{"id":18887,"date":"2021-05-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/best-practices-for-resource-utilization-in-project-management\/"},"modified":"2021-05-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T05:00:00","slug":"best-practices-for-resource-utilization-in-project-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/best-practices-for-resource-utilization-in-project-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Practices for Resource Utilization in Project Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

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While there are several important metric and key performance indicators (KPI) in the project management world, few are as important to the success of projects and the health of portfolios as resource utilization<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"resource<\/p>\n

What is Resource Utilization?<\/b><\/p>\n

Resource utilization<\/span><\/a> in project management focuses on how much time team members spend on various tasks. While there are multiple ways to measure resource utilization, the simplest and most common method is by taking the actual number of hours worked by a resource, and dividing it by the total number of hours that the resource could have worked. For example, if over a six-month period a resource worked for 840 hours and there were 960 hours of work available, then the resource utilization is .875 (840\/960).  <\/span><\/p>\n

Lower-than-expected resource utilization often indicates that the project is over-staffed, or that incomplete tasks are blocking other scheduled tasks. If any of these tasks fall along the critical path, then deadlines will be missed, deliverables will be delayed, and costs will rise. <\/span><\/p>\n

Higher-than-expected resource utilization might not be good news, either. Instead of indicating that resources are being more efficient and productive, it could mean that the project is under-staffed — or might even be in crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously, the goal of every project leader (e.g. project manager, resource managers, PMO executive, etc.) is to optimize resource utilization. Granted, this is easier said than done; especially on complex, multi-faceted projects. However, it’s certainly not a case of dreaming the impossible dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

The key is to shift the emphasis away from frenetically correcting resource imbalances during a project — which is like trying to keep a bunch of spinning plates in the air from slowing down and crashing! — and instead taking a more strategic approach that minimizes the frequency and severity of resource imbalances when (not if) they occur.  <\/span><\/p>\n

To that end, here are five best practices for resource utilization<\/strong> that will help all project leaders, regardless of whether they’re at the helm of their 1<\/span>st<\/span> project or their 300<\/span>th<\/span>:  <\/span><\/p>\n