Multi-Resource Scheduling: Strategies, Examples & Software

In larger companies that have a large pool of distributed resources and execute multiple projects simultaneously, scheduling resources without running into performance issues can be a struggle. A structured approach to multi-resource scheduling can turn operational chaos into predictability.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits and challenges of multi-resource scheduling and share a step-by-step process of implementing it.

Key takeaways:

• Multi-resource scheduling is a process of analyzing resource capacity and scheduling work based on the results of the analysis.
• It can reduce or eliminate bottlenecks, improve productivity, facilitate better decision making, and improve delivery performance
• The key to resolving challenges of multi-resource scheduling is using resource management software to improve visibility and resource forecasting.

What Is Multi-Project Resource Scheduling?

Resource scheduling in project management is the process of allocating resources to projects and tasks within a timeframe based on project needs and resource capacity. Multi-resource scheduling refers to the same process that involves assigning multiple resources to the same project or task.

This typically involves scheduling human resources — assigning multiple team members to a project or distributing their efforts between different projects. It also includes scheduling material resources — supplies, meeting rooms, or equipment usage time.

The goal of resource scheduling is to allocate resources in a way that:

• Does not overload or underload them.
• Matches their skillset.
• Ensures seamless execution flow.
• Allows for timely and on-budget project execution.

The multi-resource scheduling approach is resource-driven, meaning it considers resources to be the most important constraint to executing projects. This approach helps balance the load across the company resources and ensure optimal resource utilization and high productivity .

Multi-Resource Scheduling vs. Task-Driven Scheduling

We can understand the essence of multi-resource scheduling a bit better by comparing it to a traditional task-based scheduling approach. Here’s a quick comparison table.

	Traditional scheduling	Multi-resource scheduling
Focus	Task-driven	Resource-driven
Guiding principle	Task dependencies	Resource capacity
Planning	Prescriptive	Proactive conflict resolution

The main difference is in the core principle of multi-resource scheduling. It focuses on resource constraints, which leads it to analyze resource conflicts that may happen down the line and schedule resources in a way that avoids them.

The traditional planning approaches typically disregard importance of resource constraints, focusing instead primarily on dependency mapping and project critical chain. This results in planning that doesn’t consider resource availability as much and inevitably leads to creating bottlenecks that hurt productivity.

Why Multi-Resource Scheduling Is Critical in Modern Organizations

Scheduling multiple resources requires changing your approaches to analytics and planning methodology. Here is what you can expect to receive in return.

Resource utilization optimization

Correct resource scheduling allows the company to ensure resources to be used optimally, without either an underload or an overload. Overloaded resource pools will perform poorly, deliver projects slower, and possibly with a lower level of quality. Underload means the company is leaving money on the table by not assigning more work to the employees.

Proper scheduling promotes resource leveling, ensures neither of those scenarios happen and lets company resources perform at their optimal productivity, maximizing business value production.

Bottleneck reduction

Bottlenecks are resources that are overloaded with work due to assigning work without considering capacity constraints and perform work slower than expected as a result. A single bottleneck can interfere with all projects in the portfolio if its input is needed to execute other tasks and projects.

A proper approach to planning that takes resource capacity into account will prevent most bottlenecks from happening, as it will avoid spreading resources too thin across too many projects. This ensures that all activities are performed as planned.

Improved planning

Good planning decisions are based not on conjecture or subjective opinions but on data. Multi-resource scheduling involves using capacity planning tools for resource capacity analytics. With that understanding of the overall resource capacity and resource load at each point in time, project managers have more data to work with, and can make better scheduling decisions as a result.

Read more: How To Manage Multiple Projects: 10 Effective Tips

Enhanced employee engagement

Employees at companies facing constant resource overload are experiencing a lot of stress and burnout, which leads to disengagement or turnover. Disengaged employees don’t deliver high quality work, while replacing an employee can cost upwards of 20% of their annual salary, according to a Center for American Progress study [1].

Balancing the resource load with correct scheduling helps prevent those negative outcomes and boosts employee engagement.

Common Challenges in Multi-Resource Scheduling

Managing multiple resources in a dynamic environment is inherently difficult. Let’s take a closer look at the most common challenges of resource scheduling and ways of overcoming them.

Data quality issues

Resource scheduling depends on analytics, and it, in turn, depends on the quality of data being used. Using inaccurate or incomplete data will result in distorted insights and will prevent the management from making accurate scheduling decisions.

Typically, data-related issues take the form of:

• Inaccurate reporting of time spent on the project.
• Incomplete upload of project data.
• Lack of resource availability data.
• Not uploading some projects at all.
• Lack of data integration automation.

How to manage this challenge

To improve data quality issues, you will need to do several things.

• Create reporting standards for time tracking and ensure their company-wide usage.
• Do an audit on data sources and import project and resource data from all tools you’re using.
• Import data on all relevant projects.
• Automate data imports.

Complexity of the multi-project environment

The inherent complexity of managing multiple projects with interdependencies, different or changing requirements and overlapping due dates is another major challenge you’ll face when trying to schedule resources. Not only the complexity itself can make decision making harder, poor visibility into the projects you’re managing and available resources can increase the challenge.

How to manage this challenge

Since you can’t change the complexity of the multi-project environment, you will need to improve cross-project visibility to navigate it better. Use project dashboards and resource capacity analytics to get a better understanding of the projects you’re working with and capacity utilization.

Another option is using advanced analytical and resource scheduling tools that can automate parts of the process.

Reactive problem solving

A common issue that plagues poorly planned portfolios is the tendency to solve problems reactively instead of proactively. While reacting to problems as they arise and doing whatever it takes to solve them does work, it has multiple drawbacks. 

You will need to make quick decisions, often with little to no opportunity to analyze and find the most optimal solution. Reallocating resources at the last minute also creates an organizational chaos and the necessity for team members to switch tasks fast, which might not let them perform their best.

How to manage this challenge

Proactive problem solving is key to successful multi project scheduling. By analyzing the resource load and making forecasts prior to making scheduling decisions, sometimes months in advance, you can spot potential bottlenecks before they occur and plan the project timeline and resource decisions accordingly.

Resource conflicts

In portfolios that involve multiple shared resources, conflicts frequently arise when the same people, equipment, or teams are required in multiple places at the same time. This often results from over-allocation, parallel scheduling of dependent work, or competing project priorities. 

How to manage this challenge

Managing this challenge is one of the major tasks of multi-resource scheduling. It involves analyzing resource capacity and project demand to determine an optimal resource scheduling.

Instead of resolving conflicts after they appear, effective scheduling aims to:

• Detect overallocations early.
• Balance demand against available capacity.
• Adjust task sequencing across projects.
• Ensure critical resources are not overloaded.

Interproject dependencies

Another major challenge that resource scheduling aims to address is dependencies between projects. In multi-project environments, projects and tasks often depend on their predecessors to be completed, and this makes prioritizing tasks more complicated.

How to manage this challenge

To overcome this challenge, map out dependencies between projects and task on a Gantt chart and consult it when scheduling resources.

Stakeholder resistance to changes

Finally, there’s stakeholder resistance. You typically can run into it in larger organizations with a lot of stakeholders in each project, who may have different views on project priority. They might oppose scheduling decisions dictated by data due to their preconceptions.

How to manage this challenge

There’s no simple answer for promoting stakeholder engagement. Facing this challenge will require a combination of data analytics that can be presented to the stakeholders and people skills.

5 Proven Strategies for Effective Multi-Resource Scheduling

Scheduling multiple resources that may be scattered across different locations requires a sophisticated approach. Here are four main strategies that you’ll need to use.

Task and project prioritization

Since each company has a limited pool of resources and hopefully a decent number of projects to choose from, it’s unrealistic to expect that all projects can get done at once. Some should be postponed and some should be done right away. Figuring out which ones should be focused on can only be done through prioritization.

In terms of project prioritization, you need to focus on the value they bring to the company. Typically, this is done through a scoring system that takes into account the expected financial impact, alignment with strategic goals, and risk level.This process allows project managers to understand which projects should be given resources first, allowing them to align efforts with company-wide goals.

In terms of task prioritization, you should primarily focus on dependencies between tasks and resource availability. Tasks that are critical for the later stages of the project should take precedence, but some scheduling decisions can override that in case key resources are involved in more projects than one.

A common practice is reducing the amount of work in progress. This eliminates the need for multitasking and improves productivity.

Skill-based resource scheduling

Another important strategy in resource management is scheduling resources based on their skillset and level of skill. Typically, most managers strive to do that, but with reactive problem-solving it can be difficult, as often you need to assign the person who is currently free, not the best person for the job.

Matching talent with appropriate tasks helps improve productivity and employee engagement. If given tasks above their skill level, resources will become overwhelmed and might produce lower quality work or execute the task with a significant delay. Assigning entry-level tasks to senior employees will soon lead to disengagement.

The best resource scheduling decisions either match the current level of the resource or try to match the intersection between their current level and their professional ambition. To understand which is best for each person on the team, you’ll need to conduct a series of interviews with them to gauge their preferences.

Another important aspect is developing a standardized approach to measuring resource skill levels and skill requirements of projects and tasks. Without the measurement, data on resource skills will be subjective and might not result in effective scheduling decisions.

Simulating future scenarios

It might be difficult to see clearly how assigning multiple different resources to one project can affect all the other projects in your portfolio because of interdependencies. The best way of resolving that is running what-if scenario simulations.  They allow managers to assess different allocation decisions, evaluate risks, predict and resolve bottlenecks, and make more informed scheduling decisions. 

Apply resource optimization techniques

Another important multi-resource scheduling strategy is applying resource optimization techniques to your portfolio. Applying resource leveling allows for prioritizing limited resources and adjusting project schedules in a way that avoids resource overload. Applying resource smoothing does the opposite and prioritizes a fixed project deadline, allocating resources accordingly.

Use either of them depending on the current challenge in the portfolio.

Using analytical tools

Finally, the most advanced strategy of multi-resource scheduling is using resource management tools to analyze and balance the resource workload schedule resources properly. Many such tools allow for visualizing the entire resource pool, allocating resources to the right projects and tasks, analyzing workload across the projects you’re managing to find bottlenecks and eliminate them. Some also offer automatic AI-driven scheduling features.

Simplifying Multi-Resource Scheduling with Epicflow

Multi-resource scheduling is made much easier with the use of specialized tools. Let’s explore how this process looks like with Epicflow, a resource management tool that is specifically designed for multi-project and multi-resource environments.

• Use the historical load graph to analyze current load and identify potential bottlenecks that need to be resolved.
• Use the future load graph to analyze resource utilization in the future based on the planned projects and detect future overload.
• Use predictive analytics to view how cross-project performance changes with adjustments in resource allocation or project rescheduling.
• Use Epicflow portfolio optimizer to create a feasible portfolio environment that supports more efficient resource allocation and scheduling across projects.

Book a call with our team to learn more about using Epicflow in multi-resource scheduling applications.

Conclusion

Multi-resource scheduling is a complex process that is necessary for ensuring smooth execution across multiple projects. If done right, it can reduce resource bottlenecks, optimize resource utilization, and improve overall productivity.

To successfully schedule multiple resources across projects you manage, focus on allocating them based on capacity, availability, and skill levels. Using resource management tools is crucial for understanding real resource capacity and making the right scheduling decisions.

References

1. Boushey H., Glynn S. J., Center for American Progress | There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees, November 16, 2012

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