Human Resources
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How do we compete with
everybody else who needs
resources?
Where do we find people
when we can’t hire new
employees?
What does time cost us in
terms of resources?
How can we make up for
missing resources?
The Human Resource Challenge
Today
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Advantage of using contractors
– Highly skilled
– Flexibility in your changing human resource needs
– Contract to hire option
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Disadvantage of using contractors
– Lack of background knowledge
– Difficulty of “marrying full time employees in closeknit, fully integrated team.
The Human Resource Challenge
Today - Continued
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Project manager must provide
– Direction: Keep the team focused
– Guidance: Coach your people along
– Support: Back your team
– Encouragement: Cheerleading
Cost of the Human Resource
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Salaries
Benefits
Fees and Cost of Hiring
Time to Manage
Capital Resource
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What are the elements
of cost?
What are different ways
we can minimize the
cost and duration of a
project?
What are some ways to
Manage the resource
profile?
What is the final plan?
The Capital Resource - Elements of
Cost
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Direct Cost: costs that vary directly with your volume
of output
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Labor wages
Overtime premium
Material
Subcontractors
Freight
Sales Tax
Indirect Cost: fixed periodic costs
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Insurance
Start-up
Overhead utilities
Security
Marketing
Goodwill
Opportunity for problems
Duration and Cost
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Criteria for selecting activities to crash
– Must be on the critical path
– Precedes multiple activities
– Long duration
– Lower cost per period gained
– Early in the project
– Labor intensive
– Subject to common problem
Time/Cost Tradeoff Analysis
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Cost/Duration Graph (p. 208)
Optimum Duration Point
Managing the Resource Profile
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At different times along the project’s
duration, drastically more or fewer
resources are needed.
The key to leveling resource profiles is
to shift work from the peaks to the
valleys by rescheduling activities.
The Final Plan
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Use the three lines of defense to meet
the customer’s deadline
Find the optimum duration for the
project
Level the critical resources
– People
– Bottleneck facilities
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Perform a last reality check