Just as there is no one-size-fits-all model for ensuring your company is profitable and meets its goals, there is no project management methodology that fits for every organization. Whether your business operates solely by the waterfall method, has invested heavily in a switch to Agile, or is using a hybrid approach, what matters most is that the method helps your organization succeed. As organizations across all industries explore what project management methodology will best help them achieve their strategic goals and complete work efficiently and effectively, the ability to accurately forecast, plan, and track resources – including named resources, skills, roles, and team-based resources – becomes a cornerstone of successful operational and strategic outcomes. In the Project Management Institute’s annual Pulse of the Profession® 2024 report, they found that the use of hybrid approaches has increased from 20% in 2020 to 31% in 2023. Resource management plays a critical role in enabling companies to thrive in complex, multi-methodology environments. It’s important to integrate resource planning into near, mid, and long-term strategies.
Forecasting Resources for Near, Mid, and Long-Term Success
For large and complex organizations with portfolios that use both Agile and traditional project management methodologies, strategic resource forecasting is essential to maintain operational flexibility while ensuring that critical projects are staffed with the right talent at the right time.
Near-Term Planning: In the near term, accurate forecasting helps ensure that immediate project needs are met without overextending key resources or causing bottlenecks. As organizations increasingly adopt mixed-method planning, short-term sprints and long-term projects require the accurate allocation of both named and team resources for success. Being able to predict and allocate resources effectively helps prevent overallocation, burnout, and project delays. Read here to learn more about understanding resource utilization and how to optimize your business for resource utilization.
Mid-Term Planning: Mid-term planning, typically spanning several quarters, requires companies to assess evolving business needs, emerging skills gaps, and upcoming projects. Organizations often face a mix of changes in priority, technological upgrades, and customer-driven product launches. Robust resource forecasting allows organizations to anticipate the required teams, people, skills, and roles, helping to build flexible, cross-functional teams that can handle diverse projects across various methodologies. Read here to learn about how to leverage skills in your resource planning.
Long-Term Planning: Long-term forecasting is vital for aligning resource capabilities with your organization’s strategic vision. Agile transformations, for example, represent significant long-term investments requiring dedicated teams, leadership buy-in, and alignment with corporate strategy. On the other hand, if your organization is more structured for a waterfall method, you need to take advantage of strategic portfolio management to ensure all parts of the project are properly planned and all scenarios are considered that may impact the work delivery. Tracking named resources, team composition, and evolving skills over the long term allows organizations to make informed decisions about hiring, reskilling, and team capacity, ensuring that resource planning aligns with growth and transformation objectives.
Role of Resource Management in Agile
As organizations invest in building Agile planning, resource management becomes pivotal to ensure that Agile teams are effectively structured and supported. Agile methodologies depend on iterative development, rapid decision-making, and the ability to pivot in response to changes. Without robust resource planning, organizations risk inefficient team deployment, skill shortages, and missed strategic opportunities.
Named Resources and Team Resources: In a multi-methodology environment, it’s essential to manage both individual (named) resources and team-based resources. While Agile focuses heavily on cross-functional teams, traditional project management may rely more on individual accountability and specialized roles. A well-integrated resource management system ensures that named resources with specific skills can be dynamically allocated to Agile teams or traditional projects as needed, while maintaining balance and avoiding resource conflicts across different project types. Tempus Resource enables Resource Managers and Agile team leaders to plan resources how they plan their projects with a Team Resource, an assignable team made up of individual people and their quantifiable inclusion on the team.
Skills and Roles: In Agile environments, skill sets must be continuously tracked and updated. For example, a financial services organization requires teams with expertise in data analysis, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and AI. Tracking individual and team-level competencies helps firms ensure that Agile teams are well-rounded, capable, and able to adapt to changing project needs.
Having visibility into the skills matrix also enables organizations to identify gaps and invest in targeted reskilling programs, ensuring that the workforce is future-ready. This is important in many industries where skillsets evolve quickly in response to regulatory shifts or technological advancements.
Tracking and Planning Team Resources in a Multi-Methodology Environment
As organizations operate with a blend of Agile, waterfall, and hybrid methodologies, the ability to track and plan team resources becomes critical. Teams must not only be flexible but also well-suited to the specific demands of each project or initiative, whether it’s a fast-moving Agile sprint or a long-term project, with complex stages and tasks, using traditional methods.
Team Composition and Dynamics: In an Agile environment, the focus on cross-functional teams makes it essential to plan for team dynamics and structure. Tracking the roles, skills, and performance of individual team members enables leaders to create optimal team compositions that foster collaboration and innovation. Furthermore, the ability to quickly shift resources between teams allows organizations to maintain agility and responsiveness, even when facing tight deadlines or resource constraints. However, in hybrid methodology organizations, the ability to forecast and allocate both the individual person and the team they are on is crucial for getting the full picture of availability, utilization, and resource risks.
Scenario Planning for Multi-Methodology Workflows: The scenario planning and modeling capabilities in Tempus Resource offer organizations the ability to visualize the impact of resource allocation decisions across different project types and timelines. By simulating different workforce scenarios — such as adding or losing team members, changes in project timelines, or shifting requirements — resource managers can adjust resources dynamically. This capability is especially valuable in a multi-methodology environment, where resource demands fluctuate depending on the nature of the project, shifting deadlines, changing of priorities, or market opportunities.
Learn more about how resource planning can create business agility in this webinar. For more information about how Tempus Resource can help your organization make the Agile transformation or manage teams in a variety of environments, check out our demos.
