Key Data Points For Project Resource Management Software
Updated · Mar 25, 2026
Table of Contents
Project portfolio and resource management tools can help companies perform better across the board and save funds on resource utilization. But accurate analytics depend on accuracy of data inputs.
In this article, we’ll explore several key data points that contribute to successful use of resource management tools.
Full Import of Project Data
The first thing you need to ensure to improve the accuracy of resource management tools is importing the data on all the relevant projects. Project resource management software can:
- Visualize the portfolio.
- Highlight resource conflicts between projects.
- Analyze current resource capacity based on workload.
Showing capacity based on assigned workload is a core feature of tools like these, because quality capacity planning is only possible when the management has the most up to date data on resource utilization. The accuracy of analysis is dependent on uploading the full range of projects a company currently is working on.
With some projects missing from the software, the load analysis will return a lot of false positives. For instance, if resources are involved in a large project from another department that isn’t uploaded into the software, it will show resources still have some capacity, while in fact they may be fully loaded.
Best practices
Your best bet at using the full range of capabilities of resource management software is adding all the relevant projects to it. This doesn’t mean you need to add every project your company is working on, though. You might omit projects that deal with governance and compliance if the teams you’re monitoring are not involved in them.
Accuracy of Project Estimates
While uploading all the relevant projects to the resource management system you’re using is important, they also need to have accurate estimates. The projections on how much time a project is going to take are used to track project progress and calculate resource capacity.
If you severely underestimate the amount of time it takes to complete the project, the project progress estimates will be wrong. That can be amended as the project goes on, but what’s more important, your long-term planning will be affected.
Having projects that are underestimated in the roadmap will make the management think more projects can be accepted in the portfolio. That will lead to more performance blockage down the road.
Best practices
Project estimation is a major area of project management that all companies need to handle, and a quite difficult one as well. The best way to ensure all projects are estimated as best as possible is to use a voting system and take the opinions of all team members into account.
If you find that your estimates are still consistently off, add a time buffer to all of them. Depending on accuracy of your estimations, it can range from 10% to 25%. You can add more of a buffer to estimates on types of projects you haven’t done before.
Accuracy of Time Tracking
Tracking how much time was spent by each employee on performing tasks in a project is crucial for tracking project progress and informing project estimation decisions. If hours are not being logged properly, you’re going to have a skewed picture of project progress.
Another issue here is not logging in time spent on meetings or information on vacations and sick leaves employees take. This can result in an overestimated view of resource capacity and can lead to planning errors.
Best practices
Fixing the latter issue is much easier. The best way of doing this is integrating HR software with project resource management software. This way, you don’t have to spend time on manual data entry and ensure accuracy of capacity data.
Making sure all of the hours spent on projects are logged properly can be more difficult. Typically, companies will have to come up with ways of logging hours that work for them, preferably integrated into PM software.
Project Priority
Some tools like Epicflow’s AI Portfolio Optimizator can analyze a portfolio based on the resource constraints and project priority to return the best portfolio composition in terms of maximizing business value generation.
Features like these depend on accuracy of project prioritization. If you assess it incorrectly, the results of the analysis will be off.
Best practices
Prioritizing projects is another important area of project management that is difficult to handle. The standard approach to it is as follows:
- Develop areas you’ll be ranking projects in, for instance, revenue, cost cutting, strategic value, etc.
- Determine weights for each area.
- Determine a scale you’ll use for ranking, for instance, a five point scale.
- Develop criteria that you’ll use to determine how many points a project should receive.
- Rank the project across all areas using your criteria.
- Calculate the total score by averaging the weighted scores.
Some areas can not be determined objectively. For instance, you can project revenue pretty well for most projects, but determining their strategic value for the company cannot be quantitatively measured. In those cases, it’s best to use a vote of key stakeholders.
Review your prioritization framework regularly and make changes to it if you find that the priority data does not reflect reality.
Automated Integration
Many project resource management tools provide real time data monitoring. To ensure this feature works well, you need to integrate your data with the software.
Best practices
Look for PM software that allows you to integrate the tools your company is already using to track capacity data like HR software or project management tools. In most cases, you’ll be able to find tools with native connectors or that allow a third-party tool like Zapier to be used for integration purposes. If that’s not the case, ask whether it’s possible to make a custom integration.
Conclusion
Project resource management software can help improve project planning through capacity analytics, but a few important points should be ensured:
- Import data on all relevant projects.
- Automate data integration.
- Create accurate project estimates.
- Track time spent on projects.
- Assess project priority correctly.
If all these are ensured, your resource management analytics will be accurate.
Tajammul Pangarkar is the co-founder of a PR firm and the Chief Technology Officer at Prudour Research Firm. With a Bachelor of Engineering in Information Technology from Shivaji University, Tajammul brings over ten years of expertise in digital marketing to his roles. He excels at gathering and analyzing data, producing detailed statistics on various trending topics that help shape industry perspectives. Tajammul's deep-seated experience in mobile technology and industry research often shines through in his insightful analyses. He is keen on decoding tech trends, examining mobile applications, and enhancing general tech awareness. His writings frequently appear in numerous industry-specific magazines and forums, where he shares his knowledge and insights. When he's not immersed in technology, Tajammul enjoys playing table tennis. This hobby provides him with a refreshing break and allows him to engage in something he loves outside of his professional life. Whether he's analyzing data or serving a fast ball, Tajammul demonstrates dedication and passion in every endeavor.
