Resource Planning
Before scheduling, resource management starts with serious planning and a forecast. The benefits of careful planning outweigh "winging it" when it comes to managing projects, especially if you're set to take on multiple projects at once. Planning and using a management solution is essential if managers want to keep clients and team members happy.
The two popular techniques used for this purpose are resource leveling and resource smoothing. They both aim to make the most out of the available resources to complete a project.
You could be facing a shortage or excess of resources, but both can be successfully solved if you have a clear plan for projects in the pipeline and the resources they need to be completed.
The crucial steps in the planning process are identifying which resources are needed, forecasting, and allocating. While identifying will give you an idea of what type of job you require for the project, forecasting will tell you how long each activity will take to complete, and allocating will distribute tasks to the right people.