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A CLOUD COACH ARTICLE

Resource Forecasting in Project Management

FIND OUT HOW...

Resource Planning on Salesforce

Looking for the right Resource Planning solution? Our explainer video demonstrates just how easy it can be to plan your resources on Salesforce using Cloud Coach.

Resource management is crucial to the successful plan and execution of a company’s upcoming projects. Mastering resource management is possible through effective resource forecasting strategies to deepen your understanding of the ins and outs of forecasting resources and availability for complicated projects. Real-time resource forecasting in project management is one of the most significant factors behind a successful business strategy and management techniques to ensure that professional service organizations are equipped with the necessary resources to succeed.

Without proper project resource management tools and techniques, professional teams struggle to deliver on projects and fail to meet the needs of their customers. Living up to your high organizational standards is possible with a comprehensive understanding of resource management in project management strategies and through implementing a solution like Cloud Coach. Cloud Coach provides tools to deliver everything resource managers require to forecast resources, plan projects, and execute successful strategies.

Beyond project resource management examples, organizations can benefit from comprehensive solutions to forecast and expertly navigate their resource management solutions. Cloud Coach provides essential resource management capabilities to forecast your future resource availability for projects, manage operational requests, and provide accurate, reliable delivery timelines based on the forecasted resource availability. Among the essential project resource management tools and techniques provided by Cloud Coach include the following:

Capacity planning to identify risk areas for over or under-utilized resources, forecast future availability for project requests, and develop consistent resource management processes.
Resource load to visualize busy resources, identify how your resources are being used, and ensure that resources are allocated appropriately.
Resource requests for a comprehensive understanding of resource utilization and future capacity, to understand the influence of a resource request on business objectives, and to allocate resources for critical projects.
Skills-based resourcing to find the right individuals for different projects and report on resource availability.

What Is Resource Forecasting

Devising an actionable and realistic plan for future business projects requires thorough and accurate resource forecasting. However, many people ask: what is resource forecasting? Resource forecasting describes the process where companies estimate the number of resources necessary to complete a project within a specific time frame and without error. Project managers implement resource forecasting solutions to determine whether they will have the required resources to complete an assignment.

Project managers also benefit from resource forecasting solutions to determine forecasted resource availability without dedicating funds and resources to a specific project. Forecasting provides estimates of a company’s future needs to determine whether a task is likely to be completed conclusively. Resources involved with resource forecasting come in various forms, including time, equipment, funds, and employees necessary to perform specific tasks within a project.

Resource forecasting models provide businesses with answers to crucial questions about specific projects to prevent issues during the project timeline. For example, resource forecasting helps businesses ensure that they stay within the budget for future projects and that organizations have the necessary skill sets to complete or take on additional tasks. There are numerous advantages to accurate resource forecasting that make it an attractive and valuable solution for many organizations. Resource managers implement forecasting solutions and tools like Cloud Coach to navigate complex projects while tracking and handling resources effectively.

ADDITIONAL LINKS

Resource Forecasting Tools

Though resource forecasting is essential for many organizations, some businesses struggle to implement helpful resource forecasting tools to maximize their forecasting capabilities. Knowing the most helpful types of resource management software can contribute to better solutions and accurate results for future projects.

Resource forecasting and planning require comprehensive solutions to make effective and beneficial decisions. For companies seeking a resource planning tool, Excel is an apparent go-to solution. However, other software tools can maximize resource forecasting and improve your resource planning process. Practical resource management tools and techniques should include the following:

Resource allocation features assign tasks to the appropriate individuals while accounting for their skills, workload, and future availability.
Project scheduling capabilities to manage tasks, dependencies, and deadlines
Capacity planning tools to understand resource capacities and identify over or under-allocated resources
Time tracking abilities to record the time spent on specific projects for accurate reporting
Resource utilization analysis to identify opportunities to improve resource allocation and implementation

While various resource management and utilization options are available, forecasting and planning tools are not all built the same. While platforms like Excel help create spreadsheets to visualize resource allocation, businesses must implement tools to maximize their understanding of resources and make conclusive determinations during forecasting.

Project Forecasting Best Practices

Not all project forecasting strategies are equally effective, and your forecasting accuracy largely depends on the specific tools and practices you use during resource planning. Knowing some project forecasting best practices can ensure that your organization is prepared to manage future tasks and has sufficient resources to navigate projects.

Now that you understand the resource forecasting meaning, it’s essential to consider the best practices for implementing an effective forecasting technique. Below are some of the best practices integral to a practical resource forecasting model to better understand your current work capacity:

Formally kick off your projects by gathering the most critical people contributing to a specific task.
Document your project consistently and create formal plans for your forecasting, including communication plans to determine a project’s workflow, required documents to put a project into perspective, and design documents to help your developers code and test projects.
Perform regular status calls with clients to ensure that customers remain in the loop and on track to completion. Consider using tools like the Cloud Coach external project view to keep all clients in the know.
Help customers with testing for a last opportunity to ensure that the project meets expectations before formal customer approval.
Compile a closeout checklist to ensure deliverables are signed off, tasks are completed, training is finished, and all testing has been done.

Resource Allocation

Resource allocation is one of the essential factors to successful and accurate resource forecasting, and understanding the ins and outs of resource allocation can help a company guarantee successful project delivery. Resource allocation involves assigning specific tasks to the right employees while assessing their skills, workload, and availability.

Numerous resource allocation tools are available to manage your projects and stay on top of project resources. Consider the following resource allocation tools when determining an effective solution for managing resources on your upcoming projects:

Resource planning software to plan and allocate resources depending on availability, cost, and skills while making necessary adjustments.
Capacity planning tools assess an individual’s workload and determine if the team has the capacity to take on additional tasks.
Resource scheduling tools to develop project schedules while accounting for resource availability
Resource reservation tools to optimize resource utilization and use resources effectively
Resource leveling solutions to resolve issues such as over-allocation, scheduling conflicts, and other factors to get the most from resource forecasting
Resource allocation is managed by implementing comprehensive solutions like Cloud Coach. Cloud Coach contributes significantly to a company’s resource management practices by simplifying processes related to capacity planning, resource load, resource requests, and skill-based resourcing.

Resource Forecasting Techniques

Mastering resource forecasting techniques requires a deeper understanding of why resource forecasting is integral to the success of a project. There are numerous benefits of accurate forecasting, and when conducted correctly, organizations can significantly improve their project performance and complete tasks on time. The various tools and techniques available for resource forecasting in project management include the following:

Gantt charts
Affinity diagrams
Flow charts
Workload analysis
Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

While these techniques can be conducted without software, having software solutions is critical to unlocking the numerous benefits of accurate forecasting. Resource forecasting in project management strategies provides the following advantages for your business:

Producing higher revenue by understanding and accounting for individual skills
Preventing bottlenecks during the project timeline
Eliminating risks associated with overworking your employees
Optimizing your resources to remain practical, effective, and profitable
Improving your efficiency to boost customer satisfaction and increase your profits
Foreseeing project demands and meeting the needs of yourself, your employees, and your clients
By taking advantage of practical resource forecasting tools and techniques, you can implement wiser solutions to tackle projects seamlessly and avoid common issues that businesses face when they fail to allocate resources appropriately. This step ensures a better project workflow free of time-consuming bottlenecks.

Example of Resource Forecasting

Mastering resource forecasting requires a thorough understanding of the process. While you understand the resource forecasting meaning, having a real example of resource forecasting is essential to implementing a successful forecasting strategy and technique. A prime example of resource forecasting is a company planning a wide-scale project, such as launching a new business strategy and executing an online campaign. Forecasting in this situation would involve multiple resources, including employees of varying skills and capabilities, and would require understanding current data and availability. A resource forecasting solution could organize these elements and allocate resources to ensure a successful and feasible project.

Resource control examples involve tools and techniques that allow you to control your resources and oversee project operations to ensure that you’ve accurately forecasted and planned an upcoming project. Management resource examples involve the primary driving forces behind a project’s ultimate success or failure, including the employees designated for specific tasks, the available equipment and materials, the time limit for when the project is due, and monetary resources to ensure that the project is affordable.

Ultimately, services like Cloud Coach are vital to accurate resource forecasting and management for specific projects. Allocating your resources and delivering on projects is possible through Cloud Coach’s approach to resource management, including our knowledge of capacity planning, skills-based resourcing, resource requests, and resource load to guarantee an effective and successful project.