In software engineering, it’s hard to manage resources effectively and finish projects on time. But it doesn’t have to be.
Resource management in software engineering is hard. But it’s critical to business success.
With large IT projects notorious for going over budget – or failing entirely – and burnout rates up to 80% in the software engineering sector, it’s imperative for software engineering businesses to get a grip on resource management.
But what does effective resource management really look like in software engineering? And how do you do it – especially in a sector characterized by rapid change and a culture of overwork?
In this article, we’ll explore the common difficulties faced by software engineering teams when assigning resources, plus resource management techniques and strategies you can use to overcome them.
Whether you're struggling with vague requirements, overworked employees, or simply trying to optimize your team’s output, understanding how to manage resources better could be the key to solving these persistent issues.
In software engineering, resource management is the process of allocating people to projects. It is a key tenet of effective IT operations that’s concerned with getting the right people in the right place at the right time.
For a software project to run to schedule and budget, you need correctly skilled people to work promptly and productively on tasks. Any issues with availability and skills can undermine your project outcomes.
Sadly, software engineering resource management is easier said than done.
Resource management in software engineering isn’t just about filling project roles. It’s about creating the team – and the conditions – for success in an unpredictable landscape.
If you’ve been responsible for allocating resources in software engineering, you’ll know it’s challenging – interpreting unclear project requirements, navigating resource shortages, finding the right talent, and dealing with scope creep. Even battling the insidious culture of unpaid overtime in software – crunching – that we all know leads to burnout, quality issues, low morale, turnover, and disruption.
Visit any forum where sector professionals chat and you’ll read complaints and concerns about the state of project and resource management in software engineering. Like this disgruntled software engineer, upset that tasks are assigned ‘arbitrarily’ and by ‘vibe’, who feels ‘alone…to figure out super vague requirements’.
That’s not an effective way to staff a project. In fact, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Far from simply being irritants to vent about on Reddit, these issues pose a fatal risk to your projects and your business overall.
Runn was borne from the exasperation of resource planning in software engineering. Our founders – Tim and Nicole – both worked in software and experienced the hair-pulling frustrations firsthand.
They designed Runn specifically to fix these problems and leave the sector better than they found it. We asked them for the top challenges they’ve experienced around resource management in software engineering. Here’s what they said:
I’ve never, ever in the entirety of my career seen a project start with a specific kind of scope and end up with exactly that same scope," says Runn COO, Nicole Tiefensee.
One of the most frustrating aspects of managing software engineering resources is that project requirements are often poorly defined from the outset and change frequently during the project. This leads to delays, burnout, and ultimately, a sense of chaos within the team.
Unclear project requirements lead to inaccurate initial estimates, which means the schedule and budget are doomed from the get-go. Then, as teams start developing, the scope changes further. It’s like trying to build a house on shifting sands.
A project manager needs a well-defined scope to:
When a PM doesn’t know what needs to be delivered, they just can’t plan effectively. This can result in unclear project tasks, rushed execution, missed deadlines, and frustrated developers. In terms of resource planning, inaccurate estimates mean developers may be:
The one thing they won’t be is optimally utilized – where they have a balanced workload that keeps them working steadily and productively on tasks, without burning them out. And that’s the main goal of resource management in software engineering.
Work shouldn’t feel like a warzone. But in software engineering – where specialist skills are often in short supply – resource management can be a battleground.
Without clear project prioritization to say how high-value resources should be assigned – or processes for requesting project resources – it can be a free-for-all.
Project managers fight over limited resources, trying to build the best team. And resources are at the whim of whoever can shout loudest, rather than being matched to projects that make the best use of their time and talent.
When demand outstrips supply:
This not only impacts the quality of the code but also the mental health of the developers themselves. Plus, tech debt starts to accumulate, as teams are forced to prioritize speed over code quality. This isn’t an effective way to work as it simply punts the ball downfield and creates problems for the future.
You don’t need us to tell you that overwork is endemic in many software development environments. Long hours and weekend work can become the norm, creating a culture where ‘overtime’ is ‘all the time’. This is incredibly unhealthy and leads to:
And yet, in some workplaces, it’s lauded and rewarded.
While overtime might be an acceptable, short-term fix for resource shortages and tight deadlines, it isn’t a long-term solution. Developers are people, not machines – the ‘human’ in human resources – and they work best when they’ve had time to rest and relax between shifts.
To create a stable and sustainable work environment – one that supports high creativity and quality – you need to ensure workloads are manageable and well-balanced. However, as we’ve highlighted above, this is difficult when scopes are unclear, and even harder when managers buy into crunch culture.
Agile ceremonies – like daily standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives – are meant to provide structure and clarity. But they often fall short.
Communication issues. Misaligned attitudes. Mistaking ‘agility’ for action without planning. This results in mismatched expectations, misallocated resources, and, ultimately, frustration across the team.
Plus, developers often work on multiple tasks or projects at the same time, further complicating communication and resource management.
And, finally, tools meant to clarify assignments aren’t fit for agile resource planning.
When spreadsheets or Kanban boards are used for tracking, they need updating accurately and regularly. And that doesn’t always happen.
Effective resource planning requires visibility into who’s working on what, and whether they have the capacity to take on more. Without that, tasks can get missed and people can get overstretched.
In software engineering, resource planning improves project delivery, reduces unnecessary costs, maintains quality, and prevents burnout. And this means healthier employees, happier clients, and a positive reputation that attracts more of both.
We've already established that unclear project requirements and intuition-based resource allocation are like building on shifting sand. Fortunately, resource management offers much firmer foundations.
Once you commit to improving your resource planning, you'll unlock a range of tools and frameworks to strengthen your processes.
These include methods for:
With these in place, it becomes easier to forecast and quote accurately, stay on schedule and budget, and deliver quality results. Here are some of the top benefits of resource scheduling for software engineering.
Resource planning frameworks make it easier to plan software projects and allocate resources. Rather than relying on chaotic guesstimates or gut-feel decisions, you’ll base your planning on established processes, historical data, and real-time insights.
This lets you forecast budget and schedule future projects more accurately, and improve the accuracy of client quotes, to boost both your profit margins and client relationships.
Plus, by looking at resource allocations in advance – and matching them to an accurate project schedule – you can spot any bottlenecks or risks in advance. This lets you proactively plan around them rather than getting blindsided later in the project.
As our CEO Tim Copeland says ‘Resource management is about ensuring neither time nor talent are wasted.’ Put simply, it’s about maximizing return on your investment in resources – ensuring people are profitably and productively engaged, but never burnout.
Effective resource allocation helps you monitor and maximize the contribution people make to your business. It lets you match people’s time and talent to the tasks at hand, while creating balanced workloads.
Another related benefit of resource management in software engineering is that utilization data supports better capacity planning. Tracking resource utilization highlights which roles are consistently in higher demand than supply, so you can recruit people in time to prevent resource shortages.
On the flip side, it also reveals which roles are becoming redundant – so you can upskill and retrain people – and prevents overspending on under-utilized resources.
Better forecasting and utilization combine to seriously improve financial performance. Your budget is more realistic from the start, you’re getting more focused productivity from your team, and you’re less likely to experience costly delays or overruns.
But that’s not all. By rightsizing your workforce and increasing employee satisfaction, you lower your recruitment costs. No more paying through the nose to plug talent gaps at short notice, fewer resignations from exhausted software developers, and a positive employer brand that makes it easier to fill vacancies.
Agility is about more than having scrums and calling yourself an Agile team. Agile resource management is about having visibility into projects and resources, and the ability to move things around when priorities shift – that’s true agility.
When project management pros have live information at their fingertips, they can find the best people to take over a task, or know what to move without impacting dependent projects.
This adaptability ensures that software projects continue moving forward and that you’re always prepared to take advantage of new opportunities without missing a beat.
When resources are properly managed, you know everyone’s skills, interests, aspirations, availability, and allocations. This makes it much easier to align them to priority projects and initiatives.
No more in-fighting to try to secure the best people for your project. There’s a system for allocating them where they’ll have the most impact for the business – such as a priority project for a valued client, or a strategic in-house initiative.
Equipped with a solid project plan – and the ability to allocate the right resources to the right projects at the right time – you’re more likely to hit targets and deliver high-quality work. This improves team morale and boosts client satisfaction, which can lead to positive word-of-mouth, referrals, and repeat work.
Plus, when you’re managing resources effectively – optimizing resource utilization and surfacing spare capacity – you may find you have time to take on additional projects, simply by streamlining your processes.
So, if you’re a software engineering firm that's struggling with chaotic projects, chronic overwork, and unhappy clients, better project resource management is the answer. But where do you start? Here’s a step-by-step guide.
To start, you need to understand how resource planning currently happens in your software engineering firm – or doesn’t!
Start by talking to all project management stakeholders – resource managers and PMs, team leads, and resources themselves. They’ll provide insights into how resources are currently allocated and the pain points they encounter.
Then look for information like:
This will help you understand any processes in place and the problems your teams are still facing – as well as set some appropriate goals for resource management.
Once you’ve assessed your current position, you’ll be better equipped to understand what you need to achieve. What will success look like? For example:
To allocate resources more effectively and accurately, you need a central record of all of your resources and key information about them, including:
With this information at their fingertips – in a skills inventory or resource matrix – managers can easily find the right person for the right tasks.
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To make this system work, you’ll need standardized terminology to describe skills and maintain consistency. And the data will need to be updated regularly and accurately (see below).
Having processes is crucial for smooth operations, but you don’t want to create unnecessary bureaucracy, especially in an agile environment. The goal is to streamline and standardize, without overcomplicating things. Here are some processes you may wish to consider:
Don’t forget to communicate these processes, so everyone understands how to allocate resources.
This is the heart of resource management. With your processes and information in place, you can begin assigning resources more accurately and intentionally.
By balancing these four elements, you should be able to allocate resources and equip them for success – matching them to work they can complete to a high standard, keep them engaged, and without burnout.
It’s also critical to monitor utilization – and not just at an individual level. Keep a watchful eye on overall capacity and utilization to make sure no skillset is becoming overutilized. If they are, that’s a sign you need to consider recruiting or upskilling. Failure to do so could lead to resource shortages and delivery issues.
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Most organizations are familiar with using a tool like Jira for task management and project tracking. But that’s not suitable for resource management. You need a dedicated tool that:
These tools are essential for getting visibility into your team's workload, planning projects, and resources accurately, and monitoring progress when projects are underway. Unlike Kanban boards and spreadsheets, the right resource management software is a source of clarity and efficiency, rather than frustration and confusion.
