Determine Your Resource Needs

Before you create your resource list, you should consider how many resources you need and what skills they require. The number of resources you use affects both the duration and the cost of your project. Too few resources might lengthen the duration, but you might hold down costs. Too many resources might shrink the duration, but costs might spin out of control. The skills of your human resources affect work efficiency and quality. The way to ensure that you have enough resources with the right skills is to determine your resource needs.

To determine your resource needs accurately, consider the following factors:

What is the project scope? Assess whether your project goals are ambitious or small, many or few.
What kinds of tasks need to be done? Think in terms of job categories. Do you need programmers, electricians, forklifts, or conference rooms?
How many tasks need to be done? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?
What set of skills is required for each task? You want to use human resources who can do the job right.
How many resources do you need to complete each task on time? When you determine the number of resources needed to finish each task, you’ve determined the total number of resources you need to complete the project on time.
Can one resource work on more than one task? Sometimes you can assign a person with more than one set of skills to work on more than one task, helping you reduce both headcount and overhead.

You have two ways to estimate your resource needs accurately. You can have those who will actually perform the work estimate the project’s resource needs. Or, you can check the resource requirements of similar tasks from past projects, adjusting for differences between the tasks and the skills of the available resources. Breaking your tasks into smaller tasks also improves your ability to predict the number of resources and the amount of work needed for each task.