Scheduling Resources and Costs

Scheduling Resources and Costs

1. Usage and availability of resources are major problem areas for project managers.

   • Attention to these areas in developing a project schedule can point out resource bottlenecks before the project begins.
   • Any resource deviations from plan and schedule that occur when the project is being implemented can be quickly recorded and the effect noted
     • Without this immediate update capability, the real negative effect of a change may not be known until it happens
       • Tying resource availability to a multiproject, multiresource system supports a project priority process that selects projects by their contribution to the organization’s objectives and strategic plan.
     • Assignment of individuals to projects may not fit well with those assigned by computer software routines
       • In these cases overriding the computer solution to accommodate individual differences and skills is almost always the best choice

2. Project managers should understand the ramifications of failing to schedule resources.

3. The results of resource scheduling are frequently significantly different from the results of the standard CPM method

4. With the rapid changes in technology and emphasis on time-to-market, catching resource usage and availability problems before the project starts can save the costs of crashing project activities later.

5. is important because it serves as your time baseline, which is used for measuring time differences between plan and actual.

6. serves as the basis for developing your time-phased project cost budget baseline.

7. The baseline (planned value, PV) is the sum of the cost accounts, and each cost account is the sum of the work packages in the cost account

8. types of project costs

   • the cost baseline is usually limited to direct costs
   • other indirect costs can be added to project costs separately