Resources are absolutely essential for the project management team and or the project management team leader to have at their disposal if they hope to be able to successfully complete a project and attain a level of results that are considered satisfactory. However, in order to assure that the project management team and or the project management team leader are able to assess properly what exactly resources are. First of all, resources can consist of any and all groups or individual human staffing resources. In this instance, resources are specifically the people who can be allocated to the respective project or to the particular work element within the project, and whose time can be allocated accordingly. Resources can, however, also refer to any number of inanimate objects that may be utilized by the project management team and or the project management team leader in the management of the project, such as supplies, services, commodities, and budgets.
This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.