What is resource management plan

Before we get into How to Create a Simple Resource Management Plan, we need to understand what is a resource management plan, well simply say It tells you how project resources should be grouped, allocated, managed, and released.

Part of planning is identifying and documenting project roles and responsibilities, who reports to whom, and the skills needed to do the project work. That’s where the resource management plan comes into play. This plan also includes a staffing plan describing how you’ll staff the project.

You start with a responsibility matrix. This spells out who can make or approve decisions, the groups performing work, and which groups need to be consulted or informed about what’s happening.

RACI Method

A responsibility matrix includes four categories of responsibility.

• R means a group is responsible for performing work.
• A is for Accountable, which means the group makes or approves decisions and delegates works.
• C means that you consult a group about decisions. However, they aren’t accountable for the decision that’s made.
• I represent Informed, which means a group gets information.

Review the responsibility matrix with stakeholders during planning and work out any disagreements. If part of your project doesn’t have an owner, meaning someone accountable for that area, talk to the stakeholders and your project sponsor to identify who is responsible for that area.

The project itself might have outsourcing, subcontracting, and partnering arrangements. Don’t forget to add these groups and how they contribute to the responsibility matrix.

The second part of a resource management plan is a project organization chart. It’s like a regular org chart, except it shows the hierarchy and reporting structure for people involved with the project. That way, you know who to talk to if you need to escalate a request or a decision.

Third, identify the skills the project requires and how many people you need with those skills. A skills matrix helps you figure this out. To build one, look at your work packages and identify the skills each package requires.

Then create a matrix with your project tasks in rows and the skills you need in the columns. Add checkboxes in the matrix when jobs require a specific skill. Then you estimate the number of resources you need with each skill. You can even multiply that number by the average pay rate to calculate the labor cost.

Finally, it’s time to develop a detailed staffing plan. Identify where you plan to get resources. Are they in-house, outsourced, or contracted? When do you need resources? Identify any training they need and document resource-related processes, get team members on board, hand out assignments, get status updates, and release them from the project when their work is done.

A resource management plan documents who does what, who reports to whom, the resources you need, and how you’ll manage them. Use what you know about the project so far to complete the responsibility matrix. Then, using your responsibility matrix, draw up a project organization chart.