Sources of Resource Risk

Accurate and clear definition of a project is essential to ensure its success. Accuracy in project budgeting, achievable project schedule and the ultimate realization of the initially planned or set project outcome are the three main determinant factors for a project success and they all go hand in hand.

The more the target of the project is clear, coupled with accurate budget and time schedule, the more effective the project objectives are going to be achieved. In addition, for project objectives to be achieved, identifying and managing project risks plays a pivotal role.

We have risks identified prior to the start of the project and the risks identified when the project is on progress, which are all important. Identifying the sources of resource risk is therefore very important process in defining a project for ensuring success of the project. There are several sources of resource risk, which need to be identified by the team leader as well as other colleagues in the project in order to ensure the project runs efficiently to achieve its goals.

Lack of enough project funds is one source of risk resource. If the funds allocated for accomplish the mission of the project are not enough, the project will not be able to accomplish its objectives. Funds can affect the project in a way that the employees could not be compensated for their work, a factor which can result to them losing their job morale or even driving them out of the project and this can result to loss of the initial money invested for the project.

Take for example a marketing project aimed at promoting a certain product; insufficient funds would limit the money needed for training the staff as well as travelling for the good of the project in order to achieve better results.

This can risk the project from achieving its objectives and goals or even failure of the whole project. Therefore, proper planning and acquisition of enough funds would ensure that there is enough money to meet all the projects requirements such as purchasing equipment, required for the project. This would ensure the ultimate success of the project.

Outsourcing delays is another source of resource risk. Delay of resources in the project can be a risk in achieving the goals of the projects within the predetermined or set schedule. Furthermore, lack of monitoring the subcontractors of the project can lead to delays in the progress of the project.

In addition, failure to avail the required knowledge at the right time may lead to delay or failure of the project as well as the project being unable to achieve its objectives. For instance, information technology projects in organizations would be easily and effectively completed through outsourcing. High quality products such as software would be acquired in a cost effective manner to complete the project successfully.

Furthermore, scarcity of the necessary skills in the project can be termed as another source of resource risk. This is because it can result to the project being performed poorly and thus the objectives and goals of the project will not be achieved.

In addition, scarcity of the necessary skills for the project may result to the project delaying its progress, which can result to the project being given to other group or people who can complete it in the right time. This can further result to the project losing its initial funds invested which can be a loss. Scarcity of skills can as well result to poor results of the project which can be termed as failure for the whole project.

People joining the project team late can be another source of resource risk. This is because they may be unfamiliar with the progress of the project and thus make the project to have slow progress. People joining project team late may need to be trained in order to catch up with the rest of the team and this will need additional costs for the project and this may cause the project to run short of the funds allocated which can lead to failure of the project.

Furthermore, new people joining the other team may be a cause of conflicts to the team, a factor which can result to lack of cooperation between the team members and thus making the team difficult to achieve its goals. This is common in projects that require group members to reach a common ground.

Resources attrition is another source of resource risk. This is because when resources wear out loses the money value and can even result to the project failing. In addition, when the resources to be used in the project wear out, it can lead to the project being partially done and result to having no money of completing the project. This can risk the life of the project as well as result to failure of the whole project, which can be a total loss the project may fail without achieving its objectives.

Resource attrition can as well result to lack of funds to continue funding the staff as well as purchasing the equipments necessary in completing the project and thus can result to delay of the project since it is very hard to complete the project with out enough resources.

In conclusion, resource risk can result to failure of the whole project if it is not well identified and planned by the people who are responsible such as the team leader and other senior personnel’s in the project. It can also lead to delay of the project and as well as resulting to the project achieving poor results which may not be necessary. In order for the project to do better, and achieve its objectives and goals, there is need to eliminate the resource risk.