Resource Prioritization

The project's priority generally determines the prioritization of the resource itself.

Resources need to be allocated to a specific project.

To correctly prioritize a spare part to a project, it is necessary to earmark it for the project, preempting over-subscription of the resource.

The resource that is allocated is effectively inheriting the priority of the project it is being allocated to.

Some resources are limited in availability, such as specialist skills or equipment, or spare parts with long lead times, and these resources may ultimately determine the timing of one or more projects. See also Job Project Management.

Depending on how resources are structured within an organization, priorities may also need to be allocated between reactive jobs (attending to an emergency, failure or service request), preventive jobs (planned maintenance) or renewals/construction.

It can be difficult to re-prioritize resources on short notice - eg. to reallocate from a renewals job to a failure job.

Consequently many organizations have separate resources for reactive and preventive/renewals jobs.

Reactive work may be allocated on a simple priority scale such as:

• Priority 1 - Emergency requiring immediate response
• Priority 2 - Very High priority. Response within one hour
• Priority 3 - High priority. Response within 6 hours
• Priority 4 - Medium priority. Response within 24 hours
• Priority 5 - Low priority. Response within 4 days