![\"Project](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Project-resources-cover-1024x512.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nWhat are project resources and why are they important?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Project resources include any materials, people, finances, or time necessary to complete your project deliverables<\/a>, and subsequently, the project itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Poor resource management<\/a> can cause severe delays, a decrease in project quality, and frustration for both you and your project team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is because every resource can turn out to be crucial for your project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, your office has a printer. You\u2019ve noticed that recently, your team has been getting held up in the line to use the printer. You decide to get another printer, but, when you call the vendor, you find out they are going under and don\u2019t have any printers in stock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You decide to find a new vendor. It takes more time than you\u2019d think since you want to check out all options and find the best one. This process takes days. The printer line never goes away. The team\u2019s results are dropping. Dissatisfaction is rising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But, you could have avoided this issue altogether. If you\u2019d analyzed your resources beforehand, you would have known how many printers you require for this project. Or better yet, you\u2019d organize shifts or task execution times so that printer use overlaps as little as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This issue and many similar ones are the reasons resources and resource awareness are the keys to your project\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udca1 Plaky Pro Tip <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One way of ensuring your resources match the project’s demand is to master capacity planning. Learn more about capacity planning and the strategies you can use in this post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A common distinction made in project management<\/a> is between tangible and intangible resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In essence, tangible resources <\/strong>include all resources that can be physically represented or measured in numbers. They have a physical presence and are easy to discern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tangible resources can be further divided into: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Current resources are generally spent within a year or two and have high liquidity, meaning they can easily be converted into cash. This includes materials, investments, and any money you have directed toward the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fixed resources include anything that will likely be used for more than a year or two. Those are land, buildings, premises, machinery, or equipment like vehicles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Intangible resources<\/strong>, on the other hand, can\u2019t be represented physically, and their benefit to the project can\u2019t be represented as a specific value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As with tangible resources, we separate intangible resources into two categories: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Definite resources have an \u201cexpiration date\u201d. More precisely, while you can\u2019t measure the exact benefit they bring to the project, you do know the exact date they will stop benefitting the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a contract allowing you to use public premises for filming videos for your project has an exact date when it stops being valid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some more intangible resources that are considered definite include copyrights, patents, leases, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indefinite resources exist and bring benefits for the duration of the whole project. For example, your project might have a brand name, which exists as long as the project does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other examples of indefinite intangible resources are intellectual property, goodwill of customers and employees, research findings, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Human resources also fit into the category of intangible resources<\/a>, while they are, on rare occasions, also mentioned as tangible resources. But why do we consider them intangible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you hire a team member for your project, you do it because of their skills and expertise. Knowledge is something that cannot be measured in numbers and it\u2019s not physical, therefore, it is intangible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udca1 Plaky Pro Tip <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn how to perform effective resource allocation in the guide below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n Streamline your business \u2014 improve planning, align teams, and finish all your tasks with Plaky.<\/p>\n\n Project resources come in many different forms. Some of these you can probably guess \u2014 like the project team or the tools they need \u2014 but others may not immediately spring to mind like these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, apart from the tangible-intangible categorization, people often divide project resources into 4 types<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll look at each in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first type we will talk about is human resources. And for a good reason \u2014 your workforce is an essential part of your organization, so you must pay close attention to how you handle them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This resource type includes all people involved in the project, such as: <\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s best to find a systematic way of tracking the people involved in the project. You can do this through PM software such as Plaky<\/a>, which allows you to assign tasks to team members and always see who’s working on what.<\/p>\n\n\n After assigning tasks to team members, you can use the filter Plaky feature<\/a> to see what tasks a specific team member is working on.<\/p>\n\n\n And lastly, you can also give external stakeholders guest access to your Plaky project board, keeping everyone relevant to the project updated on its progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udca1 Plaky Pro Tip <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re looking for better ways to manage human resources, check out these blog posts:<\/p>\n\n\n\n In essence, financial resources are all monetary funds you require and can acquire for the benefit of your project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We can make out some subtypes of financial resources as well, such as: <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can use a PM tool to track finances as well, i.e. by tracking the cost of each individual task in the project.<\/p>\n\n\n \ud83d\udca1 Plaky Pro Tip <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to improve your financial management, check out this guide on project accounting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Material resources are, in simple terms, anything your organization owns that will be used for the benefit of the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This can range from the building your team works in to the pen you use to write down ideas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We can categorize material resources into:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, you can use PM software<\/a> to track material resources as well. For example, in the bakery example, you can make a field that tracks the machines required for each task. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This can help you determine the schedule that ensures the tasks that require the same machinery don\u2019t overlap and reduce idle time.<\/p>\n\n\n As we\u2019ve mentioned, anything that your project\u2019s completion depends on can be considered a resource \u2014 and the time it takes to finish it is no different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best way to understand and analyze time as your project resource is to break it down. Instead of looking at it as one chunk of time allotted to the entire project, see how the time allotted to different project phases<\/a>, deliverables, and tasks comprise this chunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, keep in mind that the time it takes to complete a task depends on other resources available to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example \u2014 going back to our bakery example \u2014 the time it takes to create 100 baked goods is significantly reduced if you double the workforce. That reduction, however, has a limit, depending on your other resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Say each worker has to wait for the dough to be prepared in a dough-mixing machine \u2014 the increase in your workforce will not result in better productivity if your employees need to wait in line to use the dough machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And vice versa, increasing the number of machines will have no effect without the increase in the workforce since no one will be using the extra machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Time tracking is a great way of finding out how much time tasks tend to take to complete. Tracking gives you valuable insight for future planning of these tasks, as you\u2019ll be more precise in determining how much time they should take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this, Plaky has an integration with Clockify<\/a> \u2014 the most popular time-tracking tool on the market \u2014 that allows you to track time spent on each Plaky task, giving you access to that much-needed information.<\/p>\n\n\n \ud83d\udca1 Plaky Pro Tip <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019d like to improve your project time management, take a look at this guide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, now we know what project resources are, but how do we know which ones we will need for our project? Here are some tips on finding out which resources your project requires:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udca1 Plaky Pro Tip<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Managing project resources can be tricky \u2014 but we\u2019ve prepared a bunch of free resource planning templates to help you get organized:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n Take control of your team's workload and achieve better project results with Plaky.<\/p>\n\n Anyone can loosely determine what resources their project will need. However, not planning in advance and in detail might lead to falling behind schedule, confusion, and general dissatisfaction with the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Minute improvements in resource organization often mean great improvements for the project. Because of this, you\u2019ll want to practice your resource management as soon as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Always make sure to analyze your resource needs thoroughly, even before the beginning of your project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get started with Plaky<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n \ud83d\udcd6 Knowing how to manage project resources is a critical part of project management. But, doing so requires mastery over many other, interconnected aspects of a project first. To learn more about project management and all the terminology needed to master the craft, visit our Project Management Glossary of Terms<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Project resources are any materials, people, finances, and time your project needs to be completed.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":7292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basic-terminology","category-project-management"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11606,"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions\/11606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Tangible vs intangible project resources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Tangible project resources<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Intangible project resources<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Free project management software<\/h2>\n
![\"Illustration\"](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/wp-content\/themes\/cake-learn\/src\/images\/plaky\/banners\/default@2x.png)
\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat are the 4 types of project resources?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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#1 Human resources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Assigning](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Assigning-tasks-to-people-in-Plaky.png\")
![\"Filter](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Filter-feature-in-Plaky-1.png\")
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#2 Financial resources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Tracking](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Tracking-project-budget-in-Plaky.png\"){kind=tracking}
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#3 Material resources<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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![\"Tracking](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Tracking-resources-for-tasks-in-Plaky.png\"){kind=tracking}
#4 Time as a resource<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Time](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Time-tracking-with-Clockify-in-Plaky.png\"){kind=tracking}
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How to identify project resources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Free project management software<\/h2>\n
![\"Illustration\"](\"https:\/\/plaky.com\/learn\/wp-content\/themes\/cake-learn\/src\/images\/plaky\/banners\/landing-1@2x.png)
\n <\/picture>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n\n\n\nProject resources are crucial for the success of your project<\/h2>\n\n\n\n