Resource Planning in Agile: Giving the Power to the Teams

Ryan Bilodeau

Mar 18, 2024

Introduction

As well all know, resource management is core to the success of any project. For many, it's the first part of project management where managers actually get close to work on the project itself and not just all the important prep stuff that happens before execution- after all, resource management is where the heavy lifting of who does what with what comes into play, and at that phase your team is so close to actually starting to roll up their sleeves and write code that they can almost taste it.

The Agile Factor

Well, all that's good and well, but Agile throws some of the practices in traditional project management up in the air, as we all know by now. Surely resource management is one of them, and if you're familiar with resource management at all, you're probably already thinking about a couple of issues that an Agile-based project could run into when trying to handle it.

After all, waterfall resource management is pretty cut-and-dry. You take your resources, and you manage them. Or to be more specific, you determine who on your teams does whichever assignments and components of the project, determine when they need to do them, and determine what other resources they'll need and have while working on them. Pretty straightforward. Agile just makes it all so much more complicated!

Or does it?

An Agile Perspective

Agile sees a fundamental weakness in the traditional waterfall method. And what you'll come to see is that the very things that at first appear to be flaws in the Agile workflow are quite literally solutions to those very issues.

Waterfall planning is brittle. If something breaks early down the line, everything else is immediately effected.
Needs and requirements change fast, so there's no way to be sure your planning is even going to be relevant by the time your team starts work on any part of your project.
Things come up on the side. People might be working on multiple projects, sharing resources, and other ordinary business-as-usual activities still need to be addressed during work on the project your team is focusing on.

And of course, most simply, if you're already using Agile for your project, you're going to have to figure out how to do your resource management in Agile anyway, whether you like it or not.

Agile Resource Management Methodologies

So how do we do it? There's several methods that can help.

Resource Capacity Projections

Well, with all things Agile, the Team is the big unit in management. While long term forecasts can still be made with Agile in regards to projected resource needs, in the short term it's all based on Teams, especially the capacity of the team. The resource capacity, roughly speaking, is the amount of time spent actually working that your particular team has. That means without breaks, vacations, etc.

Kelloo. (n.d.). Agile Resource Planning: The Definitive Guide. Kelloo. https://www.kelloo.com/blog/agile-resource-planning/

A bit of guesswork can get you a general estimation for capacity, and thankfully it's easy to figure out how much capacity any particular Agile sprint is going to require, since sprints are typically set to a fixed schedule, like a couple of weeks. If you thought this sort of planning resembled waterfall methods, you'd be absolutely correct: The key difference here is the units and scale of these projections. Your goal is to figure out how much work needs to be done and how much work can be done, while keeping in mind that the first is likely to change a lot.

Minimize Changing Team Lineups

Things change. Plans change. It's a fact of life. But wherever you can, try to keep your team's lineup from changing too much. Agile thrives off of simple planning, and cooperative, well-oiled team performance. Switching team members around frequently messes with both projected work potential and the cohesion of the team itself.

Let Your Teams Sort It Out

It may sound contradictory to a position as a resource manager, but less planning is key. Or rather, less planning done by yourself. Your teams are your most important asset in project management, so let them do what they do best. If you're a good project manager, you've already taken the time and effort to pick the best people for the job- they know what they need! So give to power to the people and let them figure it out. They'll be more responsible and more motivated to get work done.

Difficulties in Agile Resource Management

Of course, while Agile is a very helpful tool for you and your team, it's certainly no cure-all for the ails of project management. The fact is no different for resource management either. You'll find that resource management still faces many of the same difficulties in Agile as it does in a waterfall format, although the scope of some of them may have changed.

The following are some examples of these potential difficulties.

Conflicting resource needs: It's always been a possibility for multiple resources to be needed at once, particularly if the resource in question is a person and your teams are working on multiple projects at once. But with Agile it can be even harder to predict since the nature of sprints means that your teams may not know who or what they need until they're moments away from starting work.
Burnout: Agile thrives on teams that are well, agile. Being able to quickly adapt to changing circumstances is a key ability for Agile teams. But the trouble is, there's only so much your teams can do- they're still just people, after all. And Agile teams have a lot of responsibilities beyond just writing your software. Constantly changing requirements means potentially volatile resources, and that means a lot of pressure on your teams.
Lack of Awareness of Resources: This isn't something a lot of project managers are always aware of, but it's a real trouble nonetheless. In Agile, it's best practice for you to let teams handle their own resource management once you've got the big picture projections taken care of. But your teams may not always be fully aware of what resources are actually available to them. This could lead to under-performing teams, and it's the resource manager's responsibility to keep in touch and make sure that your teams know what's available to them.

Conclusion

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Hopefully, this helped clear things up in regards to Agile resource management, its tips and tricks, complications, and more. With any luck, you're a bit further on your way to Agile mastery!

References