P2 - Resources available

A project manager needs resources to complete any task, If any of these resources are missing or lacking then the completion of the project could be hindered or even completely halted.


Financial backing and a suitable budget is vital to any projects success, with out the proper funds a manager cannot afford to pay for other resources to get the job done. A poor cash flow means that the project is unable to move forward or cover any unexpected costs that will almost certainly arise during the project life cycle. With out the adequate amount of money a project will simply fail.


People is another very important resource. A manager must ensure that his/her team members have the skill set and attitude that is needed to complete the task. For example a website company that has too many graphics experts and no enough coders will find that the programmers are being overloaded, or that the graphics designers are sitting around with nothing to do while they wait for the programmers to catch up. It is also very important that there is a high level of motivation  as this is vital to the quality and amount of output that the team will achieve. 


A manager must have the correct equipment at hand in order to efficiently complete the task at hand. For example, a company like pixar has extremely powerful render farms at their disposal so they can render scenes as fast as possible. With out these machines the production time is significantly increased. 
If a manager does not have the software to communicate with his/her team then it can lead to massive problems with people not knowing what to do. 

In terms of software there are many different packages that a manager can use to maintain control over the task. 
One example of this is file sharing software, In our task we used Drop box, however there are several different alternatives. This type of software is used to have a shared folder which updates in real time on multiple machine. This makes it much easier for a team to work together on separate parts of a project. 
Another example is email software such as outlook express or the very popular blackberry message (BBM), this allows the team manager to keep in contact with the team.
There are also many packages which can be used to create gantt charts or similar graphs, there are free as well as paid for solutions. A gantt chart is very useful to show the team what part of a project needs to be done and when it needs to be done by.