This article appeared last year in the PM World Journal and was based on a presentation I got to give at the University of Texas at Dallas PM Symposium. For some reason, I never posted the article directly so here is “Resource Risk in an Uncertain World”. Life is risky. Thank goodness. If not for the presence of risk, what would we need project managers for? We’d just make an estimate and return on the…
“We need to improve our resource management,” is a phrase I’ve often heard yet answer it requires finding out exactly what the person meant when they said it. When we look at the resource aspect of project management, there are multiple perspectives. I would put resource management loosely into three main categories: Can we do it? How do we do it? Who will do it? Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.…
I get this question on a regular basis, “Why can’t I just start with Resource Capacity Planning? That’s all I want from our EPM anyway.” In many lectures when I talk about what is Enterprise Project Management, I show a collection of possible definitions. Perhaps EPM is just system compliance, where everyone uses the same system. Perhaps it’s document management, perhaps it’s timesheeting. All of these answers are potentially accurate for any one organization but…
I’m very much looking forward to speaking at the Eastern Iowa chapter of the PMI in Cedar Rapids during their Professional Development Day event on Friday, October 20th. We’ll be talking about how to increase resource capacity; one of my favorite topics. For those who are attending the event, please make sure to say hello. For those interested in the PMI Eastern Iowa event, visit PMIEasternIowa.org/events/event-listing/meetings/2017-professional-development-day.
I admit it. I’m a black-hat thinker. I think I always have been but many years ago, my first partner gave me a copy of Edward de Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats”. The book is tiny but the impact was profound. De Bono was interested in how people think and in how people could train themselves to think more creatively; more laterally. There’s no one hat that’s perfect of the six, each has its own attraction…
Over the years I’ve had many questions about how to effectively implement resource capacity planning. I’ve written about this often in these pages and in other articles elsewhere. Resource Capacity planning is theoretically very simple. All I need is the resource availability and the resource requirement expectations and a-b=c! Not so fast. The challenge has many facets. Who do we have? First of all, not all resources are made equal. The first challenge we’d…
This seminar has been given at PMI and other project management events all over North America and now you can view it right here on EPMGuidance.com. This on demand webinar is free right here on the site. Go to the Improve Resource Capacity Webinar to see the whole seminar.
It’s what everyone wants but almost no one gets: Enterprise-wide resource capacity planning. Just what makes getting this accomplished so difficult? I’m sure I hear it at least once a week (during a trade show, twice an hour), what organizations are asking of their project management system boils down to enterprise-wide resource capacity planning. Now I know that everyone has a little of the “grass is greener on the other side” syndrome where you think…
I will be in Toronto Ontario on Monday, May 14th to speak at ProjectWorld. The subject is: “Getting more resource capacity without spending more money”. See this post for location and registration information for ProjectWorld. Hope to see you there!
Resource capacity planning is one of the most expected and requested aspects of enterprise project management yet it is one of the most elusive benefits to achieve. Why is this? If it’s so commonly requested, why isn’t it easier to deliver? This article talks about the different aspects of Resource capacity planning and gives some tips on how to achieve it.
