Resource Allocation

Resource allocation is the process of matching staff with tasks, based on:

• Skills required to complete the task(s)
• Time phased estimate of the work required
• Each person’s skill set and current commitments

It is particularly important in professional services organizations, where staff have varying skills and incoming tasks demand a good match with the skills required. Resource allocation identifies staff with suitable skills and shows their availability to undertake the work required.

Software Requirements

As resource numbers grow, software support is needed for effective allocation of resources to tasks. The core capability should include:

• The database stores the resource attributes (skills, location, role , team etc) to be used as search criteria, when looking for suitable staff
• Store details of each person's committed assignments, so a profile of their available time is known
• Project managers, or those that request resources, can specify a profile of attributes that they require
• Resource allocation matches the requested profile of attributes with each person and their availability. The resource allocation process lists these in order of best fit, so enabling the resource manager to select the right people

The Innate Resource Allocation Process

There is great flexibility in how to search for resources, specifying the attributes of the resources from pick lists or free text, and stating ‘Must be’ or ‘Prefer’  conditions. For example, you could search for ‘Must have’ Analyst (skill) and ‘Prefer’ Project Manager (Role).

Alternatively, you can use a search engine which allows pattern matching, mandatory and optional matches, exclusions and everything you need to find the best matched resource from your keywords.

The search criteria are saved in the database for each assignment, so that if a replacement resource is required the original search criteria can be re-applied.

Resource Allocation in a Matrix Organization

Each person’s spreadsheet view can monitor the status of resource requests using, for example, Assignment status and comment columns as shown below.

As requests are passed from project to resource managers, and individuals proposed, Innate tracks each allocation through the process steps. This is particularly useful for large organizations where multiple resource managers may be involved, or where provisional bookings are made, prior to ratification.

When Resource Allocation Leads to Overloads

In practice a degree of planned overload is generally acceptable in resource allocation, particularly where the workload is measured in days or weeks. Innate provides loading indicators that signal if there is a resource conflict affecting any assignment.

The indicators are easy to configure and typically set to show the following conditions:

	Overload – on some days work exceeds 100% of availability
	No overload – on no days does work exceed 90% of availability
	Warning – loading on some days is between 90% & 100% availability

Service organizations need to be responsive and flexible to meet the changing demands on their staff and resource allocation is a key process. Innate effectively manages the resource allocation process.