Plan People Numbers
Planning for ‘just enough people’ can be so hard that many enterprises ignore, struggle or avoid doing it. Why?
There are many reasons. In volatile project environments, the future is hard to predict, Capability Planning is multi-faceted and, unsurprisingly, the people numbers become very complex. Furthermore, as time shrinks options, an enterprise’s fate becomes sealed. The result? Enterprises often over work or under utilise people and risk late delivery, poor product and an unhappy workforce.
This is exactly where RESRODEL comes to the rescue.
Using Demand and Capacity modules to produce Capability analysis, RESRODEL maximises outcomes by ensuring you have the right number of people assigned to the projects across your entire enterprise.
Capability Planning
- Aims to match future Demand to Capacity within an acceptable tolerance for every Role.
- Is the enterprise’s responsibility, not the projects’, as the pool of resources and their assignment can only be arranged by the enterprise as recruiting and function groups. (Rarely is this the Project Manager’s remit.)
- Capability Planning is a subset of conventional ‘resource management’ or ‘workforce planning’ purposes.
Capability is
- The ability to deliver future obligations, or upcoming opportunities.
- Derived from the difference between Demand and Capacity, for each Role.
The problems
Planning for ‘just enough enough people’ in a moderately sized enterprise can be so challenging that many just don’t try. Rather than use a robust quantitative analysis, they rely on the vagaries of intuition and experience. WHY?
1. Demand
It’s difficult to predict when estimates or updates:
- Come from project teams.
- Are collated by the enterprise.
- Become volatile as projects are won, re-prioritised or delayed.
- Require sufficient accuracy and consistency.
2. Capacity
It’s difficult to predict capacity when estimates or updates are uncertain due to:
- People’s leave and departures
- Many internal, external and dispersed resources
3. Complexity
Even though their comparison appears trivial, the creation of enterprise-wide Demand and Capacity profiles is highly complex.
4. Change
We work in a world of constant change that is tedious to accommodate.
5. Capability
Depending on who is asking, capability answers are multifaceted.
6. Time
Management’s options for intervening in Demand or Capacity shrink as the planning horizon approaches, because it takes time to:
- Recruit new people. Or let them go
- Commence new projects
And so enterprises face a problem. Conversely, too many people and the enterprise can face poor utilisation and financial performance.
To justify increasing people numbers or work, it’s essential that enterprises employ a robust method for Capability Planning.
Our Solutions
This apparently complex challenge becomes quite straight-forward thanks to six key features of RESRODEL:
1. Effort Management
The process is simple to navigate
2. Demand Estimation
The module has multiple methods to tally into a single source of truth
3. Capacity Prediction
The module tallies everyone’s varying availability
4. Integration
The system works seamlessly with existing schedules and people data
5. Capability Analysis
The process confirms ability to deliver with:
- Decision ready answers in table and chart format
- Self-select data
- Root cause traceability
- Opportunity identification
6. Superior UX
The interface makes it easy for everyone to contribute or get the answers they need
Capability Planning must be an enterprise’s priority in the management of effort. Having the right number of people is the primary way to maximise Enterprise and Project outcomes. Allocating people then becomes the subsequent priority.