What Are Physical/Virtual Resource Assignments?

Physical and Virtual Resource Assignments document which specific people, equipment, facilities, and materials are assigned to each project activity. In PMBOK 8, resource assignments are the output of the Acquire Resources process within the Project Resource Management performance domain. The assignments link each work package to the specific individual (not just a role) who will perform the work, along with the percentage of their availability allocated to the project. For distributed teams — increasingly common in modern project environments — the document distinguishes physical resources (on-site) from virtual resources (remote), noting time zone, communication channel preferences, and access credentials needed.

What's Inside This Resource Assignments Example

This Physical/Virtual Resource Assignments example covers the six-person Project Phoenix team for MCG's website launch ($72,250, March 17 to June 13, 2025). The spreadsheet includes:

• Team Assignments tab: Each team member's name, role, location (physical or virtual), time zone, allocation percentage, and assigned work packages
• Equipment tab: Laptops, design workstations, staging server, and QA devices assigned to the project
• Vendor Resources tab: BrightFrame design team members assigned to the MCG account, their roles, and points of contact
• Access and Credentials tab: Systems each resource has access to (CMS, project management tool, GitHub repository, staging environment, communication platforms)

The six team members: Alex Morgan (PM, 100% allocation, Austin TX), UX Designer (80%, remote — Portland OR), Lead Developer (100%, remote — Chicago IL), Content Specialist (75%, hybrid — Austin TX), QA Analyst (60%, remote — Denver CO), Data Migration Specialist (50%, remote — Atlanta GA).

How Alex Morgan Used This Resource Assignments Document

Alex Morgan completed the resource assignments matrix during Week 1 planning, immediately after the project charter was signed. Three decisions from the assignments document shaped the project's execution:

• Partial allocations required explicit scheduling: The QA Analyst (60%) and Data Migration Specialist (50%) had commitments to other projects. Alex built their Project Phoenix work packages around their available days, front-loading QA participation in test planning (Weeks 3–4) and back-loading the data migration specialist's peak effort in Weeks 8–10 when the content migration work began.
• Virtual team onboarding: Four of six team members were fully remote. Alex used the Access and Credentials tab as a first-day onboarding checklist — every resource confirmed access to all systems before Week 1 ended. ISS-001 (BrightFrame missed the design brief meeting) was partly attributed to a communication platform access gap that this checklist later caught for future vendors.
• ISS-004 contingency: When the Content Specialist went out sick in Week 7 (ISS-004), the resource assignments matrix showed exactly which other team members had capacity that week. Alex redistributed two content-light tasks to the UX Designer (who had 20% slack that week) and absorbed the rest into the following week without a critical path impact.

Download and Customize

This Physical/Virtual Resource Assignments example is available as a free download. Use it as a reference to build your own resource assignments matrix, or start with the blank template and customize it for your team structure.

• Download the Resource Assignments Template — PMBOK 8 (blank, ready to use)
• Read the article: Physical/Virtual Resource Assignments in PMBOK 8 — Guide and Best Practices

Physical/Virtual Resource Assignments Example: Key Takeaways

The Project Phoenix Resource Assignments document illustrates a frequently overlooked truth: partial allocations are the leading source of unplanned schedule risk in professional services projects. The QA Analyst was allocated at 60% — which is perfectly workable if planned explicitly, as Alex did. But teams that record part-time resources as "available as needed" discover in Week 8 that the QA Analyst is committed elsewhere and cannot ramp up for the testing sprint. The Resource Assignments matrix eliminates that surprise by making every allocation explicit, time-bounded, and cross-referenced with the schedule from Day 1.

Want to go deeper? The PMBOK Guide 8th Edition is the definitive reference for modern project management. Get your copy and use it alongside these examples to build a solid, practical understanding of every performance domain.