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- Hey, thanks for checking out Coffee With Brett.
I hope you're enjoying these short videos
while I get to enjoy my coffee.
You know, the point of this show
is to talk about project management basics
in really quick spurts.
And trust me,
there's tons of coffee talk for us to have.
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or even a TeamGantt related question,
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All right, so today's show is all about a topic
that has several different names or terms.
I'm pretty sure PMI calls it resource management.
You may have heard of it referred to as resourcing,
workload planning,
staffing,
tasking,
capacity planning,
SME assignments,
workload management.
I mean, I even heard people calling it peopling
and casting in digital agencies this week.
So what is it then?
Well, PMI defines resource management as hiring, developing
and retaining the people needed to turn corporate strategy
into reality.
And it's an important thing, right?
This topic can also cover the management of supplies
through the supply chain
and the option of outsourcing your talent needs as well.
But that's not really where I'm taking the topic today.
I'm going to be talking about people and workloads.
And to put it simply, you know,
it's all about staffing your projects
with the appropriate people to meet your projects goals.
It also relates to strategic planning
related to balancing team members workloads across projects,
which can be really important and really challenging.
You know, the challenge of actually
managing teams across several projects
is making sure that each individual stays busy
and working on tasks while not being completely overbooked.
It's a difficult balance to find,
particularly when you're managing multiple projects
with a limited number of staff,
or if your projects require
a variety of skills at different times,
and when your timelines or your needs
seem to change all too often.
So if you're a project manager,
you likely deal with this very often.
I know that I have.
So I want to mention one more time here that yes,
the topic of resource management
can include physical resources as well.
But for the sake of this short video,
we're only talking about people and scheduling.
And on that note,
let's move away from calling people resources, please.
You know, we're really just staffing projects
and assigning tasks.
We're not using people to get things done.
We're asking people to solve challenges
that are presented to us in our projects.
And if you want to have good relationships
with the people on your team,
you definitely shouldn't refer to them
as something that you'd use or eventually dispose of.
It's just kind of gross.
And really, I think planning workloads for a team
is really a kind act.
I mean, think about it.
You're taking the time to estimate tasks,
plan those tasks and check to make sure that your team
actually have enough time to not only get that work done,
but also not be overwhelmed by other work at the same time.
Because at the end of the day,
you want your team to produce quality work
that everyone is proud of,
and you actually want your team to have a life
and not feel burnout.
All right, so maybe it's not as kind as it is necessary.
You know, on some level
you need to protect your team from being overworked
because that will impact your projects.
So how can you do it?
Well, at the core,
the things that you need to know
in order to create a solid work plan
are pretty straightforward.
And there are actually quite a few ways
that you can do this.
In fact, in chapter six of my book,
"Project Management For Humans",
I offer an example spreadsheet that you can use.
So check that out.
But if you're using TeamGantt,
you're actually far ahead of any silly spreadsheet.
In fact, when you add task estimates
and assign people to those tasks in TeamGantt,
you're actively building a work plan
that's solely based on your plan tasks.
And that means that any time a task changes in duration,
your workload plan automatically gets updated in real time.
And then you can quickly spot conflicts
because when someone's overbooked,
you'll see a little red box.
Then you can click on that box
and see that the person is assigned to other things.
That means that you can get
to the root of the issue quickly,
have a quick conversation with that person
or another project manager,
update the plan and just move on.
It's so easy.
See spreadsheets are basically ancient at this point.
But seriously, having this view
without the need to make additional updates
makes workload planning so much easier
and so much more realistic.
You can actually focus on the people,
and they really should be the focus after all.
So I've often compared the act of workload planning
to the game Tetris.
You know, it's easy to get wrapped up
in the concept of these little shapes coming together
in a logical way to clear a row.
The pieces compliment one another
yet they all naturally work in different ways.
The biggest difference between resourcing and Tetris?
Well, the team members we're trying to sign tasks to
obviously are not blocks.
They're human beings and they need to be treated as such.
That's why I think it's important to connect with
and really understand your team
so that you can staff them with the right work.
While it might seem like it's all about numbers
in the form of task estimates and dates,
it really isn't.
You know, there are so many
moving parts to projects in teams
and you'll need to consider most of them
to be sure that your staffing plan is optimized
by assigning people to the work that really suits them
and at the same time is as close to accurate as possible,
even as you adapt to change on your projects.
You'll have to do a little bit of legwork
and some socializing
to kind of get the information you need
to make the right decisions on behalf of your team
and even your organization,
or better yet,
you know, you could set up a process and expectations about
providing or receiving critical staffing information
and you're rest assured that way
that staffing plans are really well considered.
So let's jump into what you need to know.
You know, first, it's interests.
If you have a team member who loves chocolate,
why not put that person on the chocolate site redesign.
Maybe you have multiple people
who want to be on that project,
but they're all busy on other projects.
You know, these are the breaks folks.
You have to do what's right for the company
and for your budget on your project.
If you can put interests first, it's awesome.
It won't always work out that way for everyone,
but it's good first step to really try.
After all, I tend to think that you get
better work out of people who feel connected to a project.
All right,
Next is skill sets.
You know, it's as simple as getting to know
each and every team member's work.
Some people are meant to create specific types of designs
or write specific type of code in a specific language.
It not only has to do with interests,
but it also has to do with expertise
and strengths within those tasks or even weaknesses.
So sure, I may love chocolate,
but that doesn't mean that I'm meant to design
the site that caters to the audience
the client is trying to reach.
You've got to apply the right skills to the challenge
to get the best result possible.
So those are the basics.
I think after that,
there's some pretty specific details
related to availability that you need to consider.
Again, you're dealing with people here,
so you'll always be dealing with moving targets.
So the first thing is don't forget holidays,
Make sure you're planning around them.
And remember, people always extend holidays.
Plan for that.
But at a minimum,
you'll want to be sure that your account admin
has added them into your TeamGantt account
so that you can't schedule people on those special days.
True story, I once scheduled work on New Year's Day.
Oops, what are you going to do?
All right, so on that note,
you want to account for vacations.
You know, it's great to know about these in advance.
Be sure that you know your company's
policy around vacations.
You know, you never ever want to be the PM who says,
"Well, you have a deadline on that date
and that's going to be a conflict with, you know,
your very expensive, exciting trips, so no."
Ask people to request trips at least a month in advance
so that you can plan ahead and make things work.
And account for that time off in TeamGantt.
You know, creating a plan for vacations or time off
is a great way to handle this
because you're basically scheduling vacation
as a task for a full day
that'll show up in your workload plan.
Okay, lastly but of equal importance,
is that you must account for moving schedules.
Projects always change.
One week you know you're working against the firm deadline
and the next week,
that deadline might be changed because of a client
or, you know, there are different needs on a project
or some other reasons someone just conjured up.
It's tough to know when that change will happen,
but when it does,
how you'll fill someone's time with other work
should be high on your mind.
So basically, it comes down to having a solid plan
that's backed up with task estimates.
Then you can turn to the amazing people you work with
to see their capabilities and their availability,
and really start working on a plan
and start assigning that work and crushing those projects.
But honestly it doesn't stop there.
Workload management is an ongoing process and discussion
that you need to stay on top of
whether you're using a spreadsheet
or you're using TeamGantt.
If you're busy and you're not slowing down anytime soon,
you want to keep those plans updated.
You also want to be aware of potential work
that could be coming your way.
If you're working at a consulting agency,
knowing what's in your sales pipeline
can help you to plan capacity
or even determine when new projects can even start.
And if you stay aligned with the person in charge of sales
or assigning new projects,
you should be able to anticipate upcoming needs
and timelines.
You know, in some cases
you may even want to put some basic plans in TeamGantt
so that you can anticipate needs
and see where your workload plans might stand
should you have to take on more work.
I also want to add here that the value of tracking this data
goes beyond your projects.
And you're probably deducing that, right?
Strong workload planning can help business owners
make really important decisions on growing a company.
Think about it.
If a new project is coming
and my team's workloads are already showing
that they're fully allocated to current project work,
then I'll need to think about outsourcing
or even hiring new staff members.
You know, there are so many benefits here
with workload planning,
but remember, every plan requires communication
and this is no exception.
No matter what you do,
be sure to communicate about staffing as much as possible
so you can keep up with change and make decisions quickly,
and keep your team on board.
If you're in an organization
that's constantly handling change,
you'll know that it's a tough target to hit.
In fact, your numbers will often be slightly off,
but you'll find comfort in knowing
that you're doing everything you can
to stay ahead of the resource and crunch.
And at the same time, your team's going to appreciate that.
They're going to see that everything that you're doing
to protect their work-life balance.
And that's all we want, right?
A little bit of balance.
The ability to work in eight hours a day
and produce something great.
No problem.
You've got this.
All right, that's all I have for this episode.
Stop by the comments and tell me, what do you call it?
Resourcing,
staffing,
casting,
peopling?
And how are you managing to not overbook your team?
I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
Thanks and have a good one.
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