How Pie Charts, Mr. Spock and the Big Picture Can Optimize Your Projects

By Executive Brief Staff

What’s the best way to allocate resources across projects? How can you ensure you stay on budget and meet established deadlines? Read up on the latest tools designed to make your job easier!

Some days IT executives earn their salaries and then some: multiple deadlines for simultaneous projects, staff with different skills, competing schedules and priorities, and multiple unforeseen variables.

The question each day is which project gets which resources to make sure all projects get completed on time and within budget.

The challenge of maximizing resource allocation is often the most daunting task that executives face. If you don’t staff and equip projects appropriately, the odds of completing them on-time and within budget are low, leading to reduced profitability and potential customer dissatisfaction. That is why some companies and researchers have dedicated themselves to finding solutions specifically geared to putting people, time and energy in the right place.

While resource allocation can be challenging, there are a few key elements of project management managers can focus on to make resource allocation in software development and implementation run smoothly and effectively:

• Highly organized information available at a glance;
• The use of scientific research data to guide decision-making;
• Awareness of the broad context surrounding the project.

Simple Graphics Create Easy Way to Read Information to Make Complex Decisions

“I think the challenge is ‘How do you create research allocation solutions that are very powerful but very simple on the front end,” said Rodney Brim, CEO of California-based Performance Solutions Technology.

Brim’s company markets ManagePro, a software program designed to make life easier for those charged with estimating and overseeing project completion.

The program provides detailed information regarding who’s assigned to what, and when, but with as much emphasis on convenience as possible, going so far as to function side-by-side with Microsoft Outlook e-mail.

“Our experience is even though you can do all the complex stuff with calculations, most people want something simpler,” he said. “There’s nothing quite like a very simple graphic.”

Brim tailors the design of the ManagePro interface to provide information that’s pertinent, compartmentalized and readable at a glance, with color-coded graphics and pop-up info boxes.