From Profit Killer To Consultant Burn Out (And The Good Bit In The Middle)
Allocate resources against the programme and the budget
Setting up and maintaining project plans is seen by many consultancies as a difficult and time consuming process.
Therefore, any tools used for project and resource planning needs to make the process for setting up projects, simple, intuitive and quick.
Ideally, templates should be available to automate the majority of project set up work. Generic templates are ideal where you have defined structures for the delivery of different types of projects. Being able to use past projects as templates allows you to set up new projects with the correct structure and accurate resource and cost allocation, based on the reality of actual delivery performance.
With the project plan structure in place, resources can now be allocated to the project tasks.
When the estimated resources are allocated into the project tasks, do their costs fall within the project budget? Is the resource allocation being driven by the budget or the effort required to achieve the project deliverables? Are they based on actual past performance or merely supposition and gut feel?
An integrated system, that brings together historical analysis, bid estimating, project planning and resource costs will allow you to assess the project budget from all directions, ensuring that realistic resourcing and profit targets are set from the outset.
