Project Resource Management Essentials Overview

Project Resource Management Essentials is a practical, one-day instructor-led course that equips project managers and team leads with the tools and techniques to manage resources effectively at both the project and portfolio level. Grounded in the PMBOK® Guide (8th Edition) and the Standard for Portfolio Management, the course covers resource planning, role definition, Critical Path Method, resource leveling and smoothing, capacity and capability planning, and portfolio-level bottleneck analysis — with hands-on group activities throughout. Participants leave with immediately applicable skills they can use on their next project.

How You Will Benefit

Align resource planning directly to your project schedule and WBS
Build RACI charts and artifact-centric job descriptions that reflect real work
Apply Critical Path Method calculations to identify and protect critical activities
Resolve over-allocation using the right leveling or smoothing technique
Diagnose portfolio bottlenecks as capacity or capability constraints and propose responses
Evaluate resource management software against your organization's needs

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

Relate resource requirements to the project schedule and activity list
Construct RACI charts and apply the artifact-centric method to define work-based roles
Calculate Early Start, Early Finish, total float, and free float using the Critical Path Method
Apply resource leveling and smoothing to resolve over-allocation based on project constraints
Distinguish between resource capacity and capability and apply supply-demand planning at the portfolio level
Identify and prioritize portfolio bottleneck resources and propose targeted responses

Who Should Attend?

Project managers and team leads who schedule and allocate resources across projects
PMO analysts and portfolio managers coordinating resources across multiple initiatives
Resource and functional managers who negotiate staff availability with project teams
Practitioners preparing for PMP® or PgMP® certification seeking deeper resource management knowledge

Format

Virtual Classroom: One day of web-based eLearning with a live instructor. You will also receive digital training materials and six (6) months of access to our online training portal.

In-House: If you have 10 or more employees seeking Program Management Essentials training, we will deliver the course at your facility (or another location in your area, if you prefer). The training can be scheduled during any three consecutive days of your choosing.

Course Outline

Introduction. Course Introduction and Opening Activity

Welcome, participant introductions, and session goals
Opening discussion: Why do projects struggle with resource management?
Parkinson's Law, Student Syndrome, resource bottlenecks, and excessive multi-tasking
Overview of the two course sections: project-level and portfolio-level resourcing