Software Project Management
Fifth Edition
Chapter 8
Resource
allocation
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Schedules
Activity schedule - indicating start and completion
dates for each activity
Resource schedule - indicating dates when resources
needed + level of resources
Cost schedule showing accumulative expenditure
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Resources
These include
labour
equipment (e.g. workstations)
materials
space
services
Time: elapsed time can often be reduced by adding
more staff
Money: used to buy the other resources
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Resource allocation
Identify the resources needed for each activity and
create a resource requirement list
Identify resource types - individuals are
interchangeable within the group (e.g. ‘VB
programmers’ as opposed to ‘software developers’)
Allocate resource types to activities and examine the
resource histogram
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Resource histogram:
systems analysts
5
STAFF REQD.
WEEK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
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Resource smoothing
It is usually difficult to get specialist staff who will work
odd days to fill in gaps – need for staff to learn about
application etc
Staff often have to be employed for a continuous block
of time
Therefore desirable to employ a constant number of
staff on a project – who as far as possible are fully
employed
Hence need for resource smoothing
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Resource smoothing
5
STAFF REQD.
WEEK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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Resource clashes
Where same resource needed in more than one place
at the same time
can be resolved by:
delaying one of the activities
• taking advantage of float to change start date
• delaying start of one activity until finish of the
other activity that resource is being used on - puts
back project completion
moving resource from a non-critical activity
bringing in additional resource - increases costs
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Prioritizing activities
There are two main ways of doing this:
Total float priority – those with the smallest float have
the highest priority
Ordered list priority – this takes account of the
duration of the activity as well as the float – see next
overhead
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Burman’s priority list
Give priority to:
Shortest critical activities
Other critical activities
Shortest non-critical activities
Non-critical activities with least float
Non-critical activities
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Resource usage
need to maximise %usage of resources i.e. reduce
idle periods between tasks
need to balance costs against early completion date
need to allow for contingency
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Critical path
Scheduling resources can create new dependencies
between activities – recall critical chains
It is best not to add dependencies to the activity
network to reflect resource constraints
Makes network very messy
A resource constraint may disappear during the
project, but link remains on network
Amend dates on schedule to reflect resource
constraints
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Allocating individuals to activities
The initial ‘resource types’ for a task have to be
replaced by actual individuals.
Factors to be considered:
Availability
Criticality
Risk
Training
Team building – and motivation
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Cost schedules
Cost schedules can now be produced:
Costs include:
Staff costs
Overheads
Usage charges
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Cost profile
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Accumulative costs
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Balancing concerns
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