19.1 Determining Resource Requirements and Availability

APM Project Management Qualification PMQ

Track your progress as you read

Finished sections get a check mark.

1 Introduction & Exam Overview

1.1 Current Exam Facts 1.2 Exam Format & Question Types 1.3 How to Study for APM PMQ

2 Life Cycles

2.1 Linear Life Cycles and Why Work Is Phased 2.2 Iterative and Hybrid Life Cycles 2.3 Project Life Cycles and Extended Life Cycles 2.4 Choosing a Life Cycle: Context, Culture, Strengths and Limitations

3 Governance Arrangements

3.1 Functional, Matrix and Projectised Structures 3.2 Governance Frameworks, Policies and Delegated Responsibility 3.3 Life-Cycle Impact on Governance and Limits of Financial Authority 3.4 Project Roles and Responsibilities 3.5 Project Manager and Project Sponsor Through the Life Cycle 3.6 Linking Projects to Organisational Objectives

4 Sustainability

4.1 Sustainability Responsibilities, Principles and Impact 4.2 Monitoring and Reporting Sustainability Measures

5 Business Case

5.1 Business Case Fundamentals and Analysis Tools 5.2 The Business Case as Baseline and Reviewing Change

6 Procurement

6.1 Procurement Strategy: Purpose and Contents 6.2 Supplier Selection and Negotiation 6.3 Features of Different Contractual Relationships 6.4 Supplier Reimbursement Methods

7 Reviews & Assurance

7.1 Reviews, Decision Gates, Benefits Reviews and Audits 7.2 What Gets Reported and Informing Decisions 7.3 Why Activities Are Re-Planned After a Review 7.4 Project Assurance

8 Transition & Benefits Management

8.1 Transition Requirements and Business-as-Usual Readiness 8.2 Knowledge Transfer and Agreeing the Transition Plan 8.3 Benefits Management: Identification to Realisation 8.4 Aligning and Communicating Benefits

9 Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

9.1 Stakeholder Analysis, Influence and Engagement 9.2 The Communication Management Plan and Its Benefits 9.3 Managing Stakeholder Expectations 9.4 Communication Methods and Tailoring the Message 9.5 Factors That Help and Hinder Communication

10 Conflict Resolution

10.1 Sources and Impacts of Conflict 10.2 Addressing Conflict and the Thomas-Kilmann Model

11 Leadership

11.1 Leadership, Motivation and Team Performance 11.2 Changing Leadership Styles for the Situation 11.3 Coaching, Mentoring and Emotional Intelligence

12 Team Management

12.1 Team Development Stages and Models 12.2 Characteristics and Benefits of Effective Teams 12.3 Leading Virtual and Hybrid Teams

13 Diversity & Inclusion

13.1 Diversity Characteristics and the Equality Act 13.2 Incorporating Diversity and Diverse Thinking 13.3 Conscious and Unconscious Bias and Fair Treatment

14 Ethics, Compliance & Professionalism

14.1 Continuing Professional Development and Competence 14.2 Sources of Specialist Advice and Standards 14.3 The Legal and Regulatory Landscape

15 Requirements & Solutions

15.1 Establishing Scope Through Requirements Management 15.2 Managing Scope Through Configuration Management 15.3 Solutions Development and Prioritisation

16 Quality Management

16.1 Quality Planning, Indicators and the Business Case 16.2 Quality Control and Success Criteria

17 Integrated Planning

17.1 The Integrated Project Management Plan: Format and Contents 17.2 Why an Integrated Plan Matters

18 Schedule Management

18.1 Defining Scope and Breakdown Structures 18.2 Dependencies and What Drives the Schedule 18.3 Re-Estimating and Schedule Optimisation

19 Resource Management

19.1 Determining Resource Requirements and Availability 19.2 Organisational Breakdown Structure and RACI 19.3 Categorising and Allocating Resources 19.4 Resource Smoothing and Resource Levelling

20 Budgeting & Cost Control

20.1 Creating a Budget and Cost Types 20.2 Earned Value and Cost Forecasting 20.3 Monitoring and Reporting Financial Performance 20.4 Closing Down Project Finances

21 Risk & Issue Management

21.1 Benefits of Risk and Issue Management and Contingency Planning 21.2 The Risk and Issue Management Processes 21.3 Proactive and Reactive Risk Responses 21.4 Governance in Risk and Issue Management

22 Change Control

22.1 The Change Control Process and Its Stages 22.2 What a Change Request Must Capture 22.3 Assessing Options and the Impact of a Change 22.4 Recommending Decisions and Updating Plans

19.1 Determining Resource Requirements and Availability

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

Project resources include people, equipment, materials, facilities, funding, and information — not just staff.

Resource requirements are derived from the work breakdown structure and the estimates for each activity, so vague scope produces unusable resource plans.

Availability is about the right skill, competence, and certification at the right time — twenty generalists do not substitute for one certified specialist.

Confirmed availability differs from nominal availability: staff carrying business-as-usual duties are not fully available to the project.

Long-lead resources and scarce specialists must be identified early, because their availability constrains the schedule rather than following it.

Last updated: August 2026

Resource management on the APM PMQ

Resource management is how the project identifies, secures, assigns, and adjusts the people, equipment, materials, and facilities needed to deliver planned work. On the PMQ it is learning objective 21 — Resource management in Area D ( Planning and managing deployment ). This section covers determining resources required and their availability , the organisational breakdown structure (OBS) , and how the OBS is used to create a responsibility assignment matrix (RACI) .

Weak exam answers list job titles or say "hire more staff." Strong answers compare need versus availability , link roles to work packages through OBS and RACI , and show how unclear accountability creates delivery risk.

Exam frame: Resources make the schedule real. A network with perfect logic still fails if the people, plant, materials, or rooms do not exist when activities need them.

Resource types

Projects consume several categories of resource. PMQ answers should name the type relevant to the scenario and explain how each is planned.

Resource type What it includes Typical planning concerns

People (human resources) Project team, specialists, BAU subject-matter experts, contractors, temporary labour Skills, competence, security clearance, availability calendars, cost rates, induction, fatigue

Equipment (plant and tools) Machinery, test rigs, vehicles, specialised instruments, IT hardware Capacity, booking lead times, maintenance windows, mobilisation, utilisation

Materials Consumables, components, raw materials, free-issue client materials Lead times, storage, wastage, quality certification, single-source risk

Facilities Offices, labs, data centres, site compounds, training rooms, clean rooms Booking windows, access control, shared use with BAU, health and safety limits

Some organisations also treat budget/funding and information/data access as constrained resources. For LO21, prioritise the four physical and human categories above, then link money and data constraints when the scenario requires it.

People as more than headcount

People are not interchangeable units. Resource identification for people should capture:

• Role and skill (for example senior electrical designer, not only "engineer")
• Competence and certification (regulated work, software platforms, site induction)
• Full-time equivalent (FTE) or days needed by period
• Location and working pattern (remote, shift, part-time, secondment)
• Reporting line and authority (project vs functional matrix)

A plan that needs "two analysts for six weeks" is incomplete if only one analyst has the system access and data-protection training the work requires.

Determining resources required (need)

Resource need is the demand implied by the scope, WBS, schedule, quality approach, and risk responses. It answers: What do we need, how much, with what skills or specifications, and when?

How need is derived

Start from WBS work packages / activities and product acceptance criteria.

Estimate effort (person-days) and duration using suitable techniques.

Identify non-labour inputs (equipment hours, material quantities, facility bookings) per activity.

Aggregate demand by period (week, sprint, month) to see peaks.

Add resources for management, assurance, quality, transition, and contingency responses — not only "build" tasks.

Note dependencies on BAU (operations staff for testing, training, cutover).

• Planning input Resource implication
• Scope / PBS products What skills and materials create each product
• Schedule logic and dates When demand occurs and whether work can run in parallel
• Quality gates and tests Specialists, labs, environments, rework capacity
• Risk responses Extra people, plant, or materials for mitigation/fallback
• Procurement lead times When materials and hired equipment must be ordered
• Transition / training BAU time and training facilities near go-live

Example: A data migration work package may need a migration specialist (people), a staging environment (facilities/IT), extract scripts and licences (materials/tools), and overnight batch windows coordinated with operations — not only "developer days."

Determining availability (supply)

Availability is whether the required resource can be obtained for the periods needed. It answers: Who or what is free, bookable, or purchasable in time — and under what constraints?

Sources of availability information include functional managers, resource calendars, supplier capacity, hire fleets, warehouse stock, room booking systems, and framework agreements.

• Availability factor Why it matters
• Calendar and holidays Named individuals are not 100% available every working day
• Competing projects / BAU Same scarce experts appear on multiple plans
• Skill match Headcount exists but not the right competence
• Lead time to recruit or hire External fill may take weeks or months
• Mobilisation and induction Even assigned people are not productive on day one
• Plant booking and maintenance Equipment may be committed or offline
• Storage and logistics Materials available at the supplier but not on site
• Financial authority Budget approved late means people cannot start
• Need versus availability — the core comparison

• Situation Meaning Typical response
• Need ≤ availability Demand can be met as planned Assign, book, confirm calendars

Need > availability (peak) Overallocation in a period Smooth, level, re-sequence, buy capacity, or change scope/dates

• Need with wrong skill Quantity OK, capability gap Train, reassign, recruit, or outsource
• Need with long lead Future shortage already visible Early procurement, advance booking, dual source
• Availability uncertain Promised resource not firm Escalate, get named commitment, plan contingency

Exam trap: Treating "the organisation has 200 staff" as availability for a specialist task. Availability is the right resource at the right time , not total headcount.

Scenario A — need without availability check

A project schedule shows three parallel user-acceptance test streams in the same week, each needing the same two clinical leads. Need is six clinical-lead-days in one week; availability is two people with heavy BAU loads (perhaps two days total). The plan is infeasible. The project manager must re-sequence tests, extend the window, add trained deputies, or reduce parallel scope — and update the integrated plan — not report "green" because the Gantt looks short.