The definition of resources in project management include people, materials, equipment, money, facilities and any fundamental things that are necessary for executing the project. Resources are needed throughout the entire lifecycle of the project. Determining the resource requirements is very important for successful management.
The ability of the project manager to estimate the activity resources is very crucial. Estimate activity resource is the process that estimates the type and amount of resources like equipment, supplies , and human resource to perform individual tasks for a particular project. One of the benefits of this particular process is that it identifies the type, quality and characteristics of the resources that are required to complete a particular activity. Moreover, this will also allow the calculation of costs accurately as well as duration estimates.
It is important for project managers to know that although this particular process is an integral part of developing the time schedule of the project, it is also undertaken in parallel with the estimate costs process which belongs to the cost management process. The premise here is that if you estimate the resources, it also affects the cost process of the project life cycle.
The estimate activity resources create a link between the duration of an activity and the amount of work effort required to complete the work. It is important to take note that the duration of the activity is always equivalent to the work effort. In typical activities, the duration is usually measured in days and the work effort in hours.
For project managers to determine the estimate activity resources, it is important to look into the activity list, schedule management plan, resource calendars, risk register, activity cost estimates, organizational process assets and enterprise environmental factors to name a few. Effective estimation of activity resources can lead to the identification of the activity resource requirements and resource breakdown structure. It can also produce updates on the project documents.
This term is defined in the 5th edition of the PMBOK.