How many resources should I assign to each task? What standard should I use?

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    • #197082
      CNI-Lin
      Guest

      How many resources such as manpower, equipment, material, should I assign to each task? What standard should I use?

    • #207423
      Anonymous
      Inactive

      I think it depends on the type of the tasks. If the task is related to UI and the sufficient amount of work is identified you may consider “x” no. of resources. If the task is more of service side then plan for more. Hope this helps.

    • #296399
      Josh Logan
      Member

      There is no standard as such. Define the work for each task, both labor and non-labor, then determine how you are going to measure the work.

      If you are coding software, and there is training required for the staff, and there are software and hardware purchases to be made, I would breaking those out into separate tasks.

      Thus, you would have 1) labor, 3) Training costs, 4) Possible travel for training, 5) software purchases, and 6) hardware purchases. I would not include #3-#5 in the coding and design tasks, for example.

      Very simple example.

      Project XYZ Software Development Work Package
      Software Development Work Package (Assign labor resources)
      Softeare Design
      Software Coding
      Software Testing
      Software Documentation
      External Training Work Package (assign training costs)
      Training Tuition
      Training Travel
      Computing Hardware Purchases Work Package (assign hardware costs)
      Server Purchase
      Desktop and Laptop Purchase

    • #298149
      Larry Christofaro
      Participant

      Just a quick addition to the good advice already provided. Generally it is easier to manage the schedule with fewer resources assigned to each task. With that said it is often the correct choice. I tend to start with one, the person responsible for the task. Then if someone else is performing meaningful work on that same activity and it doesn’t make sense to split it out then by all means assign them. There are many times when you have a lead who provides support and tends to work on many tasks. In that case I will give that person a separate support task to put all that general work. It helps you as a PM and is easier to update for the resource. Hope that helps…

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