From a traditional point of view, one would think that the resources available to Project Managers are limited to monetary resources and human resources. We could also include in this obvious vision the tools, software, utilities in general that we use in our daily management. Let us not lose sight.
For our project plan to be comprehensive and effective, you must take into account all the resources that influence the ability of the company to create and deliver its core values. In general, the list of resources to consider includes those related to production, storage, research and product development, process development, engineering, purchasing, personnel and finance.
Thus, we are going to draw a complete picture of a resource system, considering the resources classified in different categories: physical resources; Human Resources; intellectual property (IP), software and methods; "ecosystem"; and financial resources.
1. Physical Resources
Physical resources are tangible property and include facilities, offices, warehouses, land, machinery, equipment and tools. Some resources (for example, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers) reflect large investments that only occur every 20 years or more. Others, such as disposable tools, may require little investment and can be changed frequently. Any project management venture requires real-time tools and resources that can speed up the process. For example, many businesses underestimate the benefits of fast printing in terms of time-saving.
2. Human Resources
Human resources are the employees that make up the workforce of operations. Individual employees differ in their skills, knowledge, training, capacity, flexibility and employment conditions. They also differ in the role they play.
3. Intellectual Property
Intellectual Property, software and methods are resources based on knowledge of the operations function. They are the collective knowledge resident in the organization, not by individual employees. Patented and proprietary designs, trade secrets, software, organization systems, processes, techniques and information are included in this category. The Google search algorithm or the Windows source code in Microsoft are two examples of this kind of valuable resource.
Let us realize that almost always strong alliances between collaborators, suppliers and customers are a very important asset for our success, and therefore they are an available “resource”.
4. Financial Resources
Financial resources, which are the types of funds available, including cash, cash generated by operations, and funds available from financial markets. These resources are generally not considered part of the operations; however, they can be decisive in enabling or restricting the application of the strategy. For example, an investment of $500 million in automation can be financially and strategically prudent, since it can improve efficiency and reduce costs, but it will not happen if Operations does not have the funds to invest.
It should also be noted, to conclude with this discussion, that this "mapping" of complete resources, and its organization, shows an instant of time, but as it is logical, it is evolving, to adapt to the environment and the value offered to customers. We hope you found it useful!
5. Effective File Management
Creative teams almost always actively exchange messages with customers, constantly receiving new instructions and sending revised versions of the ordered materials, so the ability to have round-the-clock access to files and attachments becomes vital. You also need version support so that your team no longer has to understand five documents with the name in search of the latest version.
6. A Convenient Means Of Communication In Addition To Email
The ability to discuss work is necessary for creative teams like air. Moreover, ideally, this discussion should be as little as possible on inefficient and time-consuming electronic correspondence. We need a way to conduct discussions in the same space as current tasks and files. Team members should have the opportunity to leave feedback and exchange views with colleagues about the recently uploaded design layout, the latest press release, or even about choosing a venue for the party.
7. Co-Editing
The ideal creative project management software provides all team members with access to documents and files and makes it possible to change them at the same time. No document should be blocked at the moment when someone most needs it. Besides, this feature allows you to share the task between colleagues.
8. Convenient Time Tracking
Creative agencies usually require hourly pay, so it is important to have some way of tracking paid hours. If a time tracker is built into the project management software, you need to click a button to track work time. Convenient reports based on real-time data becomes important in project management. Reporting should not be a problem. The system you choose should allow you to compile any reports based on current data, regardless of whether you need a timesheet or a table with weekly performance indicators for your team - and do it easily, without pain.
9. Visualization Of The Project Timeline
To help you keep your schedule, the software should display the relationships and timelines of individual tasks within the overall picture. Ideally, if scheduling is visualized because in this case, you immediately see the general timeline, the dependencies between the tasks and the main milestones of the project. It is an important part of resource management in today’s collaborative work environment. For the success of the project, it is extremely important to know which employees, as well as what physical and virtual resources, can be allocated to it. Therefore, your system for managing creative projects should allow everyone to see the workload and availability of resources.
10. Flexible Task Management
The easier it is to create a project folder and organize tasks inside it, the better. A user-friendly interface is a big plus. If the system does not allow you to easily move objects, link tasks or add tags to indicate context, look for another option.
To analyze these resources a little more, we could raise another axis of information, which attempts to answer questions such as:
• What resources (of all the types) do we currently have?
• How do the different types relate to each other?
• When we want to expand this resource base, how will we do it?
Therefore, we must work on the identification of the following:
• Resource base: an inventory of resources that captures cumulative decisions about what resources they use. The type, location, quality, durability, capacity and utilization of each resource.
• Resource integration decisions: determine how individual resources interact with each other to form the operating system, including decisions about organization, planning and decision making.
• Resource development and acquisition decisions: guide the development of the operating system. Plans and processes for innovation, development, and mergers and acquisitions determine how the resource base and resource integration are expected to change. Here are some useful online resources for project managers.
Power Your Project Management With Reliable Resources
Having this much more global and at the same time more realistic vision, we will be able to put together more efficient and effective project plans. Keep these business resources in mind to help power your project management!
