Activity Resource Estimating, Cost Estimating, and Organizational Planning

As part of the project time management knowledge area, the activity resource estimating activity was completed. Resources can refer to either people (human resources) or other resources, such as equipment, office space, and so forth. You will see more on HR planning in the following sections.

Activity resource estimating is closely tied to cost estimating, where costs of resources are estimated. Organizational planning is concerned with roles, responsibilities, and reporting structure. Table 4.5 illustrates the differences among the three activities.

Table 4.5. Differences Among Activity Resources Estimating, Cost Estimating, and Organizational Planning

Category	Activity Resource Estimating	Cost Estimating	Organizational Planning
Purpose	Determining what resources and how many are needed for the project.	Developing approximate cost of resources.	Determining the roles, responsibilities, and reporting relation ships.
Knowledge area	Time.	Cost.	Human resources.
Why	Used to develop the project schedule.	Used to develop the project budget.	Focus is specific to the roles of human resources.
Notes	Resources include people, equipment, and so on.	Decisions about the type of resources used affect the cost.	Initiated during activity resource estimating.

The Project Manager's HR Responsibilities

The project manager must fulfill the role of manager and leader of the project team. Using the same skills and techniques a line manager uses, the project manager has the following responsibilities:

• Determine the HR needs of the project.

• Develop job descriptions.

• Negotiate with line managers for internal resources.

• Acquire external resources through the procurement process.

• Determine training needs.

• Identify/plan team-building activities.

• Determine the performance review approach for a project's human resources.

• Determine the reward and recognition approach for motivational purposes.

• Document the team structure and each team's responsibilities.

• Create a project organization chart.

• Develop a staffing management plan.

Key Human Resource Principles

Project human resource management is the set of processes used to organize and manage the project team, also referred to as the project staff. A subset of the project team is the project management team, composed of the project manager, project sponsor, and others responsible for project management activities such as planning, controlling, and closing the project.

HR planning has a number of key deliverables, including project organization charts, the staffing management plan, and determining the roles and responsibilities of each human resource.

Table 4.6 summarizes the tools used in human resource planning.

Table 4.6. Human Resource Planning Tools

Name	Description	Use
Organizational breakdown structure (OBS)	Graphically displays work packages according to departments.	Each department can easily identify the work assigned to it.
Resource breakdown structure (RBS)	Graphically displays resources by type.	Effective in tracking costs. Groups resources even if they are working on different deliverables.
Responsibility assignment matrix (RAM)	A chart displaying resources and for which assignments they are responsible.	Allows easy identification of all responsibilities for a given resource.
RACI matrix	As pecific type of RAM that shows the resources that are responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed in project activities.	Provides additional detail than RAM.
Position description	Text-based description of responsibilities.	Provides a high level of detail for a given position.

An organizational breakdown structure (OBS) is a graphical representation of the project team arranged according to an organization's existing structure. A resource breakdown structure (RBS) is also a graphical representation but is organized according to resource type. An RBS can contain resources other than human resources, such as equipment, and can be used to track costs.

In addition to graphical representations, resources might be documented in matrix-based documents such as a responsibility assignment (RACI) matrix. These documents are effective communication tools to ensure team members understand which assignments they are responsible for. Table 4.7 offers you an example of an RACI matrix.

Table 4.7. RACI Matrix

Activity	Person
	Bill	Mary	John
Design	Responsible	Consult	Accountable
Build	Accountable	Responsible	Consult
Test	Inform	Accountable	Consult

RACI stands for responsible, accountable, consult, inform.

The Staffing Management Plan

The staffing management plan is used to document the type of resources needed and the timing for those resources. The plan includes how the resources will be acquired, start and end dates, training requirements, policies and procedures for the team, and the team recognition approach and budget.

Resource leveling is a technique to determine the workload for resources over a given time; hours per week, for example. If resources are over-allocated, they are scheduled for more hours than are available. Resource leveling is reducing the number of hours worked to match the available hours, which results in extending the schedule or the need for additional resources.