It’s a tale as old as project management itself. Somebody works up a very detailed project schedule and even assigns specific resources to tasks. They even manage to do some basic allocation so Jake from Engineering isn’t working 120 hour weeks for the next five years.
But in their diligence and detail, they overlook a couple of things. They forget that everybody on the project has “a day job” they still have to get done and that recurring events like annual quality reviews or year ends or whatever still happen. In missing them, they put the project at risk of an overly optimistic timeline with unrealistic true allocation.
MAKING JAKE MISERABLE
Suppose Jake from Engineering is assigned to three projects. Each project believes it has about 33% of Jake’s time and it builds a schedule accordingly. That’s all well and good in a two-dimensional view, but life is rarely lived in less than three dimensions and in reality, Jake also has operational and special duties he has to get done. After all, Jake is out to please his boss and if that conflicts with the project managers, then so be it.
Plus, no matter how much you may want to believe the myth of “giving 110%”, reality says nobody and nothing, human or machine, runs at full tilt all the time. Try it, and you’ll find you have a miserable resource who may have a difficult time giving you 20% let alone 30-35%.
ENTER THE RESOURCE MAP
Aside from attempting to use the resource allocation functions of project software (and that’s a whole different topic with nightmares of its own), I find a simple resource grid with week-by-week availability can help greatly. Doing it week-by-week also allows you the granularity to block out days for vacations, holiday weeks (I haven’t worked that Friday after Thanksgiving in years), and those recurring annual/quarterly/etc. events that seem to creep up on us regardless of the fact we’ve done them for the last decade.
Start the map with the week grid across the top and the resource list along the side. Factor in the gross available hours for each week (accounting for those off days) and get an adjusted number of working hours for the week. Most of the time it should show forty, but I think you get the picture. For each resource, get them to commit to their availability allocation. If they say they will give your project 25%, take that. You know it will likely flex, but if they gave you the number willingly, it helps you more accurately represent what is going on.
Be sure to account for any down time (vacations, holidays, planned days off) and then see where their calculated availability varies over time. Match that up against the deliverables and tasks for your project, and you can easily see the “flash points” where your schedule will be strained.
THE MINOR MYTH OF 100%
In doing this exercise, watch out for resources that say they are 100% available to you. I don’t care if it is a contractor/hired gun, who offers that … nobody is available 100%. In my experience, the maximum lies between 90-95% and even that can get problematic at times. It may be a hard sell to take a more conservative stand, but it may also save your project a whole lot of grief. I’d rather argue for something more realistic up front than try to negotiate extension after extension when crunch time comes.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY – KEEPING JAKE CONTENT
The savvy project manager will never press resources as a matter of regular practice. You want your project done and you know Jake has to play a significant part. It is in your best interest, the best interest of the project, and ultimately the best interest of the company to keep Jake’s sanity in mind. A simple tool such as a resource grid with potential crunch or flash points can go a long way toward getting your project sponsor, Jake’s manager, and even Jake to see what should be planned rather than what could optimistically happen if all the stars aligned.
As comedian Robin Williams once titled concert piece, “Reality, what a concept.” I think we could all use a little dose of reality when it comes to defining our 8 weeks of work. It’s rarely 8 actual weeks in the end.
Bio:
Mark Moore has held multiple professional positions in IT and business for nearly three decades serving organizations both small and large, public and private. With over half that time as a project manager, he has successfully managed major initiatives spanning multiple years with a cost of over $3 Million and teams of over 250 people. He has been a Project Management Professional since 2002, served as President of the PMI Western Michigan Chapter, and presented at multiple NCPMI Annual Events. Mark holds a Masters of Education degree from Colorado State University with a concentration in Adult Education and Training. He is an experienced writer, speaker and presenter on project management and team building topics. Mark is the Principal Consultant for Broken Arrow Associates, LTD. He and his family live in a rural area outside of Raleigh, North Carolina.
https://insights.cermacademy.com/2013/10/29-the-great-pretenders-mark-moore/