Running head: CHAPTER TWELVE REFLECTION 1

CHAPTER TWELVE REFLECTION 2

Chapter Twelve Reflection

Maheswari Satharla

University of the Cumberlands

Chapter twelve covered the concept of resource management, which is an iterative process in project management. The objective of week twelve readings was to bring a more in-depth insight into various constraints that makes it difficult to schedule and plan a project, techniques of resource loading, procedures of resource leveling, and how to manage resources in the multi-project environment (Pinto, 2013). Generally, resourcing a project is not an easy task as you have to be concerned on who to bring in to the project, how to secure their services, if the flow of work is overwhelming and if a member is experiencing challenges at the optimum level, among others. These questions can only be answered by correctly resourcing a project, where the resources include people, machines, space, and all other things that will get the project done (Kloppenborg, 2014). Therefore, the concept of resource leveling was worth my understanding since project resources are limited, and there is a need to adjust their use based on their availability and the float amount on activities, to get the work done within the shortest duration.

Resources leveling, therefore, addresses the challenges caused by project constraints by minimizing the effects of demanded resources throughout the life cycle of the project. Thus, the objectives of resource leveling are to control the resources required to ensure that they are available when needed and schedule activities in such a manner that it allows smooth transition across levels of resource usage (Pinto, 2013). For instance, an activity can be delayed to prevent one person from handling various activities at once to allow a smooth transition. Therefore, increasing project efficiency is the concept behind resource leveling, where it enables the realization of a tradeoff between the duration of the project and its cost (Petersohn et al., 2013). Projects that do not manage their resources, usually use resources beyond the level required and drive up their budgets. For instance, one of the project activities entails digging a hole, which takes one worker and an excavator a total of 8 hours a day for five days to complete the task. But, if two identical holes are required, then it will take two workers and an excavator a total of 16 hours a day to complete the task in 5 days. However, if only one worker is available, then the schedule will have to be extended. Hence, the resources will have to be leveled to achieve the efficiency of cost at the expense of time.

Therefore, the concept of resource leveling is essential in project management as it reduces the project cost by increasing the duration of the project to smoothen the usage of resources. For instance, from the hole digging example, to drill two holes requires two laborers who will work 16 hours a day for five days. Perhaps, the cost of the project can be reduced by extending the schedule to 10 days, to allow only one laborer to complete the project. Resource leveling also ensures that the schedule is realistic since a resource may be needed in other activities, making it unrealistic to achieve a task within the assigned duration (Petersohn et al., 2013). For instance, an excavator cannot perform excavation without an operator. If the operator has other activities to handle, such as surveying, the excavator will be left idle, and the excavation task will not be achievable. Hence, to eliminate the cost of an idle excavator, the schedule of the excavation task will have to be extended. Thus, as a future project manager, I will use the concept of resource leveling to smoothen the usage of resources since they are limited, and their use in project activities can result in conflicts in the schedule.

pur-new-sol

Related Questions