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192 USING AND MANAGING CONTINGENCY

Here, again, are the three things that you can be certain of:

1. If there is no cost contingency, the project budget will be overrun.
2. If cost contingency is not managed, the funds will be used up and the proj-

ect will cost even more than if there were no cost contingency.
3. Murphy is still working on your project.

Part 3—Resource and Scope Contingency

In the previous parts of this chapter, we devoted most of the discussion to the use
and management of schedule contingency and cost contingency. In this conclud-
ing segment, we will cover resource and scope contingency.

Resource Contingency

The use of contingency for schedule and cost is essential for establishing attain-
able and manageable schedule and cost targets. There may be times when con-
tingency should be applied to resources and workscope, as well. However, you
will not come across much discussion of these two items. We touch on them
briefly here.

As noted previously, it has been my experience that attention to resource con-
tingency is rare. For some reason, project managers, even those who have al-
lowed for contingency in their schedules and budgets, do not see the need for
similar practices when it comes to planning and managing resource loads. In fact,
we often see the opposite. Resources are assigned to work using an overload
model. That is, the resources are assumed to be available at a level that is a bit
greater than full time.

I can understand the rationale for such a seemingly irrational approach. First
of all, many of the automatic resource leveling processes look for periods of time
when the assigned resources can be applied to a task without interruption. There-
fore, they tend to leave gaps showing periods of unassigned resources when there
is work waiting for those resources.

Perhaps another consideration is that resources are more flexible than time or
budgets. The logic is that we can always squeeze a little extra out of a resource if
the pressure is on.

Perhaps the real reason is that nobody trusts the schedules. Why plan well
out into the future, lining up resources for the scheduled work, if when the time
comes, the schedule has changed, or the tasks have changed, or perhaps even
the project has been shelved? Of course, better schedules will help. But the na-