Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

                The first site I found is a blog site for J.A. Kruger & Associates, Project Management Consultants within the Engineering and Construction Industries at  http://blog.jak-associates.com.  The JAL & Associates blog site contains a number of blog posts on project management, planning and consulting; however, of particular interest was the blog entry on Estimating Planning Durations and Resources (JAL & Associates, 2012). This blog post provides a very comprehensive explanation on allocating resources and provides an excellent example of “work content estimating” in terms of low-level and high-level tasks.  While this site is for engineering and construction, it provides a great example of the methodologies involved in estimated task duration using norms.

                The second site contains an excellent article on project management and resource allocation.  The article is posted on Peter Kretzman’s blog at http://www.peterkretzman.com/2010/02/16/simple-more-practical-approaches-to-actual-resource-allocation and contains an explanation of the resource allocation process, especially in regards to multiple projects and why understanding this process is so key to successful project management.  Kretzman (2010) provides a very practical, simplistic approach to resource allocation and gives a brief overview of a number of allocation tools along with their pros and cons of each.

                The third site contains an article that focuses on how to avoid resource allocation issues.  Thought the article (on Tech Republic’s website at http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-keys-to-resource-allocation/5031746) was posted in 2003 it is still relevant today.  Fitzgerald (2003) discusses some of the issues found with overreliance on scheduling tools and provides and excellent explanation on the difference between overcommitment and overallocation.  Fitzgerald (2003) goes on to provide suggestions how to avoid both of these issues when allocating resources for a project.

Ref:

Fitzgerald, D. (2003, April 21). The keys to resource allocation.  Tech Republic.  Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-keys-to-resource-allocation/5031746  

JAL & Associates (2012, February 5). Estimating Planning Durations and Resources. [Blog message].  Retrieved from http://blog.jak-associates.com/project-management-2/estimating-planning-durations-and-resources

Kretzman, P. (2010).  Simple, more practical approaches to actual resource allocation. [Blog message].  Retrieved from http://www.peterkretzman.com/2010/02/16/simple-more-practical-approaches-to-actual-resource-allocation