Responds to these two posts in 200 words each

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Running head: WEEK TWELVE REFLECTION 2

WEEK TWELVE REFLECTION 2

Week Twelve Reflection

Lakshmi Narayana Gomatam

University of the Cumberlands

Week Twelve Reflection

Week tweleve was all about the concept of resource management. It emerged that effectively managing the resources for projects is a complex challenge. Therefore, managers have to recognize the wide variety of constraints that can adversely affect the efficient planning of scheduling of projects, including technical constraints, resource constraints, and physical constraints. Among the set of significant resource constraints are project personnel, materials, money, and equipment. A reasonable and thorough assessment of both the degree to which each of these resource types will be needed for the project and their availability is critical for supporting project schedules. One way managers can smoothen the resource management function is through resource loading. This is a process for assigning the resource requirements for each project activity across the baseline schedule (Pinto, 2019). Effective resource loading ensures that the project team is capable of supporting the schedule by ensuring that all activities identified in the schedule have the necessary level of resources assigned to support their completion within the projected time estimates.

I chose to discuss resource loading because it makes me realize it is possible to profile the resource requirements for a project across its life cycle. This process makes it easy to proactively plan for the needed resources (both in terms of the type of resource and amount required) at the point in the project when activities are scheduled to be accomplished. According to Pinto (2019), one effective visual method for resource planning utilizes resource-leveling techniques to “block out” the activities, including required resource commitment levels, across the project’s baseline schedule. Resource leveling offers a useful heuristic device for recognizing “peaks and valleys” in our resource commitment over time that can make resource scheduling problematic (Nobibon, Leus, Nip, & Wang, 2015). However, I prefer resource loading over leveling because, with resource loading, a project manager can predict an employee’s hours for the year and see how tasks can be assigned. According to Demirkesen and Ozorhon (2017), it also allows the project manager to decide whether or not additional employees or contractors are needed to complete the scheduled projects.

It turns out that the benefit of the resource-loading process is clear; it serves as a “reality check” on the project team’s original schedule. I want to believe that when the schedule is subjected to resource loading, the team quickly becomes aware of the misallocation of personnel, the overallocation of team members, and, in some cases, lack of needed resources. Hence, the resource-loading process may point to obvious flaws in the original project WBS and schedule. As an upcoming project manager, I will be required to actively practice in a manner that mirrors efficiency in the use and allocation of scarce resources. Effective resource management is necessary in the wake of rapidly dwindling resources and the existence of project constraints that are constantly threatening to derail project success.

References

Demirkesen, S., & Ozorhon, B. (2017). Impact of integration management on construction project management performance. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1639-1654.

Nobibon, F. T., Leus, R., Nip, K., & Wang, Z. (2015). Resource loading with time windows. European Journal of Operational Research, 244(2), 404-416.

Pinto, J. K. (2019). Project management: Achieving competitive advantage (5 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.