DİPLOMATİK YAZIŞMA VE PROTOKOL

Money, material, machine and manpower are the Four M’s, which is a common framework for defining the resources available for a project.

Key resources are the most important resources for our project. They are mostly expensive and scarce. The skilled workers or equipment can be named as the key resources for a project. Hence, we must pay more attention to these types of resources in the resource management process. However, we must keep in mind that a key resource for a project can be a secondary or a general resource for another project. Another category is the secondary resources which need less attention than key resources. One example of secondary resource is workers with regular skills. The last category is general resources which are mostly available all the time during the project, inexpensive, and easy to obtain. This type of resources is not the subject of the resource management process.

1. Define the necessary resources

2. Classify the resources

3. Estimate the required quantity of each resource

4. Apply the techniques to aggregate and level the resources

It builds transparency.

Bottom-up estimating: In this technique, activities are broken into pieces and resource requirements are estimated for these small pieces. These estimates are summed up to find the total estimate of the project. Even though it provides very accurate estimates, it is very time consuming since each activity in the project schedule must be assessed carefully. Therefore, if the project manager divides project into smaller pieces, it brings more accuracy, but at the same time more cost to the technique.

Extending the schedule

Resource Aggregation

Resource Leveling

As many managers have said, among all the resources, people are the most important asset of the companies. Success or failure of projects is highly related with the performance of the workers.

Accountable

Resource management is the pre-planning, scheduling and resource allocation method for maximizing the effectiveness. Resource management needs a thorough knowledge of your goals and ability, and it needs transparency. By setting up a healthy resource management process, you can maximize effectiveness and monitor the use of those resources easily. The answer is B.

Money, material, machine and manpower are the Four M’s, which is a common framework for defining the resources available for a project. The answer is E.

The resource management aims to maximize the value resulting from the company’s limited resources throughout the entire project for all departments and teams. In their websites, Hansen and Rius summarize the benefits of successful resource management for a company as follows:

• Avoids unexpected delays: By developing resource management plans, necessary resources can be predicted, and the unexpected delays may be avoided.

• Prevents overloads and fatigue: Effective resource management allows us to prevent overloads of resources (fatigue for humans) and bottlenecks or roadblocks by using resource allocation, aggregation and leveling techniques. 

• Builds transparency: Resource management provides transparent information about the status and workloads of resources and builds transparency for all the shareholders of the project. 

• Measures efficiency: It allows us to measure the efficiency of resources and enable us to work on multi-project environment. It also helps us to calculate return on investment (ROI) ratio easily. 

• Provides a safety net and projection: Resource management lets us know that we did the best with the available resources in hand and it offers the future projection for the upcoming projects.

The answer is D.

The first step of resource management is the estimating of resources. In this step, the project managers estimate the type and amount of human resources, materials, machines, or any resources needed to accomplish each activity. The main aim of this step is to identify the types, amount, and characteristics of the resources needed to accomplish the activities, and it allows to estimate the costs and the duration more accurately. The answer is C.

The resource allocation is the second step of the resource management. In this step, resources, which are defined in the first step, are assigned to the specific activities in the project schedule. At that step, we also determine the required number resources. However, multiple sources may be assigned to a specific activity, in addition to that, even the requirement for a specific resource may be different for each activity. For instance, some activities in the initial steps may need fewer workers, while the demand for workers may increase in the later stages. Moreover, a multi project environment can increase the complexity of resource allocation process since projects compete for scarce resources. Therefore, in this step of resource management, we try to optimize the utilization of these resources while we assign them to various project activities. 

In resource allocation step, we can create an allocation table for both the overall project or a specific
activity. However, it is highly recommended to create an overall project resource allocation table to see
the big picture. The answer is E.

As many managers have said, among all the resources, people are the most important asset of the companies. Success or failure of projects is highly related with the performance of the workers. The human resources management aims to set up an environment in a company that enables project managers to use workers more efficiently. Project human resources management gives the project manager the ability of leading and managing the project teams. The answer is B.

A responsibility assignment matrix is a matrix that assigns the activities of the project to the team members who are responsible for performing the corresponding activity. Depending on the preferences of the project managers and the complexity of the project, responsibility assignment matrix can assign the activities to individuals, teams, or organizations. Especially for big projects, which include numerous activities, it is better to assign activities to the teams or organization for simplicity. In these matrices, in order to ensure the healthy communication among the team members, the responsibilities of the stakeholders can be defined by different categories such as accountable, participant, providing input, and review. Notice that each activity may be performed by more than one team member, and each member may perform more than one activity. The answer is A.

The last component of the human resources management is the staffing management plan. It is a document that explains when and how people will be part of and dismissed from a project. It also provides the necessary information about training, reward mechanism, and reassigning process for the resources. A good staffing management plan consists of introduction, staffing requirements, staff assignments, and training, rewards and reassignment parts. The answer is B.

Resource management software is the best assistant of the project manager. In literature, it is sometimes referred as resource capacity planning software. Resource management software makes it easy to plan, schedule and reschedule (if necessary) the resource needed especially for big projects. It can assign your resources to the tasks and define the cost for man, material, and machine resources. The answer is B.

A wide range of software options, such as Microsoft Project and Hub Planner, are available on the market. Therefore, determining which of the available software should be selected and which is the most suitable for the company is a big problem. In order to evaluate the resource management software, the following criteria can be used. 

• User Interface (UI): Does the design of the software maximize the usability and the user experience? Is the user’s interaction simpler and efficient enough to accomplish the user’s goals? 

• Usability: Is it easy to use and learn? Are there comprehensive tutorials and training about the software? Do they provide necessary technical support?

• Features & Functionality: Do the functions and features of the software meet the demand of the company? How powerful are they? Especially the following features are very important. 

- Scheduling and allocation tools: Is it easy to assigning the resource to the right activities? Does the software provide necessary data for possible allocation strategies? Does it include an auto-scheduling feature?

- Skills tracking: Does it have a feature to filter workers based on their skills and availability? Is it easy to search by skill? Does it provide you feedback about necessary skills? - Forecasting: Does it have a resource forecasting tool to predict the upcoming resource requirements of the company? Does it collect data on sales, schedules, activities, progress of the project, and launches? How long does the forecasting tool cover?

- Utilization management tools: Does it provide necessary data about the utilization of the resources? Does it offer you alternative ways of utilizing resources throughout the project lifecycle?

- Reporting: Does it have a reporting tool? Is it easy to use? Does the reporting tool allow you to extract and present data in charts, tables, and other visualizations? How well does the sharing option of these reports work? 

• Integrations: Does it work in an integrated and compatible way with other software recently used in the company? Does the data transmission options fit with the available management systems in the company? 

• Price-performance ratio: Are there any buying options for different requirements? When compared with the similar software, how appropriate is the price? Does the price cover possible system upgrades? Is there a time-based usage fee, such as an annual usage fee or annual licensing fee?

The answer is A.