Project Resource Planning

Whether you are putting together a budget proposal or preparing to assemble a project team, you will need a resource plan defining how many people are needed in which roles. This plan needs to be backed up by hard data such as your user story estimates. Don’t worry, though; drafting your resource plan can really be a simple task.

Here is a link to a sample project resource planning spreadsheet that I’ll use as a reference. If you’d like a soft copy, email your request to aaronhsmith@gmail.com.

Here is a step-by-step process for resource planning:

1. Developer Resources – If you have completed your project timeline planning then you are already well on your way. Your estimated user stories will provide support for your staffing requirements. Another valuable result of the project timeline planning exercise is that you now know the required number of developer FTEs for each project milestone. So start filling out the resource planning spreadsheet by adding the developer resources to the spreadsheet.
2. Remaining Resources – You should now enter additional team resources based on your personal preferences or company policies for ratio of developers to resources from other disciplines. For example, I typically plan for a 2:1 developer to QA ratio. Do this for project management, business analysis, UI design, database administration, reports, etc. Remember, this is a draft that will elicit feedback and will be adjusted. If it makes sense, name your resources. Nothing like earmarking excellent resources early on! Caution, this may lead to some “animated” discussion as you share your draft…
3. Engagement % – Now enter the Engagement % of each resource, i.e. how much of their time will be dedicated to the project? Some resources will be shared, or will have diminished involvement as the project progresses, such as DBAs, UI designers and business analysts. Enter a percentage that reflects their average engagement over the course of the project.
4. Duration – OK, now enter the start date and end dates for each resource. Once you have entered the start and end dates, the spreadsheet auto calculates the work days for each resource as well as the estimated hours that will be billed. In the example I assume an 8-hour work day. In this example, you’ll notice that the reports writer is not scheduled to start until half way through the project, which significantly lowers their cost to the project.
5. Bill Rates – To assist with budget efforts, enter the bill rate for each resource. The spreadsheet then calculates your project cost per resource, and sums total resource costs for the whole project.

Once you have approval of your resource plan you are ready to complete a budget proposal. I'll have a post on budget planning next week...