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Resource Planning For Your Business Plan

Identifying the resources you need to grow your business

Why Is Resource Planning Important

How to start resource planning, the bottom line, frequently asked questions (faqs).

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A business plan helps you organize your goals and growth plans for your business. Identifying business resources you'll be starting your business with already, and accounting for the resources you'll need to acquire after launching the business, is a crucial step in business planning.

Key Takeaways

• A business plan helps you organize your goals and growth plans for your business.
• Resource planning help you account for resources you have, plan for resources you need and ways to optimize their use
• You can plan for physical, people and technical resources in your business plan

Resource planning help you account for resources you have, plan for resources you need and ways to optimize their use. Among other things, even the most simple business plans are designed to walk you through the activity of describing every source and the exact dollar amount of your initial equity capital, as well as account for the equipment necessary to produce your products or services.

It can be difficult to accurately estimate your future resource needs, which is why this startup mistake is one of the most frequent contributors to young businesses running out of cash early on.

A very important section in your business plan is about the finances of your business, and that includes how much you hope to spend on resources you need to acquire and maintenance expenses on assets you own. Your plans for obtaining the necessary personnel, equipment, and cash to meet your capital expenses will need to be detailed throughout your business plan.

You may need financing from a bank or investors or will invest your personal savings in the business, and resource planning will come in handy for that too.

Resource allocation plans are what your potential investors and business partners are going to need to see before jumping on board with your new company.

There are different types of resources and you need to budget and plan for them accordingly. In describing each of the resources that you have and need for your business to reach profitability, position each of them in terms of the value it will bring to the company, both in the near term and down the road.

To figure out exactly which resources your business is going to need, and account for those in your business planning process, ask yourself these two crucial questions:

• Does starting and growing your business require having staff on hand? If your business relies upon output from people other than yourself and your business partners, you're going to need to allocate resources for hiring staff at fair market rates. 
• What type of equipment or fixed assets will your business need to get going? If your business is dependent upon purchasing or leasing equipment or other fixed assets like retail and office space, these are major considerations as you plan out your resource allocation.

Physical Assets

Depending on the nature of your business, you may have varying need for physical assets. However, in all likelihood you'd need some sort of office furniture and definitely some computers. Physical assets could also include office space, storefronts, manufacturing facilities and equipment necessary for your business. For example, if you own a baked good business, baking equipment like mixers and ovens would be physical assets you'd need to plan for.

Personnel and People

There are different types of people that can be a part of your business. People you hire, for example, can be employees or independent contractors and there are different cost implications for your business depending on whether you hire the former or the latter.

Investing in skills and capacities for people in your business is also an important part of resource planning.

How about mentors, key advisors, supplier connections, and other intangible resources for your business? These types of relationships whose value to your business can be immense, also need to be accounted for within your business plan as they'll have a very large impact on the future growth of your company.

Think of the massively positive effect your company would experience if you had a friend or family member that was a decision-maker at a large company who'd be your perfect first customer. It would undoubtedly be one of your key strategies for driving the early growth of your company. So, as you're planning your resource allocation, you'd naturally be spending in areas that make your young business more appealing to the target customers you want to serve.

Technical Resources

It is a good time to evaluate your technical resources and requirements as well. Some businesses rely more heavily on technology or intellectual property than others. Technology-dependent companies will need a strong IT network to get started. If building your own website won't be any trouble, then that's one major cost you'll be able to avoid as you get started with your company. Otherwise, you may need to allocate for web design, development, and other website-related expenses.

Regardless of your situation, don't be intimidated by the upfront costs of starting a business. Instead, keep in mind that in today's age, your product or service will only be as good as the technology that supports it, and if you buy or build low-grade gear, you’ll probably have to replace it in a few years anyway.

Clearly, there are a lot of different expenses to take into account as you allocate the resources for your new business. However, forcing yourself to go through this activity in extreme detail while building your business plan will save you a lot of headaches and potential failures in the future.

What are assets and resources in a business plan?

Resources can be anything that helps you operate or run your business. Assets are a type of resources that help you achieve you business. Assets can be cash, or physical assets such as equipment or intangible assets such as the brand of your business. In a business plan, you talk about the resources you have and the resources you need to acquire to help your business grow. You also account for your assets on your balance sheet. A strong balance sheet presented in your business plan can be appealing to potential investors.

Which components of a business plan are most useful to attract investors?

Each section of a business plan is important to potential investors. An executive summary gives your investors an elevator pitch to your business. Company description explains to them how your business is solving a market need, while market analysis shows investors you understand your industry and competition. Sections on organization, product details and marketing plans dig deeper into your vision for your business and how its organized. And the financial information component helps them see if you idea is worth putting their money into.

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Resource Requirements in Project Management: A Quick Guide

When a project is planned, a set of steps are outlined to deliver a product or service. Resource requirements need to be identified and allocated for those steps to be executed. Think of resource requirements as the fuel that drives all project activities.

Once one understands what resource requirements are in project management, next there is estimating what those resources will be and managing them. To help with this process, we’ll define resource requirements and link to a free resource plan template.

What Are Resource Requirements in Project Management?

Resources are anything you need to complete a project including teams, equipment, raw materials and so on. These are called the resource requirements. Being able to know ahead of initiating the project which resources you’ll need is essential.

Resource requirements in project management allow project managers to know what they’ll need to execute their tasks and deliver the project on time and within their budget. Knowing one’s resource requirements will also help project managers to get the most out of their resources.

This can be done more effectively with project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that allocates and schedules project resources through multiple views. Managers can use our robust Gantt charts to schedule resources and their costs. The sheet view gives you a customizable grid to track individual project resources or a portfolio of projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

How to Estimate & Manage Project Resource Requirements

Resource requirements differ from project to project, of course, but also on how productive your team can be and even project switching, which is as team members pass tasks to one another. There’s also the feedback loop as comments or changes come from stakeholders, clients, etc. That’s a lot of variables. The following steps will help you narrow the forecast to be as accurate as possible.

1. Define Your Project Scope

The first step is to understand the scope of your project. That is knowing the project’s goals, deadlines and deliverables. There are many ways to determine the scope of a project. Using the project teams to mine their knowledge of the work and historical data can also play a role in estimating the project scope. More time-consuming, but accurate, is a work breakdown structure, or a hierarchical tree diagram that helps you to identify the project deliverables and tasks.

2. Write a Scope of Work

The scope of work is a project document that defines all the work that’s done over the project’s life cycle. That includes the project deliverables, timeline, milestones, how reporting will be done and more. The importance of this step goes beyond estimating your project resource requirements and helps manage them to avoid scope creep, such as adding tasks to the project during its execution. A scope of work document will help you have a more accurate idea of the project and, in so doing, its resource requirements.

3. Make a Resource Breakdown Structure

Just as you use a work breakdown structure to identify deliverables, a resource breakdown structure can help you identify the project resource requirements. It’ll help you to identify resource types, such as people and tangible and intangible assets before the start of the project. This will not only help estimate your resource requirements but also help with scheduling and managing them, such as resource allocation.

4. Estimate the Costs Related to Your Project Resources

Resources aren’t just team members, raw materials, equipment and so forth. It’s also money. One must consider costs when estimating and managing project resource requirements. This means you must forecast the cost for each resource that will be used in your project. This will also inform your budget. Accurately forecasting the related costs for your project resources helps to save money without negatively affecting the project quality of your deliverables.

5. Create a Resource Schedule

Identify resource requirements for the project and allocate them on a timeline to create a resource schedule . To do this, you’ll need to know the availability of your team members and the start and end dates of their assigned tasks. This will make your project more efficient and save money by having the right resources allocated at the right time.

6. Create a Resource Management Plan

The next step is to develop a resource management plan that details the acquisition, development, usage, management, control and release of the project resources. This will provide a guide or roadmap for the project manager and project team to allocate, manage and control resources needed to complete the project as efficiently as possible.

7. Use Resource Tracking Tools

Anyone who’s made a resource management plan knows that there will be changes during execution. Therefore, a project manager must use resource-tracking tools to monitor and control resource requirements. Whatever resource tracking tool you use should provide a clear view of where and how those resources are being used. This will enhance the resource management plan and allocation of those resources as you can adjust to respond to changes in your project.

Types of Resource Requirements in Project Management

We’ve mentioned resource requirements and have briefly written about what project resources are, but to better understand them and their place in project management it’s important to define what we’ve been talking about. Below we list the main categories that make up resource requirements in project management and define each with examples.

• Labor: These are the people who work on the project’s production and deliver its goods and services. They can be part-time or full-time employees and anyone on the project team with the various skills required to deliver the project.
• Materials: This is what’s used to assemble the product or in the creation of whatever deliverables are being made in the project. Included in this category are supplies and other consumable items, such as wood, metal, glue, etc.
• Equipment: Sometimes bunched together with materials in defining resource requirements, equipment is what machinery is used to complete the project on schedule . This can be tools or software and heavy machinery.
• Property, Land or Infrastructure: This is another category that some fold into equipment, but deserves its distinct definition. Here we’re talking about the place where the work is happening or the underlying framework of features of a system or organization. That might be the job site on a construction project or roadways, sewers, railways and powerlines.
• Cash/Funding: Lastly, are the financial resources that pay for the project. This includes the budget, funding sources and cost allocations.

Resource Requirements vs. Resource Constraints

Resource requirements, as noted above, are the people, materials and equipment necessary to complete the project. Resource constraints are factors that can limit the supply of those resources to the project. Therefore, resource requirements are what you want to complete the project and resource constraints are anything that might prevent that from happening.

Resource constraints are a kind of risk associated with the resources you have allocated to the project. It’s something you’ll have to factor in as you create your resource requirements plan. Some examples of a resource constraint include inadequate financial capital, unavailability of needed resources and a new deadline for completion of the project due to a request from the client.

Resource Plan Template

Identifying your resource requirements will inform your resource plan , which then lists and organizes those resources over the life cycle of your project. It also helps one determine the amount of resources and their cost.

Use our free resource plan template for Excel to schedule your resources. With it, you can list all your human resources, which department they work in, their total effort, rate and the cost of that resource for your project. There’s even a weekly calendar to schedule them.

More Free Resource Requirements Management Templates

The free resource plan template is only one of over 100 free project management templates for Excel and Word that you can download right now. They cover every aspect of managing a project across several industries. Here are a few that relate to resource requirements.

Work Breakdown Structure Template

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is essential in identifying all your resource requirements. Our free work breakdown structure template for Excel has two sheets. One is a WBS list that’s broken down into phases of the projects and the deliverables due, the other is a WBS tree diagram that visually shows the breakdown of the project deliverables from top to bottom.

Scope of Work Template

A scope of work document is also important when determining the resource requirements for a project. It includes deliverables, but also what’s in and out of scope for the project, a timeline, milestone and project costs.

Project Estimate Template

Another part of resource requirements is estimating their cost to the project. Our free project estimate template for Excel will help you make a more accurate forecast of those costs. With this free template, you can estimate labor costs, but also materials, for each phase in your project.

ProjectManager Helps You Manage Project Resource Requirements

While all of our free resource requirement templates can help you identify and plan your project resources, they’re not an efficient tool to manage and track them throughout the life cycle of your project. Templates are static documents that must be manually updated and are not great for collaboration. ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that helps you track and allocate resources in real time.

Track Resource Utilization With Real-Time Dashboards

If you’re not monitoring your project resource requirements throughout the project, you’re in danger of going over budget or not having the resources you need when you need to allocate them. To optimize resource utilization, use our real-time dashboards , which track your costs, time, workload and more so you can catch issues and respond to them quickly to stay on schedule and keep to your budget.

Use Workload Charts to Allocate Resources Effectively

Teams are a project’s most valuable resource. Without a project team, no amount of raw materials, equipment, etc., will deliver your project. The ability to keep teams productive without eroding morale is critical to a successful project. First, you can set your team’s availability, such as vacation time, PTO and even global holidays for remote workers, which makes it easier to assign them to tasks. Then toggle over to the color-coded workload chart and balance their workload to keep them working at capacity.

Related Resource Management Content

Resource management is a topic much bigger than just resource requirements. If you’re interested in learning more about resources as they relate to project management our site is an online hub for that and much more. We publish weekly blogs, tutorial videos and, of course, free templates. Here are some of the pieces we’ve published on resource management.

• What Is Resource Optimization? Techniques & Best Practices
• Best Resource Management Software: Free & Paid Options Ranked
• 5 Must-Have Resource Management Tools
• Identifying and Overcoming Resource Constraints
• Resource Forecasting in Project Management: A Quick Guide

ProjectManager is online project and portfolio management software that connects teams in the office, out in the field and anywhere in between. They can share files, comment at the task level and stay updated with email and in-app notifications. Join teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who are using our software to deliver successful projects. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

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Ultimate Guide to Resource Planning

By Joe Weller | June 7, 2018

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Focusing on how to best use people to achieve essential activities helps organizations drive themselves forward in the information economy. Without a realistic view of who makes up your workforce, how much time your people have to spend on project tasks, and what they need to get the job done, your project and business plans won’t succeed. This article features an overview of resource planning and explains why it is essential to project management. Plus, you’ll find a variety of free resource chart tools and learn more about expert resource planning techniques to start planning how you will maximize your most important — and most limited — resources.

Why Is Resource Planning Important in Project Management?

Resource management is an essential project management process and a core activity of human resource management — from large enterprise to small startups. Managing projects requires managing resources. Whether the project is developing a new software feature or the construction of a new building, resource planning directly contributes to the project’s end result. An over-resourced project wastes time, those with too few resources risk missing critical milestones, and those that use the wrong resources won’t meet expectations. Project managers need to understand what resources a project needs and what resources the project already has before developing accurate project plans.

The topic of resource planning, allocation, and management is often associated with people planning activities common to human resource management (HRM) and planning. Human resource management is an approach to acquiring, training, controlling, managing, and measuring people resources, and human resource planning is a strategy to add value to a business or organization by supporting people activities like training, compensation, safety, and communication. Resource planning is associated with different industries and approaches as well, including the following:

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): ERP refers to the combination of business processes and information that joins disparate functions of companies (like accounting and HR) with the manufacturing or product development and service-side functions of a business or organization. ERP software (like Microsoft Project) supports resource planning activity at Fortune 500 corporations and large companies that scale operations for thousands of projects including manufacturing.
• Material Requirements Planning (MRP): A planning and control system for inventory, production, and scheduling. MRP is an approach to handling material resources that involves converting a master production schedule into a detailed breakdown of the raw materials used in civil engineering, commercial real estate, and fabrication industries. Manufacturing and resource planning (MRP II) replaced MRP as the standard, and ERP expanded the reference to accommodate HR and financial activity.
• Utility Resource Planning: This activity involves estimating the demand to be met by the utility resource (for example, natural gas, the reliability of the resource, the costs of available resources, and government policies and regulations to consider).
• Integrated Resource Planning (IRP): A type of roadmap tool used for utility resource planning developed in collaboration with government agencies, industry advocacy groups, developers, and other project stakeholders.
• Natural Resource Planning: This refers to the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals. By contrast, distribution resource planning (DRP) refers to a method for planning orders within a supply chain

Agile Resource Planning Template

This resource capacity planning template includes a Gantt chart feature to visualize and plan resources for Agile software project sprints . Use this template to chart software development resources by quantity and skill type (for example, PMs, analysts, developers, designers, product managers, administrators, etc.). Modify the template to view the distribution of your team’s time and activities across your Agile sprint calendar (expressed in two week intervals in this template).  

‌   Download Excel Template Try Smartsheet Template   ‌

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Optimize the Resource Planning Process

Project resource planning involves the allocation and utilization of different types of resources, including people, materials, equipment, and financial capital. The term “resources” generally implies all of the things that a project manager or business depends on to deliver products and services. In the context of this example, the term means human resources. People planning is different from physical resource planning.

First, identify the resource requirements for your project schedule: What type of skilled people do you need to complete project tasks? Will you use internal employees or contract resources from external vendors? Do you have the materials, software, and equipment to supply team members with to empower their work? This step involves documenting project roles and responsibilities, organizing project teams based on competencies, and creating resource control plans for managing change and relationships.

Next, determine the cost and duration of the needed resources across the entire project schedule. Use resource forecast techniques and tools, including project management software, to assist with creating an optimized resource plan. Decide on the range of competencies needed (by project task) and determine if you need to change project scope, plan additional training, or provide subject matter experts. This step is both quantitative (in that you use information such as previous project schedules, budgets and reports, and data analysis) and qualitative (due to the people planning component).  

Finally, create a resource schedule and calendar and determine if you have the resource requirements to complete the entire project schedule on time. Anticipate what-if scenarios to determine worst-case resource management scenarios. List individual project resource activity and make sure all tasks are assigned to a specific resource.

Using spreadsheet software to create resource plans has its limitations. Managing data manually increases the chance of forecasting errors. Project resource plans are living project documents, meaning real-time analysis of the data is critical to success. The risk of overwriting or deleting spreadsheet resource plans, or of creating multiple versions across a distributed project team, is high. Consider investing in project management software to stay on schedule and optimize your resource planning and management.

Project Resource Plan Template

Use this project resource planning template for multiple types of project and portfolio management scenarios. Schedule human resources and non-human resources (like material and equipment) in separate sections for easy analysis based on each project phase, from project origination to execution. Plan and estimate the cost for full-time employees, freelance consultants, contingent staffing, software, hardware, and more.

Resource Planning Tools and Techniques

Resource management software tools can automate tasks and track work hours against budgets, provide color-coded visualization charts to help monitor scarce resources in real-time, and share big picture data for portfolio managers to track what-if scenarios across multiple projects and teams. Resource management strategy includes various processes for organizing and managing project teams.

Resource planning involves the strategic use of human and non-human resources to develop products and services under deadline and budget restraints. Software tools help simplify resource planning, but the human element to project resource management requires more than technology to manage. Different techniques exist to assist resource planning and manage project teams, including the following:

• Resource Meetings: Short, frequent, action-oriented meetings give project managers a forum for discussing roles and responsibilities related to resource planning. The meeting focuses on sharing fact-based information and short-term planning for critical project activities and tasks. These meetings help create project culture and provide leadership with a frequent control for corrective action and clarification.
• Resource Leveling: This is a technique to optimize resource allocation by adjusting the project schedule over time to resolve conflicts caused by the over-allocation of resources. According to the PMBOK guide, these project schedule adjustments may affect critical path .
• Resource Smoothing: A technique to optimize resource allocation using free float (or total float) without affecting the critical path. The PMBOK defines free float as the “amount of time that a schedule activity can be delayed or extended from its early start date without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.”
• Resource Availability and Utilization: A resource planning technique to ensure that the project’s allocated resources are actually available. This is done by calculating the cost to use them, monitoring planned versus actual use of resources, and taking corrective action.
• Resource Capacity Planning: A planning technique used by portfolio managers that oversee resource planning and manage multiple projects. Capacity planning involves determining if the allocated resources are sufficient enough to complete new projects and determine if the amount of resources, or the level of skilled people, is sufficient on existing project teams.

What Is a Resource Planning Chart?

Resource planning software includes features to create resource planning charts like Gantt and RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) charts to help project managers visualize, plan, and manage resources for the project schedule. Project managers use resource planning charts like Gantt charts to find the critical path, a color-coded network diagram that displays a sequence of activities through the project schedule, the duration of each task, and the longest path from the start of the first project activity to the end of the last activity. The PMBOK guide recommends using the critical path method (CPM) to determine the shortest possible duration of a project schedule.

Staff Resources Planning Template

Resource management involves assigning tasks, roles, and responsibilities to your project teams to clarify process and participation. This resource planning template combines a RACI matrix and a histogram feature. Use these tools to visualize and plan project activity and create an optimized project schedule based on staff resources.

‌ Download Staff Resources Planning Template – Excel

What to Cover in Your Resource Management Plan

Resource plans guide how to allocate, control, and use resources. In addition to this practical function, resource management plans can help earn stakeholder buy-in and get project budgets approved. A physical resource management plan advises project managers on the use of materials and equipment. Human resource plans specify the type of skilled people needed to complete a project, and the quantity, cost, and scheduled duration of their given activities. Before implementing your project plan, modify and organize the resource plan to assign every individual project task to the appropriate person. A sound resource plan includes the following information:

• Resource Identification: The type of people or material resource needed, name, title, source (if contracted), and the assigned project team.  
• Resource Cost: The direct or estimated resource cost.
• Resource Requirements: The information about the resources available, including when they’re available, any conditions, and the duration of their availability.
• Roles and Responsibilities: The specific function(s) that people resources perform for the project. This information might list the resource authority, including decision-making and approval authority.
• Resource Quantity: The amount of this type of resource (for example the amount of labor hours, equipment, or materials).
• Resource States: The current state of the resource (planned, requested, approved, denied, allocated, confirmed).
• Resource Locations: Where is the resource located, including virtual resources and co-located teams.
• Resource Organization: A graphic display of the project team and their relationship to other project team resources.
• Resource Calendar: The scheduled working days, shift hours, start and end dates for different project milestones, and scheduled holidays. Resource calendars identify the duration of work for specific resources.
• Resource Issue Log: The information on resource planning challenges, for example in acquiring skilled resources, and problem-solving steps that worked to keep project resource plans on track.

What Is a Resource Forecast?

A resource forecast is a quantitative assessment of conditions and events used to estimate the amount of resources, and the cost of a project’s planned, allocated, and actual resources. This forecast is based on information available when the resource plan is developed. Activity duration estimates forecast how long each project activity will take. This is a useful technique to determine cost and quantity of people resources required, expressed in hours, weeks, days, or months. PMI lists various forecasting tools and techniques in the PMBOK guide, including the following:

• Bottom-Up Estimating: Evaluate the small details, like individual project activity duration by resource, from an aggregate breakdown of the total scope of work. Use this technique to forecast the duration of individual assignments, or cost of skilled resources, by adding up all of the lower-level estimates of resource cost and consumption to determine a total estimate. This process is accurate but time consuming.
• Reference Published Data: Leverage published reports, articles from industry journals, and public data from organizations like PMI to create resource forecasts using this data to create estimates. This is a type of analogous estimating, which is defined in the PMBOK as “a technique for estimating the duration or cost of an activity or a project using historical data from a similar activity or project.”
• Parametric Estimating: Project management software features an algorithm function to perform parametric estimating. Use this tool to forecast resource cost or estimate resource duration based on the project resource parameters and historical data.
• Three-Point Estimating: Use a realistic estimate, an optimistic estimate, and a worst-case scenario estimate of project labor to forecast resource costs by applying the average of the three estimates.

Team Resource Planning Template

Use this template to forecast your project team’s bandwidth (expressed as work hours) using a heatmap visualization. Customize the template to reflect your team’s availability based on resource allocation of work hours. This is a resource utilization tool designed to help you plan and manage your team’s demand and quickly populate data based on project hours allocated and utilized.

‌ Download Team Resource Planning Template – Excel

Improve Resource Planning Efforts with Smartsheet

Resource Management by Smartsheet is a powerful resource management software that helps to effectively manage the who, the what, and the when behind projects.

With Resource Management by Smartsheet, you can more easily build the best team for a project, keep project schedules and budgets on track, and confidently forecast business needs.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done and by whom, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Watch a free demo to learn more about Resource Management by Smartsheet.

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How To Create A Resource Plan In 7 Steps

As an agency project manager, you’ve probably experienced the agony of a project going over budget or missing deadlines because of poor project resource planning.

But let’s face it—creating a resource management plan while balancing a project’s requirements, budget, and schedule can be a real pain. Even the thought of identifying all the required resources, assigning them, and creating a detailed schedule is enough to give you a headache.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

This article will show you how to create a resource plan that addresses these pain points and sets your project team up for success. You’ll learn about the steps involved, the tools needed, and the best practices to document a resource management plan.

Ready to get started?

Let’s start by understanding what a resource plan is.

What is a resource plan?

A resource plan is a document that outlines the resources (people, tools, and materials) needed to complete a project. For an agency project, this document focuses primarily on human resources and their capacity, availability, and workload.

This plan helps a project manager manage resources and adjust the schedule.

Project managers create it in the early planning stages of project management. It’s a deliverable of an effective resource planning process.

Elements of a project resource plan

A comprehensive resource plan includes:

• Resource requirements: A list of all the resources needed to complete the project, including their number, roles, and responsibilities
• Project schedule: A detailed schedule including task start and end dates as well as critical milestones
• Resource gaps and risks: An analysis of the resource needs that cannot be met internally and a plan to deal with resource risks
• Resource management: A plan about how to monitor resource utilization and workload
• Monitoring and control plan: A plan to share resource planning and management updates with stakeholders, team members, and management.

How to create a resource plan?

Project managers plan resource management during the project’s planning phase. This upfront project management work ensures that you have the right resources available at the right time in your project.

Let’s look at the steps involved in creating one.

Grab a copy of our free project resource plan template to follow along.

#1. Document project scope

The first step in project management is to define the project’s scope.

The scope document not only helps you plan a project’s schedule, but it’s also critical for understanding the resource requirements of a project.

You don’t need to redo the entire scope document. However, it helps to include the following:

• Key project deliverables
• Major activities needed to deliver them
• And things that are out of scope

Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) based on project requirements helps you identify the deliverables and tasks.

Include a brief project scope outlining the deliverables and activities needed to complete the project.

#2. Identify resource requirements

At this stage, you know the activities needed to deliver a project. Next, you can quickly identify the resources required to complete each activity.

For example, here’s how you can document the resource requirements for a content marketing project.

For every resource type, note down the following:

• Responsibilities (you’ll need these later to identify resource gaps)
• And the number of resources required

#3. Include the project timeline

At the end of step #2, you’ve identified the “who,” i.e., the project resources.

Next, you need the “when.”

You only need some of the resources at all times in your project’s lifecycle. It makes sense to allocate and release a valuable resource as required so they can work on multiple projects.

That’s where a project timeline helps.

At this stage, the timeline represents the baseline schedule of the project’s activities. This could change resource assignments depending on resource availability.

Toggl Plan’s drag-and-drop Project timelines make it easy to create project schedules and adjust them just as quickly when things change.

Include a link to your project timeline in this section.

#4. Allocate resources to project tasks

Resource allocation is the process of assigning and managing the available resources.

It is an essential step of the resource management process as it helps balance a project’s resource needs with an organization’s total resource capacity.

Managers need to compete for resources when an agency works on multiple projects. As a result, a manager often needs to work with other project managers to book resources for a project.

Toggl Plan’s Team timelines make it easy to see your entire team’s schedule. See who’s on vacation and who’s busy with other projects in one place. Thus making it simple to schedule resources based on their availability and capacity.

Once you’re happy with the allocation plan, add the project resource schedule to the plan document. This involves adding the name of the person, their role, allocation start and end dates, and their estimated workload in hours.

Once you’ve allocated resources, you may find some project activities without any assignees. These are called resource gaps.

You may find other project activities without room to add a buffer resulting in the risk of a project lag. This risk can occur within a project or across projects in your agency.

Once you’ve identified the gaps and risks, include them in the plan.

#5. Make a risk management plan

Agency project managers mostly need to manage human resources. As a result, the project resource planning process is full of uncertainties. All an agency manager can do is prepare for roadblocks to complete projects on time and within budget.

You’ve already identified the resource gaps and risks in the last step.

Next, make a plan to manage these risks.

Here are some common project resource risks and their solutions:

The solutions you choose depend on the client and other project priorities.

Once you’ve identified the potential solutions, include them in your plan.

#6. Monitor and control project resources

There’s one final step before you can send the plan for approval.

You need a plan for when and how you’ll track resource availability and utilization.

A regular review meeting schedule helps you:

• Stay on top of your project’s resource requirements.
• Revisit specific resource assignment decisions.
• Manage resource risks better.

Include the resource review meeting date, topic, and attendee information in the resource management plan.

Tracking utilization

Utilization indicates how effectively resources are utilized in a project compared to their estimated allocation. It clearly shows you if your project is suffering from under or over-utilization of resources.

Allocation can be estimated from previous successful lookalike projects. Using a time-tracking tool to track time is the best way to measure your project team’s utilization accurately.

You can also use a simple spreadsheet or use Toggl Track’s reports to track your team utilization rate.

#7. Get the plan approved

You are now all set to send the plan for approval.

You must get the plan approved by all the stakeholders involved in the project. This way, they understand the plan and risks in managing resources.

Critical stakeholders in an agency project include:

• Client (or the project owner)
• Account manager
• People ops team (if you plan to hire additional resources or train existing resources)
• Finance/budget team

In large agencies, these are separate teams. On the other hand, in small agencies, the agency owner is often the only one you’ll need approval from.

Do you really need a documented plan?

Some of the steps outlined above seem apparent. In fact, so evident that agencies rarely make resource plans—less than 40% of project teams invest in resource planning and management ( Wellingtone , 2021).

Is it worth then investing in planning your project’s resources?

Absolutely. Here’s why:

• Reduce project failure rate : According to the same Wellingtone report, poor resource planning is the third-most common cause of project failure.
• Better manage resource constraints: With a clear picture of resource availability and allocation, you can make better decisions to utilize resources efficiently.
• Effective project portfolio management : Juggling multiple client projects is never easy. A documented plan gives you a clear picture of who’s doing what and when. Thus ensuring that all projects get a fair shot at available resources.
• Clear project communication: A documented plan means all stakeholders (including clients) know the resource needs, risks, review schedule, and mitigation plans.
• Resource commitments: Getting signed approvals to ensure everyone has budgeted for the resource requirements—including other PMs, HR, and finance teams.

Tools for effective resource planning

Creating and documenting a plan to manage resources may feel daunting. However, templates and resource management software make it easy.

Free resource planning templates

Make a copy of this free Google Docs (or MS Word) template to document your resource plan.

Also, grab our free resource planning and management templates (Google sheets and Excel versions)

Resource planning software

The free templates can help you get started quickly. But if you’re serious about resource management, it pays to invest in resource management tools.

Read our detailed comparison of the top resource planning tools . Or check out our top picks below.

Create an effective resource management plan with Toggl Plan

For agency projects, you need a simple tool to plan your projects and resources.

Project managers are hands-on and often have little time to learn and tinker with a complex project management tool.

That’s where Toggl Plan can help. It’s a simple, visual, drag-and-drop project planning tool.

Its colorful timelines make it easy to see who’s doing what and when. As a result, you can quickly make and adjust project and resource plans.

The time-off planning feature is handy for staying on top of your team’s vacation plans and avoiding scheduling conflicts with off time and other projects.

It also has a two-way integration with Toggl Track, a time-tracking tool. Using both tools, you and your team can stay on top of your team’s allocation, utilization, and workload.

Start your free Toggl Plan trial now .

Jitesh is an SEO and content specialist. He manages content projects at Toggl and loves sharing actionable tips to deliver projects profitably.

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• What is resource management? A guide to ...

What is resource management? A guide to getting started

Resource management is the process of planning and scheduling your team’s resources and activities—essentially anything that helps you complete a project. Developing a resource management plan can give you visibility into team member workloads. Learn how to manage resources and improve team performance.

Making sure your team doesn’t feel overworked or underutilized is a challenge you’ll often face as a leader. It's easy to lose sight of your team's workload and bandwidth. That’s where resource management comes in. 

Developing a resource management plan can give you consistent visibility into your team’s workload. It allows you to balance all your resources effectively and to see the full picture of how your team will achieve its goals.

Business continuity plan templates

Prepare for the unexpected with Asana's business continuity plan templates. Ensure that your organization stays resilient and operational, even during disruptions.

What is resource management?

Resource management is the process of planning out and scheduling your team’s resources to optimize utilization and ensure project success. A resource can include everything from equipment and financial funds to tech tools and employee bandwidth—basically, anything that helps you complete a project.

When you’re deciding how to manage or assign your team’s resources, consider a few questions:

What is the availability of each resource?

What are the timelines for each activity?

How many resources will be required to accomplish each activity?

Who is the best person to accomplish the activity effectively?

Effectively managing your resources ensures every project is well-equipped and every team member is appropriately allocated, paving the way for successful project completion.

Why is resource management important?

Resource management allows you to make sure your team members are confident with the amount of work on their plate and equipped with the tools they need to accomplish each task. When resource management is done right, you’re empowering your team to produce high-quality work at a sustainable rate. 

Benefits of resource management

Let’s dig a little deeper into why resource management is critical to your team’s success. With effective resource management, you can:

Distribute work appropriately , ensuring all your team members are appropriately staffed—not overworked or underutilized.  

Spot potential resourcing problems in real-time and adjust accordingly, preventing staffing issues from impacting progress on projects.

Give your team clarity around their responsibilities and the responsibilities of their team members, limiting misunderstandings and promoting accountability. 

Set realistic project goals , reducing the likelihood of missing important milestones and increasing the chances of on-time project completion.

Enhance your team's profitability by optimizing resource utilization and ensuring projects are completed efficiently and within budget.

Improve future resource planning by drawing on the knowledge gained to better estimate and forecast bandwidth for upcoming projects.

Resource management techniques

Leveraging resource management techniques is all about finding the smartest ways to use your team's skills and resources. Let’s explore a few common types of resource management methods.

How to effectively manage your team’s workload

Learn how to leverage work management to distribute work more effectively.

Resource allocation

Resource allocation is more than just allocating resources to tasks and projects; it's the process of choosing the best resource based on the project team’s skills and capacity. After all, good resource management isn’t just about making sure you have enough resources; it’s about making sure you have the right resources for the right projects. Resource allocation can help you achieve this by strategically matching your team's strengths, capabilities, and resource capacity to the specific demands of each project.

Resource utilization

Resource utilization involves using tools like utilization reports and time tracking software to identify your team’s capacity over a specific period of time. It’s a capacity planning technique that allows you to identify whether project resources are being underutilized or overallocated, so you can better manage workloads.

Resource forecasting

Resource forecasting is a resource management process that involves proactively predicting the resource requirements for future projects and initiatives. You can identify these needs by relying on past trends and project metrics, as well as your team’s current capacity and the needs of upcoming projects. Resource forecasting is typically done during the project planning stage and can help with risk management by identifying potential resource bottlenecks or gaps in your team's availability in advance.

Resource leveling

Resource leveling is a resource management solution designed to combat shortages or overallocation by leveraging underutilized resources. For example, this might mean shifting work from one team member’s plate to another who has similar skills and additional capacity. Or, it could mean taking advantage of skill sets that typically aren’t utilized, like having a website content writer create social copy.

Types of resource management

Effective resource management is pivotal in steering any organization toward its goals. This process involves a strategic approach to managing various essential resources. 

Here, we focus on three fundamental types: human, financial, and material resources. Each category plays a unique role in the broader spectrum of resource planning and is a crucial component of any resource management plan.

Human resource management (work resources)

Human resource management is the strategic approach to managing a company's most valuable assets—its employees. This involves not just recruiting and hiring but also integrating workflow and automation tools to streamline training, performance assessments, and career development planning.

Example: A software company might enhance its human resource management by using workflow automation to efficiently align its workforce with emerging technology trends. This ensures that developers are systematically trained in the latest programming languages and Agile methodologies. By automating parts of the training and development process, the company can quickly adapt to changes in the fast-paced tech industry.

Financial resource management (cost resources)

Financial resource management is the process of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling financial activities such as procurement and utilization of funds. It involves making smart decisions about allocating financial resources to various projects or departments. 

Example: Consider a multinational corporation that allocates budgets across different regions, taking into account local market conditions, operational costs, pricing strategies, and revenue projections. This strategic financial management helps to ensure high-priority initiatives receive the necessary funding and resources to thrive. These resources, such as consulting or other professional services, are instances of tactical spending that are helpful but not the main purpose of budgetary allocation.

Material resource management (material assets) 

Material resource management involves the efficient planning, sourcing, and utilization of physical resources required for business operations. It encompasses inventory management, purchasing, and supply chain optimization to support the entire project lifecycle, from initial planning to final delivery. 

The implementation of inventory management software is key in this process, as it provides real-time visibility and control over material resources.

Example: A manufacturing firm may use material resource management to ensure a steady supply of raw materials like metals and plastics. By doing so, the firm can avoid production delays and cost overruns, thereby maintaining product quality and meeting customer delivery timelines.

5 step resource management plan

A comprehensive resource management plan is essential for any organization looking to optimize its resources effectively. This plan involves a series of steps that ensure resources are deployed efficiently and comply with both the project lifecycle and overarching business goals. 

Below are the five key steps in developing a solid resource management plan.

Step 1: Resource planning and budgeting

The first step in effective resource management involves detailed resource planning and budgeting. This process includes forecasting resource requirements and matching them to the available budget. 

Example: A tech startup, XYZ Software, begins its journey by planning resources for its innovative project management software. They forecast the demand for qualified software engineers and marketers, set aside money for cloud infrastructure, and make sure their financial resources are distributed effectively between development and marketing.

Step 2: Identify resources (capacity planning)

Identifying the right resources is make-or-break for any project's success. This step, often referred to as capacity planning , involves understanding the availability and skills of your workforce, as well as the physical and financial resources at your disposal. It’s about decision-makers being able to match the right resources with the right tasks, ensuring that your human, financial, and material resources are aligned with your project's needs.

Example: XYZ Software conducts a thorough analysis of its team's skills and identifies the need for additional software engineers with expertise in cloud computing. The company also assesses its current financial resources to ensure sufficient funding is available for these new hires.

Step 3: Allocate resources

Once resources are identified, the next step is their effective allocation. This involves assigning resources to various tasks and projects based on their availability and suitability. Resource allocation ensures that every project gets the necessary resources without overburdening any single aspect of the business.

Example: XYZ Software allocates its existing team to initial development phases, while the newly hired cloud experts are tasked with building the cloud infrastructure. Financial resources are allocated to ensure both teams have the necessary tools and software licenses.

Step 4: Resource tracking

Tracking resources throughout the project lifecycle is essential for ensuring that everything is proceeding as planned. This involves monitoring the usage of resources, assessing if they are meeting the project's requirements, and making adjustments as needed. Effective resource tracking helps in identifying potential shortages or surpluses early, allowing for timely corrective actions.

Example: As XYZ Software's project progresses, they use project management software to track the time and resources spent on each aspect of the project. By doing so, they are able to make adjustments in real time by identifying areas where resources might be overutilized or underutilized.

Step 5: Resource optimization

The final step in the resource management plan is optimization. This involves analyzing the performance and usage of resources and making necessary adjustments to improve efficiency. 

Resource optimization might include implementing automation tools to streamline processes or revising strategies based on performance data. Using resources as efficiently as possible is the aim, which will help the organization succeed as a whole.

Example: After launching the first version of their software, XYZ Software reviews their resource usage data. They realize that automating certain testing processes can free up developer time. This enables the team to focus more on critical tasks, thereby optimizing their use of human resources for future updates.

10 resource management best practices

Follow these ten best practices to boost your team’s productivity, hit project goals, and achieve a balanced team workload. 

Use a work management platform to streamline the planning process and ensure consistent, efficient allocation of resources across projects. While traditional resource management tools, like Gantt charts or spreadsheets, are useful ways to track capacity, their limited scope can’t match the extensive capabilities offered by a comprehensive work management platform. 

Measure available resources by gauging team capacity and necessary tools. This will help you ensure realistic resource allocation and avoid rescheduling issues.

Set start and end dates so you get a realistic timeframe for how long each task will take and set realistic expectations for your team. 

Know your employees’ skill sets so you can determine the best resourcing for each task. 

Set clear, accessible project goals to help you prioritize your team's work and drive high-impact work forward.

Help your team increase their utilization rate by automating routine, low-impact tasks so your team can focus on actionable, strategic, and billable work. 

Adjust resources as necessary because tasks, project timelines, and priorities change.

Keep some team bandwidth open for new work or priorities that might come up. 

Check in on your team to ensure each team member feels their work volume is fair and achievable. 

Connect your resource management plan to your operational plan in order to effectively manage your team's time and align daily tasks with strategic objectives. 

Manage your resources more effectively with a work management platform

To ensure you’re allocating resources effectively and aligning them to your wider organizational goals, use a work management platform. By centralizing project details and team capabilities in one platform, you can ensure efficiency, clarity, and alignment at every project stage.

Resource management FAQs

Have more resource management questions? We’ve got answers.

What is a resource management plan?

A resource management plan can help you manage and assign every type of resource you need for your project. An effective plan outlines the specific resources (including human resources, financial resources, technical resources, and physical resources) and activities necessary during the course of a project or initiative. 

Why is creating and implementing a resource management plan important? 

A resource management plan will guide you by giving a holistic view of all of a project’s moving pieces: budget, staffing and workload requirements, and tech stack limitations—allowing you to easily manage, schedule, and assign every resource while maximizing resource availability. Learning how to manage resources will empower you (and your team) to run projects effectively.

Should I create a resource management plan for my project?

The short answer is yes. Resource management in project management isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have to support your team and prevent burnout. The benefits of resource scheduling far outweigh the time it takes. 

The number of projects your team can handle, along with the quality of each, depends on it. As a project leader, resource management is your opportunity to optimize efficiency, prevent overwork, and effectively manage your team’s workload.

What is a resource management plan template?

A resource management template is a reusable guide that helps you manage team bandwidth over the course of a project. It shows you everything your team is working on—so you can see how full everyone’s plate is, if they can take on additional work, or if they need help to get project tasks done by the deadline. Thanks to your template, you don’t have to waste time setting up a resource management plan for every new project. Instead, you can just copy the template, fill it in, and start working.

What are the steps to creating a resource management plan? 

To create an effective resource management plan, leverage a tool like a work management platform, which will give you easy insight into what everyone on your team is working on, what resources are available, and how to prevent team burnout. Then, follow these steps:

Define the project’s goals to gain clarity on what each project entails and make it easier to know what resources you need and how to assign them. 

Align on the project scope by meeting with project stakeholders to define how much time and resources you should dedicate to the initiative. That will give you the best sense of the project plan and help you decide what resources are best suited for the job.

Identify the types of resources you’ll need —such as bandwidth, equipment, software, and project budget—so you can then identify what resources you have available.

Identify available resources by checking each resource you previously needed against what you have already available. Depending on the project scope, you might have to adjust your resource level and deprioritize other work to avoid putting too much on your team’s plate.

Kick off your project by clearly communicating the resource plan to your team, ensuring everyone understands their roles and the resources at their disposal.

Periodically check in on project progress to see how the project is progressing and whether you need to make adjustments to your resourcing strategy.

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