Resource planning is at the heart of any business willing to scale, so its benefits can't be overstated. Discover the most powerful benefits of resource planning for your teams, customers, and business.
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When you're starting a new business or scaling an existing one, it can be hard to know what you'll need to succeed. Even if you have a clear vision of what you want and how you'll get there, you may not always be able to put the puzzles together and predict what kind of resources will be required.
That's where resource planning comes in. This is the art of figuring out how much time, money and manpower (and any other resources) will be needed for a project or initiative to be successful. It also includes assessing when certain resources will be needed, as well as comparing this with what's currently available.
As you roll out your resource planning carpet, a lot of things will become clearer. The benefits of planning resources include improved project quality, better outcome performance, lower resource costs and knowing where your project team members are during the course of the project. In this article, we describe five most powerful benefits of resource planning.
The most important benefit of resource planning is that it enables a team to get stakeholders on board regarding resource needs. When stakeholders are presented with resource management plans that outline the resources needed for their projects, they will likely approve them more readily. This is because it provides an understanding of what resources are involved and the risks to successful delivery if those resources aren’t available.
If the team estimates that they need 10 additional people to complete project tasks, then there is no point in moving forward with a project if you cannot obtain those 10 people.
That being said, a resource plan can help set realistic expectations for what can be accomplished with the resources available. When managed properly, this lets everyone know what to expect from the project (and when to expect it) and reduces conflict over resources.
To wrap it up, resource planning is one way for stakeholders to understand what resources are available to support their projects at any given time and how much it will cost.
When companies don’t carry out effective resource planning, they can find themselves in a situation where there aren’t enough people to complete an important project, or where there are not enough materials available to keep the business running smoothly.
Resource planning helps to identify any gaps between what is needed and what is available early in a project, so that corrective action can be taken. It answers the question: do we have enough manpower with the right skills to finish the project? For example, if one week into a three-month project you discover that you don't have enough team members, then you can take action (such as adjusting schedules and/or bringing in more people) to ensure that the project is successful.
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Resource planning guides the project team alignment: The project manager can use a resource plan to ensure that the right resources are working on the right projects at the right time. This avoids overburdening staff with too many responsibilities and should lead to higher productivity and morale amongst staff.
Resource planning can also help develop new ways of working within your organization by identifying key roles within departments and working out how they will work together to achieve targets and goals.
It goes without saying that resource planning helps to ensure that there are no idle resources. Idle resources are underutilized resources, which means that they could be reassigned to a different task or temporarily taken off the project to perform other work while they are not needed by the project. This can save time and money because idle resources are not being paid for their time on the project (they still need to be paid for their regular job).
By being more productive, organized and cost-effective, you have greater odds of completing your project successfully.
With resource planning, you are able to better estimate how long the project will take which means you are able to tell your customers more accurately when they can expect their finished project. This reduces customer dissatisfaction when projects overrun or delays occur and ensures no customers are left without their completed projects for longer than necessary.
Another benefit of resource planning lies in eliminating some of the risks associated with mismanaging human resources, such as wasted time, money, and effort.
The best way to save money on a project is to plan and execute it with the least amount of resources. To do this, you need to develop a resource plan. A resource plan is a list of all the resources needed for your project including labor, material, equipment, and other items necessary for the completion of the project. Resource planning will also help you estimate how much all these items will cost in addition to how much labor it will take to complete your project successfully.
Thus, businesses can avoid expenses from overbooking or underbooking resources by identifying the best times to use their employees. It also allows organizations to determine the amount of work employees can handle at a given time so they can prevent burnout and employee turnover.
Resource planning is essential for keeping projects on time and on budget. It helps business owners save time and money and provides a roadmap for driving their businesses more efficiently, without wasting the talent they’ve invested in.
New to resource planning? Check our survival kit here:
