Resource Management becomes more challenging when you have multiple projects and different teams. This Excel Resource Plan is designed to work with multiple projects and teams and to highlight over allocation and under utilization which make Resource Management more effective.
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| Image 1 - Excel Resource Plan (Advanced) - Allocation View |
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| Image 2 - Excel Resource Plan (Advanced) - Resource Load View |
Features and Advantages of the Excel Resource Plan Advanced Version
- The resource plan can handle multiple projects and teams.
- Allocations for individual resources, teams or projects can be viewed by using default filters in MS Excel.
- The resource load view provides a clear picture of how the resources are allocated and any gaps if present in the plan.
- The resource plan highlights over-allocated, under-allocated and partially allocated resources.
- The Team and Rate are auto populated with the resource name. Also, the cost is calculated for each allocation.
- The resource plan is based on weekly allocations so you can plan for long term.
- The resources can be setup with team and daily rate.
How the Excel Resource Plan Advanced Version works
The Resource Plan has 3 key sections - The Resource Plan, Resource Load and Config sections.All the sections are contained within separate sheets.
The resource plan takes the allocations from the resource plan sheet and then combines to generate a single view for each resource. Even if the resource has multiple allocations the resource plan will sum up all the allocations for that resource and display that in the resource load sheet.
Now lets have a look at the three sections in detail.
Resource Plan
- The first image in the blog(Image 1) and the first sheet in the spreadsheet is the resource plan.
- This sheet contains the allocations.
- Each row represents a allocation for a resource. It can be different projects or the same project for different dates.
- When starting for the first time DO NOT DELETE ALL THE ENTRIES as you might delete all the formulas. Always copy the row to make a new entry.
- The resources come from the Resource Load sheet. The team, daily rate and effort will be auto calculated after you select the appropriate resource.
Resource Load
- This sheet contains the resource details(Resource Name, Team, Rate) and allocations which are auto populated from the allocation in the resource plan. Different colors are explained in the image below.
- DO NOT CHANGE THE ALLOCATIONS ON THE RESOURCE LOAD sheet. The allocations should be auto populated from the resource plan sheet.
- The resource load sheet highlights cells to highlight issues.
- If a cell is highlighted with red color and white text that means the resource is over allocated in that week.
- If the cell is highlighted with green color and green text then all is good as the resource is fully utilized for that week.
- If the cell is highlighted in white with red text then it means that the resource is partially allocated in that week.
- If the cell has a red color with red text and has a 0 in it then the resource has not allocation in that week.
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| Resource Load View |
Config Section
The config section has the following -
- Start Date - Start date for the resource plan.
- Weekly Days - The no. of days your team will work in a week.
- Min Days - The minimum days threshold per week. If the resource allocation goes below this value then the resource is indicated as under utilized.
- Projects - The list of projects for which resources will need to be planned. The max. is 50 projects. It can be more but then the Data Validation will have to be changed accordingly.
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| Resource Plan Config Section |
Steps to start using the Excel Resource Plan Advanced Version
Step 1: Enter the values for the Config sheet. Configure the start date, weekly days, Minimum Days and the project you want to resource.
Step 2: Enter the resource details in the Resource Load sheet. Enter the resource name, Team and Rate. DO NOT ENTER ANYTHING UNDER THE WEEKS AS THAT WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY POPULATED WITH ALLOCATION DATA.
Step 3: Based on the the project resource requirements allocate resource in the first sheet Resource Plan. Each will be an allocation. Always try to avoid partial allocations as it complicates the allocation.
Step 4: As you are allocating the tasks make sure you check the resource load sheet to make sure that all the resource are allocated properly without over or under allocation.
Except for the config in Step 1 you will be repeating steps 2,3 and 4 on regular basis as resource requirements tend to change. A resource manager will typically update the resource plan at least once a week.