Video summary

Resource Management: How to Manage Resources - Project Management Training

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Business

Summary: Resource Management Tips (Project Management)

Jennifer Wit (projectmanager.com) outlines six practical tips for managing project resources—especially when teams are shared across multiple projects and availability is less than 100%.

1) Allocate time per project (avoid assuming 100% utilization)

When people are assigned to multiple projects, don’t plan as if their full capacity is dedicated to yours.

  • Allocate resource effort as:
    • a percentage of time per project, then
    • convert that percentage into hours you can commit to the project timeline.
  • Business impact: prevents overallocation and downstream schedule risk.

2) Block out unavailable time on team schedules

Even assigned team members won’t be available 100% due to:

  • meetings
  • vacation
  • other office absences

Action: pre-block those periods so critical deadlines aren’t scheduled during non-availability.

3) Create a risk plan for critical resources (“what if the key person changes?”)

Identify critical people/resources whose removal or reassignment would impact delivery.

Maintain a contingency plan for cases where critical staff are:

  • reassigned to higher-priority projects
  • taken off the project
  • temporarily unavailable

Operational follow-through:

  • If a replacement is less experienced, update estimates/recalculate timelines based on the new resource’s capability.

4) Require real-time tracking to prevent estimate drift

Use real-time time tracking habits to avoid:

  • delayed estimates
  • guesswork (“SWAGs”)

Action: ensure team members regularly update time using the project tools consistently.

5) Monitor bottlenecks and respond quickly

Watch for symptoms like:

  • a team member getting stuck on a problem
  • delayed escalation signals (working the issue without requesting help)

Action: detect bottlenecks early (via time/throughput monitoring) and provide help/escalation promptly.

6) Use management systems as guidance—not punishment

Example mentioned: red/yellow/green dashboards.

Risk: if used punitively, team members may hide problems or report inaccurately to avoid consequences.

Best practice:

  • Use dashboards to identify risks/issues and escalate timely
  • Build a culture of trust so reporting reflects true status.

Frameworks / Processes / Playbooks Mentioned

  • Red/Yellow/Green dashboard (status visualization used for project/resource health and escalation)

Key Metrics / KPIs / Targets Mentioned

No explicit numeric KPIs (e.g., revenue/CAC/LTV) or targets were provided.

Implicit operational metrics include:

  • resource allocation (% and hours)
  • real-time tracked effort vs. plan
  • bottleneck detection/escalation timeliness
  • accuracy of status reporting (implied KPI: reporting correctness)

Concrete Actionable Recommendations

  • Convert each shared resource’s workload into % allocation → hours
  • Block planned unavailability (meetings/vacation) so deadlines don’t land during downtime
  • Maintain a risk plan for critical people and reestimate if staffing changes
  • Enforce real-time time tracking to prevent estimate delays and SWAG-based planning
  • Actively look for bottlenecks and escalate/support before work stalls
  • Use status dashboards for guidance and early escalation, not punishment, to ensure accurate reporting

Presenter / Source

  • Jennifer Wit, Director, projectmanager.com

Original video