RESOURCE ALLOCATION

By: Kemuel Bryan G. Luciaja

Resource
An economic or productive factor required
to accomplish an activity, or as means to
undertake an enterprise and achieve desired
outcome.

The Three Most Basic Resources

Land
Includes all natural resources (gifts of nature) used in
the production process, such as arable land, forests,
mineral and oil deposits, and water resources.
Labor
Consists of the physical and mental talents of individuals
used in producing goods and services.
Capital
Refers not to money but to tools, machinery, and
other productive equipment.

Other Resources
Energy
Entrepreneurship
Information
Expertise
Management
Time

Resources in Project Management

anything used up to execute the project
Budget
People
Technology
Time
Space
Tools
Equipment
and etc.

Resource Allocation
Resource allocation is used to assign the
available resources in an economic way.
In project management, resource allocation
is the scheduling of activities and the
resources required by those activities while
taking into consideration both the resource
availability and the project time.

Resource Allocation Plan

1.Basic Allocation Decision
2.Contingency mechanisms

1. Basic allocation decision

The choice of which items to fund in the

plan
What level of funding it should receive
Which to leave unfunded
The resources are allocated to some items,
not to others

2. Contingency mechanisms
A.There is a priority ranking of items excluded from
the plan, showing which items to fund if more
resources should become available.
B.There is a priority ranking of some items included
in the plan, showing which items should be
sacrificed if total funding must be reduced.

Example of Resource Allocation for Jobs

Assume that the active
resource plan is called Night
Plan.
3 Job classes:
DW Consumer Group
OLTP Consumer Group
Other Consumer Group

Resource leveling
A project management technique used to examine
unbalanced use of resources (usually people or
equipment) over time, and for resolving overallocations or conflicts.
Leveling resources involves redistributing an
imbalance of allocated work. It assists project team
members by keeping them from becoming
overwhelmed, working overtime, or running into
project burnout.

Resource leveling
If DW Consumer Group do not
fully use the allocated 60%,
the unused portion is
available for use by jobs in
OLTP and Other Consumer
Group.

Resource leveling
The Two Key Elements of Resource Leveling:
1. As the main aim of resource leveling is to allocate resource
efficiently, so that the project can be completed in the
given time period. Hence, resource leveling can be broken
down into two main areas; projects that can be completed
by using up all resources which are available and projects
that can be completed with limited resources.
2. Projects which use limited resources can be extended for
over a period of time until the resources required are
available. If then again, the number of projects that an
organization undertakes exceeds the resources available.
Then it's wiser to postpone the project for a later date.

Resource Over-allocation
Over-allocation of a resource is when a
resource has been assigned more work than
can be completed during normal work hours.
Resource allocation often leads to overtime
and overspending on financial resources.

Techniques for Avoiding Resource Overload

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Resource Leveling
Prioritize Projects
Linking Tasks
Leaving Breathing Room
Avoid the Putting out fires approach to
project management

Techniques for Avoiding Resource Overload

1. Resource Leveling
In this method, the project
manager can either level resources by
hand (complicated, but perhaps more
sound) or use a software program such as
Microsoft Project to level resources for
you.

Techniques for Avoiding Resource Overload

2. Prioritize Projects
By prioritizing projects, when a
resource allocation overload is apparent
or a task conflict exists, it can be resolved
without piling pressure on the individual
or team (or requiring the individual or
team to put in a couple twelve-hour
days).

Techniques for Avoiding Resource Overload

3. Linking Tasks
Linking tasks is more of a logistical solution.
If the resource has been assigned to
research the markets for project A and
project B, these tasks could be linked. In this
manner, when it appears that a resource has
been over-allocated, really the tasks are
similar enough to count for two projects. By
linking these tasks from the different
projects, the problem can be resolved.

Techniques for Avoiding Resource Overload

4. Leaving Breathing Room
When scheduling the project, it is
vital to leave breathing room between
tasks. However, it is important to not
under-allocate resources as this could
lead to a loss of budget monies meaning
resource allocations problems will affect
your project's health. A fine balance must
be achieved between breathing room and
not moving forward quickly enough.

Techniques for Avoiding Resource Overload

5. Avoid the Putting out fires approach to
project management
If your team is consistently putting
out fires, it makes it difficult to focus on
the project. Moreover, by putting out
fires, the team becomes knee-deep in
ash, while project tasks pile up. This is
where project management techniques
such as Scrum come in handy.

Thank you!