Use These Three Steps to Create a Resource Plan
A Resource Plan identifies the physical resources required to complete a project. It lists each of the resource types (such as labor, equipment and materials) and how many of each you need. If you would like to define a comprehensive Resource Plan for your project, take the following three steps.
First, identify the different types of resources needed to complete the project. You then need to quantify the amount of each type of resource required. And finally, you need to schedule the consumption of each resource within the project. Let’s describe each step in a little more detail.
Step 1: List the resource required
You should start by listing the resources required to complete the project.
- Labor. Identify all the roles involved in performing the project, including all full-time, part-time and contracting roles.
- Equipment. Identify all of the equipment involved in performing the project. For instance, this may include office equipment (e.g. PCs, photocopiers, and mobile phones), telecommunications equipment (e.g. cabling, switches) and machinery (e.g. heavy and light machinery).
- Materials. Identify all of the non-consumable materials to complete project activities such as materials required to build physical deliverables (e.g. wood, steel and concrete).
- Hardware/software. Identify if applicable.
- More…
Step 2: Estimate the number of resources required
The next step is to estimate the number of each resource.
- Labor, estimate how many hours you need per role
- Equipment, estimate how many pieces of equipment needed
- Materials, estimate how much material, in terms such as square meters, kilograms, number of units, etc.
As much as possible, also indicate the date the resources are needed and the consumption rate per day, week or month.
Step 3: Construct a resource schedule
You have now collated all the information required to build a detailed Resource Schedule. Create a resource schedule which specifies the:
- Resources required to complete the project
- Timeframes for the consumption of each resource
- Quantity of each resource required per week/month
- Total quantity of resource consumed per week/month
- Assumptions and constraints identified
That’s it – your three steps to creating a resource plan.
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