Project Managers are not always afforded the luxury to recruit members of their own team. In certain instances they are considered fortunate if they have full-time resources assigned to the projects. This makes project resourcing one of the biggest issues that PMs have to deal with at some point in their careers.
There are valid reasons why business units cannot commit full-time resources to projects:
· Projects usually require content skills and expertise that the business unit cannot afford to be without for extended periods of time
· Business units that second employees are usually required to reintegrate them at the end of the project life cycle. The business units that replace secondees are then left with additional head count that they have not budgeted for
· Projects do not always end as per original schedule – they sometime run over due to scope increases, or they end sooner when deliverables are de-scoped. This makes it difficult for business units to manage their resource plans and budgets effectively
Rather than fight to have the highly skilled subject matter expert (SME) full-time on the project, the PM should rather push to secure a less-skilled, contractor to work full-time on the project to support the SME. The SME remains in the business unit but is actively involved in the project as a technical lead. This way, the integration and resource planning issues fall away. This solution, however, assumes that project location is not a factor. In other words, the SME is able to work both on the project and in the business unit at the same time, whether through physical contact or online.
Tumi Mphahlele is Managing Director: Busara Strategic Projects, a division of Busara Leadership Partners, www.busaraleadershippartners.co.za
Focusing on Business Process Excellence, IT Strategy and Organisation as well as Project and Programme Management.
