Project resources simply mean resources that are required for successful development and completion of project. These resources can be capital, people, material, tool, or supplies that are helpful to carry out certain tasks in project. Without these resources, it is impossible to complete project. In project planning phase, identification of resources that are required for completion of project and how they will be allocated is key element and very important task to do. In project management, some resources that are required are assigned to each task of project to get job done.
There are three types of resources that are considered and are very essential for execution of project and completion of project on time and on budget. These resources can be denoted by pyramid which is also known as Resource Pyramid. At base of pyramid i.e. last layer, hardware and software tools are present, then at middle layer, reusable components are present, and at top of pyramid i.e. top layer, human resources are present. This is shown in following diagram :
When software planner wants to specify resources, they specify it using four characteristics :
- Description of resource
- Resource availability
- Time of resource when it will be available
- Duration of resource availability
Types of resources :
- Human Resource –
Human plays an important role in software development process. No matter what size is and how much complexity is there in project, if you want to perform project task in an effective manner, then human resources are very essential. In software industry, people are assigned some organizational positions such as manager, software developer, software testing, engineer, and so on. These positions are according to their skills and specialty.For small project only, single individual can perform all these roles. But for large project, team of people works on it. The total number of people that are required for project is estimated by calculating development effort inters of person-months.
- Reusable Components –
For bringing ease in software development process or to accelerate development process software, industry prefers to use some ready software components. The components can be defined as the software building blocks that can be created and reused in software development process. Generally, regardless of their type, size, or complexity, all projects need money. Managing budget for project is one of most important tasks that all project managers have to do. The reusable resources also known as cost resources are very helpful as they help in reducing overall cost of development. The use of components emphasizes reusability. This is also termed as Component-Based Software Engineering. - Hardware and Software tools –
These are actually material resources that are part of project. This type of resource should be planned before starting development of project otherwise it way causes problems for the project.For example, if you require certain software elements during performing task and somehow you can’t manage to get them on time, even they could take few weeks to ship from manufacturer and this will cause delay to your project.
