional welder and helper has to be hired on
job basis or on contract.
Estimating Resource Requirements
(For Scheduled Activity)
Determining

 What resources will be required (labor,

equipment, material)?

 What quantity for each resource will be

required?

 When are resources available to perform

project activities?
Resource Estimating Techniques

 Expert Judgment – Any group or person

with specialized knowledge.

 Bottom-Up Estimating – Decompose

activities into smaller work components.

 Three Point Estimating – Optimistic,

pessimistic and most likely values are
determined to calculate estimate.
Resource Scheduling Process
The four major stages of resource scheduling process are

Resource definition
Resource allocation
Resource aggregation
Resource leveling
 Resource Smoothing

Resource definition
Resource definition involves identifying the critical
resources that need to be planned and managed
for the successful completion of the project.
Resource Allocation
Resource allocation, is concerned with assigning
the required number of those resources identified in
the previous step to each activity identified in the
plan.

More than one type of resource may be attributed

to a specific activity. For example, fixing the plates
on a ship's hull may require 10 fitters, 20 welders,
15 laborers and a certain type of welding machine.
From a practical standpoint, resource allocation
does not have to follow a constant pattern; some
activities may initially require fewer resources but
may require more of the same resources during the
later stages of the project.

In a multi-project environment as projects are

competing for limited resources, resource allocation
addresses the problem of the optimum use and
timing of the assignment of these resources to the
various project activities.
Resource Aggregation
Resource aggregation, or resource loading, is simply the
summation, on a period-by-period basis, of the resources
required to complete all activities based on the resource
allocation carried out in the previous stage.

The results are usually shown graphically as a histogram.

Such aggregation may be done on an hourly, daily, or weekly
basis, depending on the time unit used to allocate resources.

When a bar chart is used as the planning tool, the resource

aggregation is fairly simple and straightforward. For a given
bar chart, there is a unique resource unit aggregation chart
which can be drawn underneath the bar chart.

A separate graph will be required for each resource unit.

An example is shown in figure 01 below, where, for a
particular resource, the required resource units for each time
period are annotated on the bar chart. The total number of
resource units for each time period can then be summed and
a resource aggregation or load chart can be produced.

Figure 01
Resource Unit Aggregation Chart Showing Resource Requirements
Associated with Earliest and Latest Start Along with Highlighted
Resource Unit Requirements for Critical Path Activities.
Resource Leveling
Resource Leveling is a process used to examine a project
for an unbalanced use of resources (usually people) over
time, and for resolving over-allocations or conflicts.
Resource leveling ensures that resource demand does not
exceed resource availability.

Resource
Demand
Compared to
Resource
Availability
 A bar chart has been used as the primary planning
technique for analyzing the issues involved in
resource leveling.

 The reason for this is that resource leveling must

be considered within a time framework and bar
charts are drawn to a time scale while networks
are not.

 In figure 01, the time-scale for the activities

comprising the project are shown in a bar chart,
which also shows resource requirements for one
particular resource unit.
 An examination of the bar chart and its associated
resource chart in figure 01 shows that
improvements can be made to the level of
resource requirements by:

 Delaying or bringing forward the start of certain

activities

 Extending the duration of certain activities and

so reducing the demand for resources over the
duration of the activity or by a combination of
both of these adjustments
 Resource Smoothing

Resource smoothing is part of the resource leveling process.

 Resource smoothing process attempts to determine a

resource requirement that is "smooth" and where peaks and
troughs are eliminated.

 For example, even if 7 units of a given resource are available

at any one time, utilizing 5 of these units each week is
preferable to 4 one week, 7 the next, 2 the next and so on.

 Even if there is no limit to the amount of any one resource

available, it is still desirable that resource usage is as smooth
as possible.
 Problem 11
Develop network model and resource
requirement plan for the project given below:
Activity Preceding Duration Persons Remarks
Activity (days) Required
A - 3 2F + 2L F-Fitter
B - 4 2M + 2L L-Labor
C - 6 2W+ 2L W-Welder
D A 10 4F + 4L M-Mason
E B 4 2M + 2L
F C 2 2W + 2L
G D 4 2F + 2L
H E, F, G 3 3F + 3L
Problem 11
 Solution of Problem 11
Bar Chart with given Resource Requirements
Resource bar chart with given requirements
 Practiceof
Solution Problem 0411
Problem
Bar Chart with modified Resource Requirements

Resource Leveling is done on non-critical activities without

any change in project finish time.
 Solution of Problem 11
Histogram for Labor required in the Project
 Solution of Problem 11
Histogram for Fitters required in the Project

F
Workload and its Calculation
 The DURATION of a task is the time required for its execution and
depends upon the units of resources involved in the task.
 The duration is most often measured in days or in working hours.
(16 hours)
 The UNITS are the resources available to perform the task. For
human resource, we speak of people. (2 people)
 The WORKLOAD of a task is the result of duration multiplied by the
units. This assessment is often measured in people-days or in
people-hours. (32 people-hours)

 DURATION = WORKLOAD / UNITS

16 hours = 32 people-hours / 2 people
 A team composed of two workers
do a task in six days at 100%
efficiency.

 HYPOTHESIS:

If the efficiency of a 4 workers

team is only 75%, what will be the
task duration?

 ANSWER:

4 days = 12 person-days / (4 x .75)

Discussion