Resource Commitment Form

A resource commitment form is a project management document that’s used in human resource planning. Specifically, it’s used to secure the availability of a human resource to perform work on the project. The resource commitment form isn’t used on all projects; however, it’s commonly used in organizations where human resources are shared between projects and functional departments.

Who Creates It?

The resource commitment form is prepared by the project manager. It becomes executed by the supervisor of the person whose availability the project manager seeks to secure.

What Are the Inputs?

Inputs to resource commitment form include the resource breakdown structure (RBS) and perhaps an organizational chart.

How Is It Used?

The resource commitment form is used to secure the availability of a human resource who has responsibilities that are outside the scope of the project. For example, consider a software developer in an IT department. His or her day-to-day work includes maintaining the custom applications of the organization.

Now assume that the purchasing department receives approval to begin a project. Among other things, the project includes development of a small software application.

For this project, a person with software development skills is a resource requirement. To secure the availability of this resource for the project, the project manager completes the resource commitment form and presents it to the supervisor of the IT department. The supervisor assigns the resource and in so doing, commits to the availability of the assigned developer.

In other words, the supervisor agrees to assign the developers usual workload to another resource. He or she also agrees to not cross-prioritize the developer while serving on the project team.