Step 6: Determining the inputs/ resources required.

For each of the activities undertaken there is a need for resources/ inputs. The different types of resources to be considered are:

• Time (which was covered in the previous step)
• People. These should be specified according to type (managerial, technical advice, professional nurse) as well as the amount of time for each category/type.
• Materials/ Consumables. These are the ‘things’ needed to successfully complete an activity such as drugs, hearing tests, stationery - which are consumed/ used up during the course of the project.
• Capital. These are essential "things" such as land, buildings, large pieces of equipment and machinery required to set up and run the project. Capital resources are normally fairly high cost and in contrast to materials, which are consumed, become permanent fixtures or the "assets" of the project. They are often budgeted for separately as part of the CAPEX or Capital Expenditure budget.
• Transport resources refers to all requirements related to the transportation of people, goods as well as information.

For each activity on the Gantt Chart we need to establish the type and amount (number of pens, kilometres of travel, hours of work, etc) of resources required to do it. At this stage there is no consideration of whether these resources already exist, of if they should be paid for, bought or rented - only the total amount of resources required.

Costing resources.

The first step in this process is to establish the cost of every resource. All resources can be costed by multiplying the unit cost (e.g. cost of people resource per day, or price of medicine per dose) by the total of that resource required. Capital goods will have a particular unit price. These costs are totalled and a "theoretical" cost obtained. It is theoretical because some of the resources already exist within the organisation and will not have to be bought in especially for the project. Refer to the Resource Requirements Chart.

In order to motivate for funding, we need to determine the "actual" cost of the project. The actual cost is the total amount of money that would be needed to set up and run the project. Many resources needed for a project would be paid by the company, e.g. Occupational health nursing salary, photocopier, and telephones. These would be excluded from the budget - you need to determine the actual cash requirements. Refer to the Actual Budget Plan.

For larger projects it is useful to separate out a capital expenditure budget and an ongoing operational budget. For monitoring purposes it is also useful to develop a monthly budget of projected expenditure (budget) that can be compared to actual expenditure. This is discussed under variance analysis in the next section.