HKSM

Purpose & When to Use

This process defines how people and physical resources will be identified, acquired, managed, motivated, and released. It clarifies roles, responsibilities, reporting lines, working agreements, and how equipment or facilities will be used. Use it early in planning and anytime team structure, sourcing, or resource constraints change. In adaptive or hybrid work, it also sets team norms, collaboration tools, and decision rules for self-organizing teams.

Mini Flow (How It’s Done)

• Review the charter, scope, schedule approach, and stakeholder needs to understand resource demands and constraints.
• List required roles, skills, and capacity for major deliverables and time periods.
• Create responsibility assignment tools (for example, a RACI) to map work packages or backlog items to roles.
• Design the project organization: reporting lines, interfaces with functional managers, and vendor or partner touchpoints.
• Plan staffing: how resources will be requested, acquired, onboarded, trained, and released; define resource calendars and time zone coverage.
• Define team norms and leadership approach: communication methods, decision-making, conflict escalation, recognition, and performance feedback.
• Plan physical resources: required equipment, facilities, quantities, access, maintenance, and safety expectations.
• Identify resource-related risks and compliance needs; outline monitoring metrics and responses.
• Document everything in the Resource Management Plan and team charter or working agreements; review and gain stakeholder buy-in.
• Update relevant project documents and integrate the plan into the overall project management plan.

Quality & Acceptance Checklist

• Roles, responsibilities, required skills, and authority are clearly described for all key roles.
• A responsibility assignment matrix links deliverables or work packages to roles without gaps or overlaps.
• Organization chart or team structure shows reporting and coordination lines, including vendors and remote members.
• Staffing approach, onboarding, training, and release criteria are defined and realistic against schedule and budget.
• Resource calendars, time zone coverage, and availability constraints are documented.
• Communication, decision-making, and conflict escalation paths are explicit and agreed by the team.
• Recognition and rewards approach is fair, timely, and fits organizational policies.
• Physical resource needs, access controls, maintenance, and safety or compliance requirements are covered.
• Measures for team effectiveness and resource utilization are defined with review cadence.
• Key stakeholders, including functional managers, acknowledge the plan and their responsibilities.

Common Mistakes & Exam Traps

• Confusing this planning process with acquiring resources; here you design the approach, you do not staff the team yet.
• Using named individuals in the RACI during planning; use roles and add names after acquisition.
• Ignoring virtual or cross-time-zone needs such as tools, overlap hours, and language; this causes handoff delays.
• Skipping recognition, feedback, and training plans; morale and capability issues then surface late.
• Forgetting resource calendars and availability; leads to unrealistic schedules and hidden over-allocation.
• Mixing up documents: team charter or working agreements belong here, not in the project charter.
• Assuming the project manager can unilaterally assign functional staff; coordinate with functional managers per the plan.
• Not planning how to release resources; this can increase cost and create organizational friction.

PMP Example Question

During planning, the sponsor asks who approves overtime, how conflicts will be escalated, and how the team will be recognized. What should the project manager reference or update?

1. Change management plan.
2. Resource management plan.
3. Detailed staffing assignments created after resources are acquired.
4. Stakeholder engagement plan.

Correct Answer: B — Resource management plan.

Explanation: The resource management plan defines roles, escalation paths, and recognition or reward approaches. Staffing assignments occur later, and the other plans do not address these team management rules.