4 Project Resource Management Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

2024-08-20

Project resource management involves planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling the resources needed for a project, such as manpower, materials, machinery, technology, and more. It is widely known that the successful advancement of any project depends heavily on resource support. If resources are insufficient, both the progress and quality of the project will suffer. However, effectively managing resources in project management is no easy task—otherwise, resource shortages wouldnt be one of the most common challenges faced by project managers. Below are some common pitfalls in project resource management:

1. Rigid Resource and Schedule Planning

Have you ever locked in resources and schedules at the start of a project, making them almost impossible to change once allocated? Todays business needs demand faster and more adaptive resource management to keep up with rapidly changing customer requirements and tight profit margins. If you can’t respond quickly and accurately, outdated resource management processes will only exacerbate inefficiencies, leading to suboptimal resource allocation.


2. Disconnected Project Activities

A project consists of various activities, each requiring specific resources to complete. While not every task depends on another team members work, successful projects require cohesive teams. However, resource managers may sometimes treat these tasks as independent from one another. This can result in chaos, where unfinished or overdue tasks create bottlenecks and unnecessary complications.

3. Neglecting Resource Utilization

In the past, resource managers would fill their team members’ schedules with as many tasks as possible to drive the project forward. However, this “one-size-fits-all” approach lacks insight and fails to fully leverage each resources skills without pushing them to the brink of exhaustion.

4. Manual Cost Accounting

Cost accounting is a critical part of any project. Yet, many companies still rely on outdated, manual, or even paper-based cost accounting processes, which consume unnecessary time and effort. When these processes are widespread across an organization, from receiving invoices from contractors to issuing invoices to clients, they can quickly eat up significant portions of the workweek.

Leverage Modern Project Management Software for Resource Management

In business, project management provides a valuable and efficient framework that helps prioritize tasks, track and measure performance, overcome challenges, address unforeseen risks, and achieve higher success rates in every endeavor. Therefore, project-based work requires clear objectives, milestones, deliverables, and defined start and end dates. As a project manager, you must know how your team members spend their time. Even for seemingly straightforward project activities, resource allocation and usage should be managed carefully. Without accurate resource data, how can you know if project activities are on schedule, one day late, or several days overdue?


Modern project management software, like 8Manage PM, offers you timely and accurate resource data, helping you avoid resource management pitfalls:

- Automation of Manual Tasks: By automating manual tasks, you reduce the likelihood of errors and free up your staff to focus on other tasks, resulting in a more streamlined and efficient workforce. It also provides real-time data, allowing for a degree of flexibility.
  
- Creating Efficient Processes: 8Manage PM allows you to establish efficient processes between activities and the various resources allocated to the project. This leads to better project planning, where each team member hands off their interdependent tasks smoothly, much like a relay race.
  
- Preventing Over-allocation: You can set rules to prevent resource over-allocation during the project planning phase. Additionally, during project execution, you can dynamically monitor each team members workload, even when other projects cause them to become overloaded or underutilized.
  
- Integrated Time and Cost Tracking: 8Manage PM directly integrates time and cost entries with automated cost accounting or invoice generation, allowing significant time and effort to be redirected to other high-value tasks.
  
- Enabling Remote Collaboration: Your team can collaborate from any location, sharing critical information and communicating effectively. This full visibility creates more coherent workflows and allows for the most efficient resource tracking.

Whether your organization needs to address one or all of these potential project resource management pitfalls, adopting the 8Manage PM modern project resource management solution will have a profoundly positive impact on all aspects of your organization. As a result, the teams you rely on will become stronger components for long-term success.