Manage Numerous IT Projects With No Resource Constraints

IT resource management is crucial in chaotic environments where multiple projects collide… 

The most obvious challenge of IT managers is to make sure they meet deadlines and projects deliverables in a timely manner. This is more tangible in environments where tons of big and small projects overlap in shared resources. That is a sign of resource constraint. By resource, I mean IT staff and personnel. 

Regardless of why an IT team faces unexpected projects and ends up with a messy environment, or how IT manager job description and responsibilities are important at the first place, let’s focus on how to address IT project management disordering, and how to reach a smooth flow of projects mixed with daily IT tasks. 

One of the simplest techniques to handle resource allocation is aliening expected assignment(s) with factual capacity of resource; when and how a resource is free and what and when to assign them with, but there are many ways to do this. I prefer mapping the current state of resources (main aspects or features of them), plus identifying projects and their specifications and finally justify these together via any simple tool. 

Once you master this very basic and easy technique, no matter what is your tool, you will be able to manage IT projects even in a very disordered and out-of-control department. That is one of the reasons why I do not believe in phrase “lack of resources”! The more we blame shortage of human resources, the more we put ourselves in a situation that is irreversible. A situation where it does not matter how many staff you add to your team, still you will not be able to meet deadline, and more important, have reasonable quality for you IT operations. 

Back to the technique, list your resources and calculate their availability and capacity at a certain time. What are the factors in equation? It really depends on your very particular environment but universal factors are known to any project manager. Then list you projects and identify their specifications in detail. If you do not have time to do these basic steps then you better put more time and reputation on fixing a broken IT department and a dozen of overdue deadlines and unhappy c-suite. Allocation of resources is going to be so strait forward if you complete the 1^st and 2^nd step precisely. 

There are bunch of tools to execute such a simple idea, but some of them like Microsoft Project requires a dedicated trained professional just to use the tool and set it with right information. That is too complicated and is not reasonable where the task of project management is not the goal. In other words, tools like MS Project are good for those that are project managers and they do this for thousands of clients. 

I developed a simple smart Excel spreadsheet to handle this crucial task of managing IT projects with real scenarios. As simple as 123. Based on size of your staff and project, you might be eligible to use free of charge.