In a volatile multi-project environment, effective resource management requires a balance to be struck between having sufficient spare resource to address unexpected fluctuations in demand, without too much time being spent on the bench.
The starting point is having sufficient faith in the forward loading information produced by your resource management software, so that hiring decisions can be made with confidence. For this, the project and resource managers at the sharp end need an effective operational tool to help them maintain data that is current, complete and consistent.
You must then be able to respond quickly when changes in demand create unexpected skills bottlenecks, or, due to delay, unacceptable levels of underutilization. The dynamic resource management video shown at www.innate-management.com illustrates how lower priority work can be moved with minimum impact on existing commitments, so that resource bottlenecks are minimized whilst, using red/amber/green colour coding, the resource utilization levels for each team can be maximized.