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Resource planning is an important task that every manager must go through to effectively analyze the parameters of a project. Project managers are tasked with developing an efficient plan that details what resources will be used and the associated cost for producing the end product or service.

To gauge the resources and cost needed for an endeavor, project managers need to incorporate knowledge from a experts in their fields and lessons learned to determine what is necessary for successful completion. This discussion board will describe the items that are included in estimating activity cost, the resources that will be used in the Veterans Respite Care project, and address resource-limited scheduling.

The estimating of activity cost begins with understanding the activities of a project. Once the specific activities are defined during the planning phase, the project manager can estimate the resources, durations, and cost for each specific activity (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). Resources can include people, materials, equipment, facilities needed to perform activities as planned within a project (Larson & Gray, 2011).

The estimated cost of the activities associated with the project planned, are based on the estimate of the types and quantities of resources required to perform the activity (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). Estimated cost can include labor cost, material cost, equipment cost, facilities cost, subcontractors and consultant cost, travel cost, and reserve.

The labor cost are the cost associated with the persons that are expected to perform work on a project. Labor cost is based on the estimated work time associated with performing a task and the monetary labor rate for each person. Identifying labor cost allows the project manager to determine how to maximize its profits, while ensure that quality work is performed (Pellicer, Carvajal, Rubio & Catalá, 2014). Material cost are the cost of materials that need to be purchased for the project. It is important that the project manager performs routine assessments of the materials provided for the project, to ensure the materials obtained are performing in accordance to stated standards (Inyang, Bae, & Pando, 2016).

Equipment cost are the computers and machinery used to produce the finalized product. Facilities cost are the cost of special facilities or additional accommodated spaces for the project team, storage for materials, assembly, and testing of end products (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). Subcontractor and consultant cost occur when the project manager must obtain expertise from outside parties to perform work or receive consultations. Travel cost are the cost associated with travel regarding the project that includes meals, lodging, and airfare. Lastly, reserve cost are held for contingencies that is used to cover unexpected cost that may occur during the project.

In the project, Veterans Respite Care, many of these cost will be factored into estimating the total cost of the endeavor. The cost and resources associated with the Veteran Respite Care project is determined by the activities that will be used to perform the project. The majority of the cost associated with this project will include labor cost, equipment cost, subcontractors cost, and reserve cost.

The labor cost will be derived from the persons working together to complete the project, which would include the software design team, admissions and intake research team, data analyst team, project managers, security design teams, and data testing teams. Each of these team members will have a specific task to be completed which all builds on the foundations of the works performed by the previous team members.

The equipment used will include computers used to analyze data provided from the admissions and intake teams to better develop a way to process veterans respite services. Subcontractors will be used to provide any speciality data to provide a better design and functionality of the admissions and intake process of health care agencies.

Reserve cost will be used if any risk occur throughout the duration of the project. Having the ability to identify and control cost associated with a project enables the project manager to meet objectives and reduces the need for corrective actions during project execution (Maenhout & Vanhoucke, 2017).

Scheduling involves the allocation of resources to perform a series of tasks during the course of a project (Karthikeyan, Asoka, & Nickolas, 2014). Resource-limited scheduling is used when resources available for a project is fixed, and develops the shortest schedule for the resources to be used (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018).

Resource limited schedule is used when resources for the project are limited and cannot be exceeded. In this method resources are allocated to activities based on the least slack (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). This method is based on the critical paths of a project, however, the activities are schedules in relation to the resources that are available. Resource-limited schedules works so that the resources that are given will not be overextended, which would lead to higher cost and longer production schedules.

References

Gido, J., Clements, J., & Baker, R. (2018). Successful project management (7th ed.).

Boston, MA: Cengage. SKU: 2110771.

Inyang, H. I., Bae, S., & Pando, M. A. (2016). Contaminant dust suppression materials: A cost-effectiveness estimation methodology. Measurement, 93, 563-571. doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2016.07.024

Karthikeyan, S., Asokan, P., & Nickolas, S. (2014). A hybrid discrete firefly algorithm for multi-objective flexible job shop scheduling problem with limited resource constraints. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 72(9), 1567-1579. doi:10.1007/s00170-014-5753-3

Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2011). Project management: The managerial process

(5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin . ISBN-13: 9780073403342.

Maenhout, B., & Vanhoucke, M. (2017). A resource type analysis of the integratedproject scheduling and personnel staffing problem. Annals of Operations Research, 252(2), 407-433.

Pellicer, E., Carvajal, G. I., Rubio, M. C., & Catalá, J. (2014). A method to estimate occupational health and safety costs in construction projects. KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, 18(7), 1955-1965.