Resource Planning
In project management terms, resources are anything used to complete the work of the project. We often think of resources as human resources, but project resources can include raw materials, equipment, facilities, or even travel. This chapter will look at how to define and estimate the cost of resources for a project with an emphasis on human resources. Pay attention to the techniques for managing resources and resource leveling techniques.
Resource Management
Resource management is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization's resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology (IT). In the realm of project management, processes, techniques, and philosophies for the best approach for allocating resources have been developed. These include discussions on functional versus cross-functional resource allocation as well as processes espoused by organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI) through the methodology of project management outlined in their publication A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Resource management is a key element to activity resource estimating and project human resource management. As is the case with the larger discipline of project management, there are resource management software tools available that automate and assist the process of resource allocation to projects.