Question

What are the common heuristics that can be used to schedule resources in a multi-project environment?

Answer 1

The problems that arise when planning projects or resources differ slightly depending on a couple of factors. For example if a company is executing a single project a time they probably wont experience the same problems as a company executing multiple projects at the same time. If the projects also share resources among each other even more problems arise. In the studied case at Sanmina in Örnsköldsvik multiple projects are executed at the same time with varying length and size which also share resources among each other. In a study by Engwall and Jerbrant they identify a couple of mechanisms related to the resource allocation problem in a multi-project organization that are closely related to this particular case. They studied two empirical cases and in both of them the organizations had a centralized resource planning system which allocated resources to projects based on time schedules. The problem here was that there was almost always some project that lagged behind the schedule and hence it made the schedule created by the system impossible to use. 8 3.3. Resource planning in a multi-project organization Over commitment means that there are not enough resources within the company to match the amount of resources needed by projects. This is a common problem since companies most often do not want to turn down projects since they will then loose an opportunity to make more money, especially if a company is executing projects for external customers and are competing against other companies to land a contract. One of the selling points are often to promise a short deadline. Spühler and Biagini puts it very accurate as "there is hardly a company to be found which does not launch more projects than it can master with available resources". For this study an additional factor was believed to influence the amount of perceived project overload called overview. This factor reflects slightly different issues depending of the role of a person. For a resource working in many projects at the same time it is thought to be important that it is easy for that person to get a good overview of what needs to be done and how much time it is supposed to take. If this is not possible it will increase the amount of project overload. For a project leader it is important to be able to get a overview over what everyone in his or hers projects are doing at the moment or for example if anyone is behind their schedule. If this is not possible the project leader can feel in loss of control and thus the amount of project overload will increase.