Resource Management

Introduction

You have acquired a set of resources, but for you to be effective, you need you to come up

with a scheme to use these resources. Remember that you may not have the resources "forever," as

it the case with dynamic resources, so you are best advised to make the best of what you have for as

long as you have them. Even if the resources are dedicated resources, you still would need a way to

ensure high utilization.

Resource managers are needed for you to achieve this goal. A typical resource manger uses

some sort of a scheduler to ensure proper usage1 or resources by increasing their utilization.

Scheduling is the concept of sharing a scarce resource amongst users without starving any of the

users, and at best gives the impression that every user has access to all of what that resource has to

offer. This poses a challenge when the numbers of users increase dramatically or the duration of the

jobs varies greatly. What makes this challenge even greater is that scheduling problems are mostly

NP-Complete, with a very limited number of scenarios that are considered to fall under the P-type

problem domain.

Single criterion scheduling are problems where the user is interested in maximizing or

minimizing only one thing or criterion (minimize the flow, time, or the completion time). Many

scenarios, machine shop or otherwise, require more than criteria to be optimized. For example, on a

multi-processing machine, you want to minimize startup time and at the same time minimize

completion time of all the tasks.

There are times where these two criterions conflict; in other words, you might need to

suspend a task, thus delaying its completion time, to start a newly arrived task. The point is that

"sacrifices" must be made, and that is the point of heuristic-type algorithms; they aim to minimize

the overall sacrifice one has to make to optimize everything near-perfectly. This does not always

work, however, but considering the problem domain, it is a very good attempt at solving the

unsolvable.

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Quality of Service (QoS) for Grid computing has a special meaning because it no longer

applies only to network resources. Compute, data, and network resources together need to be

managed and there needs to be a mechanism that provides a quantifiable way of dictating QoS

across all three domains. Scheduling systems thus need to take QoS guarantees into account when

scheduling tasks across resources and administrative domains.

The concept of QoS and data scheduling is further complicated when talking about globally

distributed and/or dense systems where scheduling becomes more difficult; therefore, meeting QoS

guarantees becomes even more complex.

Think of an operating system and how it schedules various threads or processes on the CPU.

As the number of CPUs increase, the problem becomes more difficult, but the concept is still the

same. These are a number of different scheduling algorithms, but I will not cover them in this

article. The main focus here is to break down a resource manager into its core components, and talk

about how these components work together to achieve a single goal: high resource utilization.

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Resource Manager Components

Conceptually speaking, the resource manager is very simple:

● Queue incoming tasks

● Keep a record of available resources

● Match resources with the incoming tasks (scheduler)

● Queue results

I am not saying that it is easy to design or write a resource manager, however, but from a

conceptual standpoint it is a simple enough design that you can relate to. Figure 1 depicts this

architecture.

Figure 1: Anatomy of a Resource Manager

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There are a number of ways that this architecture can be realized, but the one thing you need

to keep in mind here is that network queuing theory plays a major role here. If you have an influx of

tasks that is greater than the speed that your processing engine is able to off-load, the client queue

will get backed up and you will start to lose tasks.

This is the same behavior if you were to talk about a router placed in a network with large

amounts of data transfer. Congestion control is implicit in the case of a resource manager as the

resources will only be ready and request to process the next task when the current task has already

been completed.

This makes our understanding of the environment a little easier as if we were seeing a

backlog of tasks waiting to be processed, this is a clear indication that we need only to add more

resources to assist with the heavy load of the incoming tasks.

Your goal in this article is not to build a resource manager, but rather have a clear and better

understanding of how one actually works and what its main components are. Focus a bit on the

overall flow. You will delve into the details in the subsequent sections.

The flow is something like the following:

1 Resources log on to the Grid resource manager.

2 Basic resource information is sent to the resource manager such as OS type, amount of free

memory, number of CPUs, and a number of other parameters based on the Resource

Manager involved.

3 Data and any updates as synchronized between the resource manager and the resource.

4 Resource goes in to a waiting queue ready to be assigned a task.

5 The resource manager updates the table of available resources with the new resource.

6 The scheduling engine assigns a task to the resource if and when a new task is available.

7 The resource gets the task and the data, loads the appropriate service, and executes the task.

8 The task result is sent back to the client.

9 The resource is ready for another task.

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Resources' Information Database

This is not really a database in most cases because it is sustainable to a high degree of

change. As resources come and go, this database must be updated. The info feeds directly into the

scheduling engine used to schedule tasks to the available resources.

A resource needs to make itself available for it to be scheduled. When the resource logs on

to the Grid, it sends its information to the resource manager. The resource manager uses this

information to figure out what kinds of tasks can run on this specific resource.

For example, if you are talking about a Windows-based server, perhaps you can run Java

and Windows-complied applications. For Linux, the situation is a bit different. The same applies for

the number of processors available, the amount of memory, the version of the OS, and many other

system parameters that are used by the resource manager and later by the scheduler to determine the

feasibility of that resource to the needed resource.

The difficulty arises when you try to find the best fit possible and the number of system

parameters you use to determine how fit a resource really is. The number of parameters is directly

proportional to the scheduling granularity and complexity. If the scheduler must take a number of

parameters into consideration before making a final decision, this will add more overhead to the

scheduler and increase system complexity.

One of the ways this is mitigated is by the use of advanced hashtables and lookup tables that

more information is found faster and more efficient updates are possible.

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Clients' Information Database

This is a bit simpler because the number of clients is usually much smaller than the number

of resources in a given Grid infrastructure. You may have a couple thousand resources, but only a

handful of clients accessing and using these resources.

From the perspective of the client manageability, the resource manager has a simpler task. From the

point of view of high availability, however, it is not the case.

Resource managers are or at least should follow the "fire and forget" methodology. This

means that the clients send a task to the resource manager and from that moment on, the resource

manager is in charge of making sure that the task gets done. This poses a number of challenges for

the resource manager. The way this problem is solved varies from vendor to vendor, and as always

the solution poses a performance vs. reliability tradeoff.

Scheduling Process

This is where the rubber meets the road. You have client demands; you have resources; what

you need to do now is to match your supplies with your demands. Sounds easy enough, don't you

think? It is, for the most part, easy.

As mentioned before, the number of criteria that you use to choose the best decision directly

impacts the complexity of your system. The more criteria, the more complex the scheduler will be.

Generally speaking, you need to worry about the type of the target Operating System, CPU type,

amount of memory, and available resources such as access to a file system or database. At the end

of the day, schedulers are just one big finite state machine (FSM) with the input being the task and

the final stage being the target resource that gets assigned that task.

A number of vendors give you the capability to optimize the scheduler. Things such as

protocol used for communication between the components, amount of memory to consume whilst

scheduling, and the ability to provide user-based filtering mechanisms are just some examples.

Keep in mind that scheduling is and will be a difficult problem (NP-complete for those interested)

and it can only be solved heuristically.

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This basically means that schedulers make some basic assumptions and then make a

decision as to what request goes to what resource. When you choose a resource manager, you must

make sure that the vendor allows you to change these assumptions used to solve this optimization

problem that is scheduling.

Key Elements of Resource Management

Among crucial elements of resource management, the following are the most key:

● Resource Plan – Every project plan should have a resource plan as its component. The

resource plan should contain all aspects of your project from beginning to end that pertain to

resources required.

● Resource Breakdown Structure – Here, you will break down the resources required to

complete the project in a hierarchy – as you would in a work breakdown structure or an

organizational breakdown structure.

● Responsibility Assignment Matrix – this is where the resource or organizational breakdown

structure meets up with the work breakdown structure to assign responsibilities to the

various branches in the hierarchy.

● Resource Overallocation – Overallocation of a resource is when a resource has been

assigned more work than can be completed during normal work hours. Resource allocation

often leads to overtime and overspending on financial resources.

● Resource Histogram –This graphic representation can cue project managers whether there

are any resources being overallocated.

● Resource Dependency – If two tasks require the same resource to complete them, then these

tasks are resource dependent. If a task can only be completed by one resource, it is resource-

dependent. A resource dependent task has particular constraints linking it to a particular

resource.

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Five Steps to Effective Resource Management

Effective Resource Management not only impacts profitability by optimizing utilization and

minimizing bench time, but when done well, can generate goodwill and loyalty that translate to

competitive dvantages in recruiting and retaining the best talent. It can also give you the ability to

move beyond tactical project management to strategic portfolio planning.

The problem is that with all of the inefficiencies created by the systems we have in place to

manage our current resources, most of us have trouble finding the time to improve our Resource

Management processes or upgrade our systems.

The good news is that achieving more effective Resource Management is possible – if you

take it one step at a time. The following steps aren’t always easy to achieve, but you’ll find they are

worth the effort to master.

1. Know Your Projects

Inaccurate forecasts result in unpredictable and unrepeatable results. Project over-runs and

low utilization rates diminish profitability and client satisfaction. Yet many services managers still

rely on reactionary horse-trading to staff their projects.

From a traditional supply and demand perspective, your project portfolio represents the

demand side of the equation. Simply put, Resource Management is understanding this demand to

effectively allocate your supply. In order to support a service-oriented business model that will meet

that demand, you must have consistent, centralized, proactive Project visibility.

The goal is to identify which resources are required, by time period into the future as far as

is reasonable, and then to schedule them as effectively as possible to ensure seamless coverage

across all project requirements.

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The challenge is moving beyond reactionary decision making by implementing and tracking

the right metrics to create better predictive models and allow yourself adequate time to make key

staffing decisions.

While there are certainly many more metrics you can implement, the following four metrics

alone can help you increase project visibility to support better strategic planning:

● Burn Rate - determines the rate at which hours (allocated to a project) are being used, to

identify when work is going out of scope, or when efficiencies are being lost.

● Earned Value - monitors the progress of a project in terms of integrated cost, schedule, and

technical performance measures.

● Budget vs. Actual – tracks hours billed against hours planned by phase throughout the

project lifecycle

● Utilization - measures the organization's ability to maximize its billable resources.

2. Know Your People

If Projects represent the demand side of equation, then your people represent the Supply

necessary and available to fulfill that demand.

But unless you know your resource capabilities, you can’t possibly begin to allocate them

efficiently or effectively. That means knowing your employees’ skill sets and availability.

Individual metrics such as efficiency and track record will also help you to assign the right

individuals the right tasks at the right time.Personal preferences, career goals, and utilization should

also be closely monitored to ensure that you’re not risking burn-out for your most valuable

resources. At the end of the day, everyone wants to work on “cool” projects – so you have to know

what “cool” means to each of your employees.

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Managers should take the time to find out what technologies people are interested in

learning, and include them in continuing education and development programs, to develop deeper

subject matter expertise, and build better morale and loyalty.

Here’s a basic list of information that managers should track for each employee:

● Current Skill Set

● Preferred Technologies

● Efficiency

● Travel Tolerance

● Utilization

● Development Path (new technologies and skill sets desired)

● Career Goals

3. Automate Manual Processes

Low employee productivity from repeated collection of data and recalculation of reports can

devastate organizational performance and bring down employee morale.

Using home-grown solutions, standalone spreadsheets, telephone conversations, and other

non- integrated methods to make staffing decisions means that key decisions are often based on

inaccurate, untimely information. Often, many critical inputs to staffing decisions are not captured

or are seriously out of date. For example, training and vacation schedules, performance reviews,

etc… may not be captured by these ad hoc solutions.

Without having adequate visibility into their resource pool, firms are unable to make

consistent, optimized business decisions. As a result, costly and time-consuming adjustments create

ill-will among staff; project managers miss deadlines due to personnel short-falls; clients find key

resources are unavailable; and ultimately, revenue, margin, and utilization all suffer.

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Firms must have a consistent, enterprise-level resource management system - usually as part

of a Professional Services Automation (PSA) solution. These technologies enable two groups of

benefits.

Some of the direct benefits include:

● better staff utilization

● increased capture of billable hours

● improved win/loss ratio

● improved margins

Indirect benefits often include:

● improved client satisfaction

● increased employee morale

● better coordination between offices/divisions/regions

Overall, the improvements garnered from a move to highly integrated resource management are

significant, economically attractive, and worthwhile. In fact, PSVillage’s Professional Services

Automation Survey recently showed average increases of 9.4% in utilization and 2.8% in Project

Profitability after deploying a PSA Solution.

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4. Know What's Coming

Once you understand your people and current projects, and you’ve leveraged technology to

eliminate the time and errors associated with manual data aggregation, it’s time to begin looking

forward, to ensure that you’re proactively planning and scheduling resources to map to the project

pipeline.

It’s not enough to simply staff to needs once a project is sold, as ramping new employees

can often take longer than the relatively short time between the close date and the project start date.

In order to ensure appropriate coverage, you should constantly be modeling your existing skill sets

against pipeline project requirements to identify any gaps, and begin on-boarding and ramping new

resources prior to closing key projects.

It’s also critical to aggregate the metrics you track for individual projects to gain better

overall visibility into your project portfolio performance. This will help you to identify any project

interdependencies or gaps, and prioritize new project opportunities accordingly.

Beyond individual project investment decisions, ongoing analysis of the project portfolio

allows you to monitor each investment’s relative contribution to business goals versus other

portfolio investments.

5. Keep Your People

A few years ago, minimizing bench time was one of the biggest challenges facing most

service providers. Today, however, Economic Growth coupled with a shortage of skilled labor have

made Employee Retention a mission critical priority for the Professional Services Organization.

Once you’ve invested the effort, time, and money to recruit, hire, and train top talent, the

last thing you want to do is lose them to a competitor because they feel undervalued, unhappy, or

overworked.

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Employee turnover can devastate profitability and productivity through lost knowledge and

the financial expense associated with filling the vacancy. Therefore, you must apply what you know

about your people to keep them happy and productive.

Pipeline projects are a great opportunity to fulfill employees’ desired development paths and

cultivate deeper subject matter expertise throughout your organization. This relieves the pressure on

individual SME’s that can lead to burnout, develops loyalty and morale among your employees, and

creates resource redundancies that can provide you much better flexibility for future scheduling

exercises.

Happy, motivated employees create happy customers, so many organizations are now

measuring employee satisfaction as well, and learning about potential morale issues before they

spiral out of control.

RESOURCE LOADING & LEVELING

WHAT IS RESOURCE LOADING?

While making a budget, we estimated “Cost & Quantity” of each resource. If we want to add

a room to our present setup in the university, we estimate how much money, men, materials and

machines would be required. We would further estimate cost of furniture and gadgets for the room

such as white-board, multimedia, clock, air-conditioners and tube- lights.

“Resource Loading” is assigning resources to activities. It is the same as budget but broken

down in terms of activities like (a) get approval of building extension, (b) lay foundations, (c) build

super-structure, (d) put on a roof, (e) plaster the walls and (g) complete finishing. The money, men,

materials and machines, as given in the budget, would be re-distributed in terms of activities.

To sum up, “Resource Loading” is the process of assigning resources for each and every activity

required for the project.

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WHAT IS RESOURCE LEVELING?

Resource leveling is a sort of adjustment. If resources are provided as per schedule, there

would be no need for resource leveling.

But when there is a mismatch between what is required and what is made available, we need

to give priority to some activities, postpone some activities or do the job in small lots. The ultimate

objective would be to complete the project within the same cost and time constraints. For this

purpose, we slip or split the activities within margin or slacks available.

Let us first take an example of Slipping as given below:

A question?

Just a cursory glance on the question would reveal that activity B has five days and needs two

workers each day. Before B finishes, C & D would also start and labor requirements would exceed

the availability. So we need some re-scheduling. Before, we can attempt it, we need to find out

which activities are critical and which are not.

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For this purpose, we would draw a Gantt Chart as follows:

We observe that B & E activities are on the critical path. Moving them would increase the

total duration beyond seven days. We mark them red. We can now insert labor and get the

following picture:

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It is evident that on third day, we would experience shortage of two workers while on the

last day, two workers would be surplus. If we can make necessary adjustment, we would level or

smooth out the excesses and shortages.

Obviously, activities B & E cannot be moved. Moving A would not solve the problem as its shift

would affect start of linked activities C & D. Even if there was no such linkage, moving A would

not make any difference. This leaves C & D. We can move C for two days as there is free float for

the same period. But it would result in increase of labor requirement for the subsequent period. So

moving D for one day is cure-all. The revised Gantt Chart would appear as follows:

\

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Challenges in Resource Optimization

We know what the goal is: optimizing resources. We have software tools to help achieve

this goal. Where’s the problem?

The reality is that there isn’t one problem: there are at least five. Traditional software

solutions cannot effectively address the following five challenges in resource optimization:

1. Turning a large volume of data into meaningful information, and then into effective decisions;

2. Ensuring software accuracy and solution relevance;

3. Increasing the speed of solution generation, togetherwith the power of the solution, while dealing

with operational complexity;

4. Providing decision support swiftly and flexibly during operations, with rapid reaction to

unplanned events and operational disruptions;

5. Flexibly and intelligently interacting with the user (atall levels of the organization) to leverage

their knowledge.

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The Quantity Challenge: Managing data volume

More operational data is available to management today than ever before. Through the use

of sophisticated applications for RFID, ERP, CRM, and supply-chain management, almost any fact

about some aspect of operations is instantly available.

At the same time, making good decisions about operational situations remains difcult. More

data or better information does not translate to better decisions:

knowing where every truck is at any point, or what every worker is doing when a new order

arrives, does not mean that we know how to act in a given situation. Making robust and reliable

business decisions requires more than just providing operational data and more than simply

providing relevant information. It also entails assisting in the actual decision-making process.

Often, this is far from

straightforward.

Frequently, organizations try to overcome this barrier to effective decision making by using

different types of tools for operations analytics. These include data mining and statistical pattern

recognition.

The real question, however, is what support can be given in the decision process itself?

What information can be presented to planners, managers, and operators so that better decisions will

result?

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The Relevancy Challenge: Balancing speed and solution usefulnessSoftware tools that are used to manage and optimize the use of resources need to employ

both a model of the situation, and a method to nd solutions. Modeling: Formalized problem solving

begins with creating a statement of the situation; that is, a model that de- nes the issue and relevant

parameters. This modeling process is necessary for virtually every situation, since the context will

be different for each one. A model can be expressed in a dedicated modeling language, or as a

computer program written in, for instance, C++ or Java.

Solving: The optimization task is resolved by processing the model using a computational

process called a “reasoning engine” or a “solver”. This software has, at its core, highly sophisticated

algorithms that are able to intelligently sort through data and analyze possible approaches to devise

a solution. Usually, the solver engines are embedded in software applications.

When modeling a complex real world situation, there will always be concessions in delity:

not all aspects of the situation can be incorporated into the model. What is included and what is

omitted may make a large difference in speed and solution relevance.

To illustrate this point further, consider some of the specialized techniques used today:

linear programming, integer programming, and matching. If the situation being modeled has

characteristics that are aligned with one of these techniques, then a solution can be created more

efciently. For instance, situations where all constraints are linear can be solved very efciently using

linear programming [Dantzig 1963].

Integer programming represents an important advance over linear programming in modeling

power2 , but is much less efcient. The consequence of the use of these traditional techniques is that

many situations that arise today are “shoe-horned” into models that are actually not an appropriate t.

For instance, there has been a tendency to model many real world problems as though they were

linear, even when they are not. What’s the result? Optimization or scheduling is possible (indeed,

it’s performed every day in countless enterprises in this way) but the results are questionable:

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The Complexity Challenge

More operational data is available to management today than ever before. At the same time,

making good decisions about operational situations remains problematic. Why is this? The problem

with dealing with complex business issues is not so much that there are many interconnected facts

and decision points. It’s really that the number of possible ways that they can be connected to build

a solution or make a reliable decision grows exponentially with small increases in the amount of

data.

Consider the situation when a company like UPS or United Airlines wants to model and

plan routes through its network. Even a modest number of different points in the network results in

a massive set of routing options: for example, 25 individual nodes lead to 1.625 alternatives!

Actenum Corporation tackled this issue when investigating methods of scheduling television

broadcasts of games in a major sporting league: the number of possible schedules for a single

season was calculated to be 10640.

This is what computer scientists call a combinatorial explosion, and it’s found even in

common amusements and games like tic-tac-toe, Rubik’s Cube, or chess. In 1950, for example,

Claude Shannon, a Bell Laboratories mathematician, calculated that the number of possible distinct

decision points in a chess game is around 10120. Some perspective can be gained on the magnitude

of that number by remembering that the estimated number of atoms in the

Universe is 1080. This phenomenon is pervasive in modern businesses. Most individuals

involved with resource allocation, scheduling, planning, routing, product conguration and

production, yield management, warehouse layout and management, and logistics face the issue

every day. Traditional “brute force” computer methods fail dismally when applied to such

situations.

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A computer exploring even a billion variations a second would take more than 10100 years

to analyze a chess game completely (the universe is thought to be 1010 years old)! It is clear that

when, for example, order volumes increase, using simple methods to plan production often results

in unreliable visibility over

production control, failure to meet promised delivery deadlines, and failure to predict shortfalls in

production resources. This situation is complicated further by the complexity and dynamism of the

production process itself.

The Reactivity Challenge: Managing changes on the day of operations

Effective management of an organization’s resources and assets is of vital importance.

Planning and scheduling is a critical part of this management activity, but existing technologies

used for this purpose are proactive, rather than reactive. They are used to create tomorrow’s or next

week’s schedules, but this is only half the story.

Almost without fail, unplanned events occur on the ‘day of operations’, and schedule

disruption becomes a major issue. The weather does not cooperate. People do not show up when

they are expected. A vital piece of equipment is not available. Customer requirements change.

These unplanned events occur everywhere a plan is taken into the operational environment,

whether in the airline industry,the processing industry, transportation, defense, or perishable

commodities. When things like this happen, even the most carefully-prepared schedules will drift

from their intended course, and often become useless.

Real scheduling problems are dynamic and must be resolved as the environment and/or

requirements change. Schedules often slip and must be rebuilt, on the fly, during execution.

Various ways are used to work around disruption, including inserting slack into schedules to make

it easier to update them. Such workarounds, however, are expensive and often do not work;

besides, they defeat the purpose behindcreating the schedule in the rst place.

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Time pressures areintense, and in many situations unplanned events cause cascading

problems which overwhelm manual ad hoc resolution efforts. Consider this real world situation that

Actenum recently encountered: at a major seaport’s pulp warehouse, three crews can unload

railroad cars while two other crews are loading a ship.

The load/unload process is carefully scheduled, since it is only practical when the pulp is

placed into bins in such a way that the crews do not interfere with each other. If a ship arrives

requesting a larger volume of a type of pulp than what was initially ordered (as happened recently)

the foreman has to manually determine the best way of fullling the changed order, using a

whiteboard with an architectural layout of the warehouse.

No automated support is available to accommodate the change request without creating a

future problem for the warehouse crews. (In the recent situation, after waiting for three hours while

the foreman tried to work out how best to fulll the changed order, the ship’s captain told him to

forget about

it.) In this situation, the foreman is asked to quickly solve a scheduling problem that appears to be

reasonably straightforward, but which, in reality, is very complex. The task becomes increasingly

difcult as more pressure is put on the person scheduling.

The Interactivity Challenge: Empowering the user

What are really needed today are optimization and scheduling systems that amplify the

ability of users to solve problems, instead of simply automating their responsibilities. Productivity

usually increases when employees are empowered rather than replaced by automation, yet

traditional scheduling systems either address user interaction or optimization, but not both. For most

scheduling issues, research has shown that the computer can perform some tasks better alone, while

some tasks require joint work, and some tasks are better performed by the human [Horvitz & Paek

1999].

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Computer systems that support this type of interaction are called ‘mixed initiative systems’.

This approach is also sometimes called a “two expert approach”. A classic example of a “one expert

approach” is the traditional Microsoft Project application. In this case the user is the expert. The

software provides a nice user interface and database, but does not assist users in making scheduling

decisions or helping them to nd better schedules. In contrast, mixed-initiative systems integrate

human and automated reasoning to take advantage of their respective reasoning styles and

computational strengths.

The benet of such systems is the potential to combine the resources available to both; the

challenge is to manage the interaction and responsibilities encountered in joint decision making.

But the approach leverages in-house expertise rather than replacing it, and provides better

scheduling and optimization solutions faster than either the human or the computer working alone.

Mixed-initiative solutions are especially critical in complex and dynamic scheduling, where the

combinatorial elementrenders the solution space inhumanly large.

A mixedinitiative scheduling system allows the user to interact atany point with the solution

while providing assistance to nd good, better and best value solutions. In this way, theuser’s own

domain knowledge is respected, while the automated agent relieves the user of the burden of

complexity.

The Importance of Managing Resources

Suppose you are a project manager, working sincerely and whole-heartedly for making the

project successful. After the completion of some necessary activities, e.g., project planning and

scheduling, your main focus will surely be to find out the resources that you will require for

carrying out the project activities properly.

Resources can be of different types, such as people, materials, equipment and other supplies.

For instance, in a software development project, you will need programmers, software engineers,

system analysts, office staffs, as well as a convenient office place, computers with high

configuration, internet facilities etc. The project manager must ensure about the availability of these

resources.

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In some cases, the project manager identifies that the project is heading in a wrong direction.

Deadline is approaching very fast, available budget is getting exhausted; however more than 50% of

project activities are still unfinished. In this moment of severity, the project manager has two

options; he has to make arrangements for the appropriate training for the team members to enhance

their capabilities, or he needs to hire skilled personnel. Promptness in decision making is largely

required in this case for the project manager.

Again, choosing right people for the right job is not a very simple task. The project manager

must have the capability to determine the appropriate skill level necessary for a particular activity in

the project, and also to match people to those skills. To hire the perfect staff, the project manager

should make sure to define the roles properly, arrange interview and test the candidates. He should

also be careful about the budget, because hiring skilled people may not always be achieved in a

cheaper way.

The project manager must guarantee that the team members are respected properly. Without

getting proper attention, admiration and respect, the team members in a project will not try to give

their 100%. Furthermore, the project manager will have to utilize his motivation skills properly. He

must encourage his team members to render their best effort, and remunerate them whenever they

do something special. He must also try to empower the team members and ensure their participation

in all sorts of decision-making process.

This will ultimately increase the overall productivity and the project will lead towards success.

Ensuring better workplace environment is another important thing that must be carefully

taken care of by the project manager. Experiments have suggested that people’s performance and

their job satisfaction are seriously affected by the room size, furniture, equipment, temperature and

humidity, brightness and quality of light, noise and most often the degree of privacy available.

If the project manager fails to ensure good working condition, it may become really costly

for the project. Staff turnover will increase, and more money should be spent on recruiting and

training of new staffs. There will be the possibility that the project will not be finished in time.

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The project manager must also ensure the optimal utilization of the available resources.

Sometimes it is seen that some members of the project team spend their official time sitting idly,

while other members work incessantly and find very little time to relax. The project manager has to

set the duties and responsibilities of every member of the team and continuously monitor them.

He must also ensure that all the members of the project team are 100% committed to achieve

the project goals and objectives.

The project manager should also be careful about utilizing non-human resources. He must

make sure about the regular supply of materials and equipment required for the project. He must

also confirm about the better quality of these resources, which is extremely necessary in a project.

The project manager has to communicate well with the project sponsor to make sure about the

availability of funds. The sponsor must be knowledgeable about all the potential obstacles, risks and

other necessary issues on an on-going basis. This will make sure about the availability of the

resources in a timely manner.

Lastly it can be mentioned that managing all sorts of resources in a proper manner is

absolutely necessary to ensure the overall success of the project. The project manager must give

appropriate attention in this regard.

Importance of Human Resource Management

An organisation cannot build a good team of working professionals without good Human

Resources. The key functions of the Human Resources Management (HRM) team include recruiting

people, training them, performance appraisals, motivating employees as well as workplace

communication, workplace safety, and much more. The beneficial effects of these functions are

discussed here:

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Recruitment and TrainingThis is one of the major responsibilities of the human resource team. The HR managers

come up with plans and strategies for hiring the right kind of people. They design the criteria which

is best suited for a specific job description. Their other tasks related to recruitment include

formulating the obligations of an employee and the scope of tasks assigned to him or her. Based on

these two factors, the contract of an employee with the company is prepared. When needed, they

also provide training to the employees according to the requirements of the organisation. Thus, the

staff members get the opportunity to sharpen their existing skills or develop specialised skills which

in turn, will help them to take up some new roles.

Performance Appraisals

HRM encourages the people working in an organisation, to work according to their potential

and gives them suggestions that can help them to bring about improvement in it. The team

communicates with the staff individually from time to time and provides all the necessary

information regarding their performances and also defines their respective roles. This is beneficial

as it enables them to form an outline of their anticipated goals in much clearer terms and thereby,

helps them execute the goals with best possible efforts. Performance appraisals, when taken on a

regular basis, motivate the employees.

Maintaining Work Atmosphere

This is a vital aspect of HRM because the performance of an individual in an organisation is

largely driven by the work atmosphere or work culture that prevails at the workplace. A good

working condition is one of the benefits that the employees can expect from an efficient human

resource team. A safe, clean and healthy environment can bring out the best in an employee. A

friendly atmosphere gives the staff members job satisfaction as well.

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Managing Disputes

In an organisation, there are several issues on which disputes may arise between the

employees and the employers. You can say conflicts are almost inevitable. In such a scenario, it is

the human resource department which acts as a consultant and mediator to sort out those issues in

an effective manner. They first hear the grievances of the employees. Then they come up with

suitable solutions to sort them out. In other words, they take timely action and prevent things from

going out of hands.

Developing Public Relations

The responsibility of establishing good public relations lies with the HRM to a great extent.

They organise business meetings, seminars and various official gatherings on behalf of the company

in order to build up relationships with other business sectors. Sometimes, the HR department plays

an active role in preparing the business and marketing plans for the organisation too.

Any organisation, without a proper setup for HRM is bound to suffer from serious problems while

managing its regular activities. For this reason, today, companies must put a lot of effort and energy

into setting up a strong and effective HRM.

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Significance of HRM can be discussed at four levels which are as follows:

1.Corporate Level

For an enterprise effective HRM leads to attainment of its goal efficiently and effectively.

HRM helps enterprise in the following ways.

a. Hiring required skill set and retaining them through effective human resource planning,

recruitment, selection, placement, orientation and promotion policies.

b. Development of employees by enhancing necessary skills and right attitude among employees

through training, development, performance appraisals etc.

c. HRM also takes care of optimum utilization of available human resource.

d. HRM also ensures that organization has a competent team and dedicated employees in future.

2.Significance at Professional Level

a. HRM also leads to improved quality of work life, it enables effective team work among

employees by providing healthy working environment. It also contributes to professional growth in

various ways such as

b. By providing opportunities for personal development of an employee

Enabling healthy relationships among teams and allocating work properly to employees as well as

teams.

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3.Significance at Social Level

a. HRM plays important role in the society, it helps labour to live with pride and dignity by

providing employment which in turn gives them social and psychological satisfaction.

b. HRM also maintains balance between open jobs and job seekers.

4. Significance at National Level

HRM plays a very significant role in the development of nation. Efficient and committed human

resource leads to effective exploitation and utilization of a nations natural, physical and financial

resources. Skilled and developed human resource ensures the development of that country. If people

are underdeveloped then that country will be underdeveloped. Effective HRM enhances economic

growth which in turn leads to higher standard of living and maximum employment.

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Importance of Natural Resources

Natural resources are naturally occurring substances that are considered valuable in their

relatively unmodified (natural) form. A commodity is generally considered a natural resource when

the primary activities associated with it are extraction and purification, as opposed to creation.

Thus, mining, petroleum extraction, fishing, and forestry are generally considered natural-resource

industries, while agriculture is not. The term was introduced to a broad audience by E.F.

Schumacher in his 1970s book Small Is Beautiful.

Natural resources are often classified into renewable and non-renewable resources.

Renewable resources are generally living resources (fish, coffee, and forests, for example), which

can restock (renew) themselves if they are not overharvested. Renewable resources can restock

themselves and be used indefinitely if they are used sustainably. Once renewable resources are

consumed at a rate that exceeds their natural rate of replacement, the standing stock will diminish

and eventually run out. The rate of sustainable use of a renewable resource is determined by the

replacement rate and amount of standing stock of that particular resource. Non-living renewable

natural resources include soil, as well as water, wind, tides and solar radiation — compare with

renewable energy.

Resources can also be classified on the basis of their origin as biotic and abiotic. Biotic

resources are derived from animals and plants (i.e-the livingworld). Abiotic resouces are derived

from the non-living world e.g. land, water, and air. Mineral and power resources are also abiotic

resources some are derived from nature.

Both extraction of the basic resource and refining it into a purer, directly usable form, (e.g.,

metals, refined oils) are generally considered natural-resource activities, even though the latter may

not necessarily occur near the former.

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Natural resources are natural capital converted to commodity inputs to infrastructural capital

processes. They include soil, timber, oil, minerals, and other goods taken more or less as they are

from the Earth.

A nation's natural resources often determine its wealth and status in the world economic

system, by determining its political influence. Developed nations are those which are less dependent

on natural resources for wealth, due to their greater reliance on infrastructural capital for

production. However, some see a resource curse whereby easily obtainable natural resources could

actually hurt the prospects of a national economy by fostering political corruption.

In recent years, the depletion of natural capital and attempts to move to sustainable

development have been a major focus of development agencies. This is of particular concern in

rainforest regions, which hold most of the Earth's natural biodiversity - irreplaceable genetic natural

capital. Conservation of natural resources is the major focus of Natural Capitalism,

environmentalism, the ecology movement, and Green Parties. Some view this depletion as a major

source of social unrest and conflicts in developing nations.

How to conserve Natural resources

Conservation of natural resources has become a major focus of a number of international

organizations and treaties.

A particular challenge is that some of the world's richest areas, in terms of biodiversity, lie in

developing countries, which must balance protection of their natural resources with the need to

clothe and feed their populations.

Many conservationists believe that better, long-term solutions, should help developing countries

protect wildlife and ecosystems in ways that benefit both human and non-human inhabitants, while

taking into consideration the limited resources available.

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Role of an Individual in Conservation of Natural Resources

'Environment protection' means limiting the impairment of environment and it includes

conservation of resources. It has three main objectives:

1. To prevent damage and discomfort

2. To improve productivity and pleasure and,

3. To maintain balance of the ecosystem.

These efforts will pay us back in terms of money, economy, productivity, social justice, clean

surroundings and sound health.

ConservationConservation is sustainable use of natural resources, such as soils, water plants, animals and

minerals. To conserve natural resources an individual can do these things.

1. Turn off the lights when you leave a room.

2. Replace energy-hungry incandescent lights with fluorescent lighting.

3. Check with your utility company for energy conservation tips.

4. Use a programmable thermostat that automatically turns off the air conditioner or heater when

you don't need them.

5. Use a fan instead of air-conditioning.

6. Choose recycled products.

7. Have your gas appliances and heaters regularly inspected and maintained.

8. Walk or use on a bike.

9. Be within the set speed limit.

10. Replace your car's air filter.

11. Ensure that the tires are adequately inflated.

12. Report smoking vehicles.

13. Improve the quality of landscapes, which includes soils, water, etc.

14. Maintain the production of 'clean' food.

15. Don't waste water.

16. Stop hunting and over-exploitatition, mainly for commercial and often illegal purposes.

17. Stop improper use of agro-chemicals, and reduce the pollution.

18. Plant trees. Stop illegal cutting of trees.

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Conclusion

More could be said about managing human effort, environmental resources, and financial

resources. This entry briefly touches the surface of a more than century-old discipline that affects

every aspect of daily life. What management does is provide a framework, a way of looking at

things that can be applied to a variety of situations. It is about life not just happening but happening

in an orderly way. Humans are constantly seeking answers, making plans, and pursuing goals that

bring desired results. Management provides insight into how this occurs.

It is both simple and complex. Each day presents new challenges, new questions about how

life should be and can be. Individuals are continually confronted with decisions to be made given

scarce resources. This entry has endeavored to show the basics of the discipline and its application

to everyday life. The greatest future challenge for the field will be the continued integration of

management with other theories to address socially relevant issues as life becomes more complex

and diverse.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

● http://www.humanresourceexcellence.com/importance-of-human-resource-

management/

● http://www.human-resources-health.com/content/4/1/20

● http://rashidfaridi.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/natural-resources-definition-and-

classification/

● http://www.managementstudyguide.com/human-resource-management.htm

● http://glossary.tenrox.com/Resource-Management.htm

● http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/resource-management.html

● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_(project_management)

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