active projects in the current year to be resourced, involving up to 82 separate applications
resources available to be allocated (50% internal FTE)
(monthly) project time allocations
CLIENT PROBLEM
MHC’s Tier 1 Banking Client had over 150 active Cash Management projects to be resourced each year. The resource allocation process of selecting the best resource for each role was similar to attempting a 10,000 piece jigsaw. MHC put together a task force, whose objective was to optimise resource allocation across the Cash Management division’s book of work.
MHC APPROACH
The Demand Analysis Tool Tasks were to:
- Capture the requirements of each project, which included detailing the period for which each role would be required.
- Identify the skills (profession, seniority and application knowledge) that qualifying resources would need to possess.
- Extract the current work utilisation for each qualified resource.
- Match the qualified resources to each required role, selecting the best one for each role and detailing the current work utilisation for each qualifying resource.
- Present the information in a format that allows the user to manipulate the resource proposed for each role, displaying the impact that any change would have on the resource allocations and the impact on other projects which they are involved in.
Result
The Demand Analysis Tool was completed within budget and in time for the start of the following year’s project planning cycle. The MHC Insight DA tool provided a view of the entire capacity of the division’s technical resources, highlighting individuals who were under/over-allocated and areas where resource shortages existed.
The ability to swap resources between projects, within the tool, allowed various ‘What-if’ scenarios to be examined so that an optimal utilisation could be achieved. Knowledge transfer enabled users to implement the tool to create improved scheduling, that would lead to fewer delays waiting for internal resources to be available and an earlier recognition of the need for vendor resource, to cover shortfalls. Together these would translate into more projects completing successfully.
