tical mritical is that when Introduction Nature of Resources Identifying Resource Requirements Scheduling Resources Creating Critical Paths Counting the Cost Being Specific Publishing the Resource Schedule Cost Schedules Scheduling Sequence| Altocation 4 Management (7. BSc-17 wort er seme Prost Manage A roject! INTRODUCTION an available resouras a} comsiderat In this chapter we shall see how to match the UST Trt the resources, “¥) gaan wey of changing the Pla ., ® and, where necessary, assess the efficacy of ed in Step Wise 6 Figure 81 shows where resource allocation 6 9PP noi ay The allocation of resources to activities will De sic Stats 4 activity plan. It may cause us to revise stage OF project co 2) Labour It incluc | systems other su b) Equip | @ Items ir equipm ©) Materi: | © Items ti 4) Space | © Office: | ©) Servier Figure 8.1 : Resource allocation is carried out as step 7 eee ons The final result of resource allocation will normally be a number of schedulé schedu including f) Time © An activity schedule indicating the planned start and completion dates fore) ® OMe activity @ A resource schedule showing the dates on which each resource will be requ) [837IDENE and the level of that requirement; wy A chedule showing the he fi e a cost fous : eabeniae the planned cumulative expenditure incurred by the ™ be req poe Hines 2 om NATURE OF RESOURCES ry, as mf AT i i requit Fesoure elation the alge anaes g A resource is any item or person required for the execution of the project. The project manager must concentrate on those resources whic ann might not be available when required ose, Wh oy oes 4. Resources can be allocated by various means, such as markets or central plannioject manageme! : : inproi sgement, resource al ver 1 activities an eres allocation or resou Mt activities and the resource urce management isthe scheduling ‘nsideration both the resource ay required by thos cources will fall into one activities while taking into bility and the project time : Rest of sever en cat Money Labour ) Categories of | V {Jeauipmen) Space [Materials Labour 1 includes members of the development project team such as the project manager, qvstems analysts and software developers and also the quality assurance team and sther support staff and any employees of the client organization. Equipment tems include workstations and other computing and office equipment and also asic equipment such as desks and chairs. Materials items that are consumed Space Office space will need to be found, Services rocurement of specialist services, for example, requires Some projects will re ations services. scheduling of telecom Time her primary resources fset against the ot! ion plan isto list the resources that will > IDENTIFYING Ri >. Eee source allocati wyel of demand. in turn and identifying the resources pducing a resource scared slong withthe expected i This will be done by © required he first step in pro h activity wnsidering each activityyee Allocation Problem with It causes two} ‘one for seven ‘One for twod Another prob resource beyo 8.4 illustrate Fig. 2 ehers, a Tesow fequirements, be different letters 1 ‘one person work magenent (TY.B Se Ty 16 Software Poet Manag i Tester availbi [Ss7SCHEDULINGRESOURCES "The neat stage is to map the resource requirement list on to the activity plan to assay the distribution of resources required over the duration of the possible project. 2 This is best done by representing the activity plan as a bar chart and using this Tester produce a resource histogram for each resource. availabii Werk number (Sip real seem) | (Spexitrma | Spey mom —— [SpeciiymodaeD] Fig. 84: Resou 1. Smoothing By adjusting ¢] histogram can subje contain resource at ™aximum level of ¢ sic mci Provide a useful wa) ete | 2 Two ways of pr Drsigr le] a Total float prio: © Activities ar i © Smallest toti | 4 Ordered list pri ‘© Activities th simple crite, Burman’s P: 1. Shortest histogram for analyses/ aes ii) Critical . Fig. 83: Bar chart and a resoure715 > assess, this to en problem with the above g Ircauses WO analyst ten One for seven days, efor Fre 20 'ys between SPecifics nother problem in tn ation and des ev resource beyond those avant 844 illustrates how, b rs, 4 Tesource, 8-83 is wre u "EDES to be ile for tivcive d ays. sign, istogram is je, 2” Is it is that more likely to call for levels of Start date of some activites and splitin ¥ Subject to constraints such as precedence Staff worki demand at available levels. The ‘one person working on task A, tw rking fey aye of module testing tasks, that is, son working on task At Band Cet Tester eee availabiiy) a iq FLJHA A een DDDDDl Tester availabitiy] ccc cCBBBCDDDD Fig. 6: Resource histogram showing demand for staff before and after smoothing Smoothing, ctivil sitting others, a resource date of some activities and splitting others, much as precedence requirement, be smoothed to delaying the start of some activities, reduces the re, Non-critical activities can be split, they can By adjusting the start ‘iogram can subject to constraints st tnizin resource at available levels. By Suimum level of demand for the reso Fovide a useful way of filling. Two ways of prioritizing activities are Total float priority float. © Activities are ordered according '0 fs ee aa a |. © Smallest total float has higher Prionty y ) Ordered list priority © Activities that can be Proc simple criteria. © Burman‘s Priority lists 1. Shortest Critical Activities ii) Critical Activities time are ordered according to a set of reed at the samereject Management TY.B.Se-17, os softoareP re iil) Shortest Non-Critic iv) Non-Critical Activitie ¥)_Non- Critical Activities -REATING CRITICAL PATHS Scheduling resources can create new critical paths. is Delaying the start of an activity due to lack of re Cae a tivity can delay the availability of a FesoUrce requirey ay in completing one activity can del later activity ona atten ee If the later one is already critical then the earlier one mig! critical by linking their resources. [Sco ‘One has to try to complete the proje number of staff i Using additional staff or lengthening the overall duration of delivery can be oq option and the discussed later in this chapter. The additional costs of employing extra staff would need to be compared to the ca ‘of delayed increased risk of not meeting the scheduled date. Activities with Least Float ces ill cause that actin, by the earliest completion date with minim When allocating labourers to activities one need to be specific among individuals, Nature of software development Skill and experience influence : © Time taken © Quality of the product A number of factors need to be considered while allocating individual to tasks: Availabili © Reference to the departmental work plan determines this but the wise proj] manager will always investigate the risks that might be involved. Criticality : * Allocation of more experienced personnel to activities on the critical path of helps in shortening project durations or atleast reduces the risk of overran, Ris © [Mentifying those activities posing the greatest risk, and knowing the influencing them, helps to allocate staff, © Allocating the most experienced staff to the highest-risk activities is likely to the greatest effect in reducing overall project uncertainties, Training : © Junior staff should be allocated to appropriate non-critical activities where will be sufficient slack for them to train and develop skills Team building : The selection of individuals must also take account of the final shape of the pro” team and the way they will work together@g PUBLISHING THE RESOURCE Lind = activity plan, activity bar of MEDULE scheduling resources “ants and resource histogran 1 for allocat although good as plann on NINE tools the communicating project sche are not the best way of publishing and Work plans are commonly pun ts some form of work plan required Se EeBe IY Published as either lists or chart hat illustrated int tt I at 1 i ae ae “ecomem Fig. 86: Work plans/ work schedule nsfer some of the information from the work schedule to precedence network The earliest start dates for activities and any other constraints (such as revised latest nish dates where resources need be made available) that have been introduced. py of revised precedence network is shown in fig. 8.7- (All critical activities and paths are circled), % leave i \ | [eo |,°) 6 4 | dare 4 | © Jaa | frases sexi | Ta an ea |\\ __ | meses oT pio Toure chk | all design | * ee aisle nies TPIS s 7 21 7EIP/10 design| \ \foe spy} eri \ oe tse \ Fao | 6 [55 ‘ / wf) [len 4 | days,” ays, \ JaePerckak| [Tor dan Tol 7s} 0| 79 ie 1zaal a ce net Fig 87: Precedenct x * oi sem) 7.8.17. Softwar Projet Management het ae Eatioal} = caiowing scheduled chart and completion dates= Sopware roe! Management (TY BELT) fy J Geiailed and accurate estimate of costs ang {t progress can be monitored. x) where the organization has standard cost fig... 720 ree 8.9 COST SCHEDULES 1. Cost schedule will provide a more serve as a plan against which project 2. Calculating cost is straightforward for staff and other resources. 3. Costs are categorized as follows 1. Staff costs ‘e Staff costs includes not just salary, but also social security contributions by the employer, holiday pay etc. © Timesheets are often used to record actual hours spent on each project by a individual. b) Overheads © Some overheads might be directly attributable to the project, in other cases « percentage of departmental overheads may be allocated to project costs. © Eg. space rental, service charges etc. <) Usage charges © Projects are charged directly for use of resources such as computer time. 4. From the fig. 88 it shows how much is going to be spent in each week. This could te important where an organization allocates project budgets by financial year quarter and the project straddles more than one of these financial periods. 3 $s Estimated weekly costs (£) 123456 101112 13141516 17 181920 ‘Week number Fig, 8.8: Weekly project cost 5, This chart can be compared to the actual accumulative costs when controlling pproject to assess whether the project is likely to meet its cost targets. recor!at the Allocation 100004 9000. 8000 70004 5000 4000 4 1000-4 Ot aavis e-7 . TS ET RS oi sists ire —______ Week number Fig. 8.9: Cumulative project cost (0 SCHEDULING SEQUENCE _ The activity plan and risk ass t would d assessment would provide the basis for our resou! allocation and schedule from which one can produce cost schedules -essful resource allocation often necessitates revisions to the activity plan, whic im, will affect the risk assessment. The cost schedule might indicate the need or desirability to reallocate resources oF revise activity plans- particularly where that schedule indicates a higher overa project cost than originally anticipated. The interplay between the plans and schedules is complex - any change to a will affect each of the others. Some factors can be directly additional staff can be balanced against the of different concems project planning will need is will need to carefully assess and plat compared in terms of money- the cost of, hiring costs of delaying the project's end dai 4 to Because of the inter-linking erative. The consequences of decision: adjusted accordingly. sie” i Ga Risk assessment Activity plan 7 Expected dal Cost schedule 3 10 15 20 week number reduling,is not a simple sequence ‘easful project seh Fig. 8.10: Suet