Project Management guide · Cost and resources
Project Resources: Types, Examples and How to Plan Them
Project resources are the people, equipment, materials, facilities, services and information a project needs to do its work, paid for from the project budget. Planning them well means knowing what you need, when you need it and where it will come from, before the schedule depends on it.
Key takeaways
- Project resources fall into two broad groups: the team (people) and physical resources such as equipment, materials and facilities.
- Identify resources from the work breakdown structure, then estimate type, quantity, skill and timing for each activity.
- A resource breakdown structure and resource calendars make needs and availability visible.
- Check availability across all projects, not just yours, before you commit to dates.
- Use allocation, leveling and smoothing to resolve conflicts, and release resources as soon as their work ends.
- PMBOK 8 treats resources as one of seven performance domains, covering both team and physical resources.
What are project resources?
Project resources are everything a project consumes or uses to produce its deliverables: the people who do the work, and the equipment, materials, facilities, software, services and information they need. They are paid for from the project budget and are usually limited, shared with other work and available only at certain times.
PMI's PMBOK Guide groups resources into two broad categories: team resources (the people assigned to the project) and physical resources (equipment, materials, facilities, infrastructure and supplies). Many articles also list time and money as resources. In PMI's terms, time and cost are better thought of as project constraints that resources are planned against: money buys resources, and time limits when they can be used. This guide covers all of them, but keeps that distinction clear.
Resources are different from tasks. A task is the work to be done; a resource is who or what does it. Linking the two is called resource allocation.
Types of project resources
| Type | Examples | Typical planning unit |
|---|---|---|
| People (team resources) | Project manager, analysts, developers, engineers, designers, contractors, subject matter experts | Hours, days or FTE |
| Equipment | Machinery, vehicles, laptops, test devices, scaffolding | Units per day or week |
| Materials and supplies | Steel, cabling, components, printed materials, consumables | Quantity (tonnes, metres, items) |
| Facilities | Offices, meeting rooms, labs, workshops, warehouse space | Days or weeks of use |
| Software and infrastructure | Licences, cloud hosting, test environments, data platforms | Licences, months or usage |
| Services | Consultancy, testing, translation, security review, legal advice | Fixed price or rate |
| Information and knowledge | Standards, historical data, designs, documentation, specialist know-how | Access and availability |
| Financial resources | Approved budget, contingency, funding tranches | Money per period |
People
People are usually the most critical and the hardest resource to plan. Skills, experience and availability vary, and the same person is often shared between several projects and business-as-usual work. Plan in terms of roles and skills first, then name individuals as early as you can. A skills matrix helps you see who can do what.
Physical resources
Equipment, materials and facilities have their own constraints: lead times, storage, delivery windows, maintenance and safety rules. On construction, engineering and event projects they can drive the whole schedule, so long-lead items need ordering early and tracking like tasks.
Services, software and information
Outsourced services and software licences are often forgotten until late. Treat them as resources with a start date, a cost and an owner. Information resources, such as access to existing designs or data, can block work just as effectively as a missing person.
Tangible and intangible resources
Some guides divide resources into tangible (people, equipment, materials, facilities, money) and intangible (knowledge, relationships, reputation, goodwill). Intangible resources are harder to plan but still matter: a sponsor's support or a supplier relationship can decide whether you get the tangible resources you need.
Why managing project resources matters
Most schedules are built from task logic first and only later checked against who is actually available. When resources are not planned, problems appear as:
- Over-allocation: the same person is booked on several tasks at once, so work slips.
- Idle time: people or equipment wait for work that is not ready, which costs money.
- Late delivery of materials or equipment, holding up dependent tasks.
- Skill gaps discovered after work has started.
- Budget overruns from last-minute contractors, overtime or expedited delivery.
- Burnout and turnover, which make every other problem worse.
Good resource planning turns the schedule into something that can be staffed and supplied. It also gives sponsors and resource managers an early view of what the project will need from them, which makes negotiation easier.
Project resource management in the PMBOK Guide
PMI's PMBOK Guide, eighth edition (published late 2025) organises project management around seven performance domains: governance, scope, schedule, finance, stakeholders, resources and risk. The Resources domain covers both the project team and physical resources, and replaces the Team domain of the seventh edition. Its processes are:
- Plan resource management: decide how resources will be estimated, acquired, managed and released.
- Estimate resources: work out the type and quantity of people and physical resources each activity needs.
- Acquire resources: obtain the team, equipment, materials and facilities, internally or externally.
- Lead the team: build, develop and support the team, and resolve issues.
- Monitor and control resourcing: check resources are available and used as planned, and correct deviations.
If you studied the sixth edition, these map closely to its six resource processes: Plan Resource Management, Estimate Activity Resources, Acquire Resources, Develop Team, Manage Team and Control Resources. The ideas have not changed much; the newer edition simply groups them into one domain and combines team development and management under leadership.
How to plan project resources step by step
- Start from the scope. Use the work breakdown structure to list every work package and activity. You cannot estimate resources for work you have not defined.
- Identify the resource types each activity needs. Ask: which skills, which equipment, which materials, which facilities, which services?
- Estimate quantity and duration. How many people, for how many hours, and how much material? Use the estimating methods below.
- Build a resource breakdown structure (RBS). Group the resources by category so nothing is missed and costs can be rolled up.
- Check availability. Compare needs with resource calendars and with other projects' demands. Capacity planning shows whether the organisation can supply what you need.
- Decide the source. Internal team, another department, a contractor, a supplier or a hire company. External resources go through procurement.
- Cost the resources. Multiply quantities by rates to build the bottom-up cost estimate.
- Load the schedule. Assign resources to activities, check for over-allocation and level where needed.
- Agree roles and responsibilities. A RACI matrix makes ownership clear.
- Document it in a resource management plan. Record how resources will be acquired, tracked and released, as part of the project management plan.
Estimating resource requirements
- Bottom-up estimating: estimate each activity's needs and add them up. The most accurate, but needs a detailed WBS.
- Analogous estimating: base needs on a similar past project. Fast, but only as good as the comparison.
- Parametric estimating: use a rate, such as hours per screen or square metres per day, multiplied by quantity.
- Expert judgment: ask the people who have done the work before, especially for specialist skills.
- Historical data: timesheets and actuals from earlier projects are often the best evidence available.
Express people effort in hours or days first, then convert to full-time equivalents (FTE) for planning. Our guide to effort estimation covers the methods in more detail.
Resource breakdown structure (RBS)
A resource breakdown structure is a hierarchical list of the resources a project needs, grouped by category and type. It does for resources what the WBS does for scope. A simple example:
- 1. Labour: 1.1 Project management; 1.2 Business analysis; 1.3 Development (1.3.1 Senior developer, 1.3.2 Developer); 1.4 Testing
- 2. Equipment: 2.1 Laptops; 2.2 Test devices
- 3. Software and infrastructure: 3.1 Cloud test environment; 3.2 Licences
- 4. Facilities: 4.1 Training room
- 5. External services: 5.1 Penetration testing; 5.2 Accessibility audit
The RBS helps you check that every type of resource has been considered, roll costs up by category, and report demand by skill across projects. It is often cross-referenced with the WBS: each work package lists the RBS items it needs.
| Work breakdown structure (WBS) | Resource breakdown structure (RBS) | |
|---|---|---|
| Breaks down | The work and deliverables | The resources that do the work |
| Answers | What has to be done? | Who or what will do it? |
| Lowest level | Work package | Specific resource type or role |
| Used for | Scope, schedule and cost control | Resource estimating, costing and capacity checks |
Resource calendars and availability
A resource calendar shows when each resource is available: working days and hours, shifts, public holidays, planned leave, training and commitments to other work. Equipment and facilities have calendars too, covering bookings, maintenance and hire periods.
Resource calendars matter because a schedule calculated on generic working days can be badly wrong. A specialist who works three days a week, or a lab booked by another team for a fortnight, changes what is possible. Most scheduling tools let you set calendars per resource, and the schedule then calculates dates around them.
Example: a resource plan
Here is an extract from a resource plan for a six-month customer portal project:
| Resource | Quantity | When | Source | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project manager | 0.5 FTE | Months 1-6 | Internal PMO | $33,000 |
| Business analyst | 1.0 FTE | Months 1-3 | Internal | $36,000 |
| Developers | 3.0 FTE | Months 2-6 | Contractor | $162,000 |
| Tester | 1.0 FTE | Months 4-6 | Internal QA team | $27,000 |
| Laptops | 3 | Month 2 | IT equipment pool | $0 (reused) |
| Cloud test environment | 1 | Months 3-6 | Cloud service | $4,800 |
| Penetration test | 1 engagement | Month 5 | External supplier | $8,000 |
| Training room | 2 days | Month 6 | Internal facilities | $0 |
Each line should also have an owner (who approves the resource), any assumptions (such as the contractor day rate) and the risk if it is not available on time. The costs roll up into the project budget. A project cost estimate template gives you a ready-made structure for this.
Acquiring resources
Once you know what you need, you have to get it. The main routes are:
- Internal assignment: negotiate with functional or resource managers for named people. Agree the percentage of time, dates and how conflicts will be handled.
- Pre-assignment: some people are named in the project charter or contract, for example a key technical lead.
- External hire: contractors, consultants and agencies, usually under a statement of work.
- Purchase or hire of physical resources: through procurement, with lead times built into the schedule.
- Shared pools: equipment, rooms and environments booked from a central pool.
In a matrix organisation the project manager rarely owns the people. Your influence comes from a clear, early request backed by the schedule, and from a good relationship with the resource managers. A project management office, where one exists, often arbitrates when several projects want the same people.
Managing resources during the project
Allocate and level
Assign resources to tasks, then check for over-allocation. Resource leveling moves work so no one is overloaded, even if the finish date moves. Resource smoothing evens out demand within available float without moving the end date. Both are explained in our leveling guide.
Track usage and availability
Compare planned and actual effort each week or sprint. Watch for people consistently working more than planned, tasks waiting on unavailable resources, and materials or equipment arriving late. Variances in resource usage often show up in cost reports later; catching them early is cheaper.
Look after the team
People are not interchangeable units. Clear roles, realistic workloads, recognition and quick resolution of conflicts keep productivity steady. The project manager's role includes protecting the team from constant re-prioritisation.
Release resources
When a resource's work is finished, release it formally so it can go to other work and stop costing the project. Return equipment, end licences and contracts, and update resource calendars. This is part of project closure, but it happens throughout the project, not only at the end.
Resources in Agile projects
Agile teams tend to think about resources differently. Instead of assigning individuals to tasks, they keep stable, cross-functional teams and plan how much work the team can take on in each iteration. The question changes from "who is free for this task?" to "what is the team's capacity this sprint?"
Physical resources, licences, environments and specialist support still need planning, and organisations running several Agile teams still need cross-team capacity planning. Resource management becomes more about funding and protecting stable teams than about booking people task by task.
Common resource problems and fixes
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Key person over-allocated | Booked on several projects or overlapping tasks | Level the schedule, reprioritise with sponsors, or bring in cover |
| Specialist only available late | Not requested early enough | Request early; resequence work; consider a contractor |
| Materials arrive late | Lead times not in the schedule | Add procurement tasks and lead times; order early |
| People idle waiting for work | Dependencies or approvals not ready | Resequence, or release the resource temporarily |
| Skill gap discovered mid-project | Roles planned generically | Training, mentoring or specialist support; update the skills matrix |
| Resource costs above estimate | Rates, overtime or productivity assumptions wrong | Re-estimate remaining work and update the forecast |
If several projects keep competing for the same people, the issue is usually portfolio-level demand rather than any single plan. See managing multiple projects for ways to handle it. Critical chain project management is one scheduling method designed specifically around resource constraints.
Tools for managing project resources
For a small project, a spreadsheet resource plan and a shared calendar can be enough. As soon as people are shared across projects, a tool that shows workload by person across all projects saves a lot of manual checking.
- Wrike (our top-ranked tool) offers workload and resource planning with cross-project views; its most advanced resource planning, budgeting and financial tracking sit on the higher, quote-based tiers.
- Asana includes workload and resource management on its Advanced plan.
- monday.com offers workload views, with advanced resource and portfolio features on its Enterprise plan.
- Spreadsheets remain useful for RBS lists, resource plans and skills matrices, even when scheduling happens in a tool.
Free templates for this topic
Frequently asked questions
What are project resources?
Project resources are the people, equipment, materials, facilities, software, services and information a project needs to produce its deliverables, paid for from the project budget.
What are the main types of project resources?
People (team resources), equipment, materials and supplies, facilities, software and infrastructure, services, information and knowledge, and financial resources. PMI groups them into team resources and physical resources.
What are the 4 types of project resources?
Many guides list four: human, financial, material and time. It is a useful simplification. In PMI's terms, time and money are constraints and the budget, while resources are split into the team and physical resources.
Is time a project resource?
It is often described as one, because it is limited and must be planned. Strictly, time is a constraint: the schedule sets when resources can be used, rather than time being consumed like materials.
What is the difference between human and physical resources?
Human (team) resources are the people who do the work. Physical resources are the non-human items they use, such as equipment, materials, facilities and infrastructure.
What is project resource management?
The processes used to plan, estimate, acquire, lead and control the people and physical resources a project needs, so the right resources are available at the right time and used efficiently.
Who is responsible for project resources?
The project manager plans and manages them, but in most organisations functional or resource managers own the people and equipment. Resources are agreed between them, with a PMO or sponsor arbitrating conflicts.
What is a resource breakdown structure?
A hierarchical list of the resources a project needs, grouped by category and type, such as labour, equipment, materials and services. It is used for estimating, costing and checking that nothing is missed.
What is a resource calendar?
A calendar that shows when a resource is available, including working hours, shifts, holidays, leave and commitments to other work. Scheduling tools use it to calculate realistic dates.
How do you estimate resource requirements for a project?
Break the work down with a WBS, decide which skills, equipment and materials each activity needs, then estimate quantities using bottom-up, analogous or parametric methods, expert judgment and historical data.
What is the difference between resource allocation and resource leveling?
Allocation assigns specific resources to tasks. Leveling then adjusts task dates so no resource is over-allocated, even if that moves the finish date.
What happens if project resources are over-allocated?
Work slips, quality drops and people burn out. Fix it by leveling or smoothing the schedule, reprioritising, adding capacity or reducing scope.
What is a resource management plan?
Part of the project management plan that sets out how resources will be identified, estimated, acquired, managed and released, including roles, training needs and how conflicts are resolved.
How are resources managed in Agile projects?
Agile teams usually keep stable, cross-functional teams and plan work against team capacity each iteration, rather than assigning individuals task by task. Physical resources and specialist support still need planning.