5 Essential Insights for Maximizing Resource Capacity

| 1 | Five Essential Insights for Maximizing Resource Capacity

Five Essential Insights

for Maximizing

Resource Capacity

Jerry Manas

Author, The Resource Management

and Capacity Planning Handbook


Presenter

Jerry Manas Author of the new book, The Resource Management and

Capacity Planning Handbook, and the bestsellers Napoleon

on Project Management and Managing the Gray Areas.

Work highlighted in the Houston Chronicle, National Post,

Globe and Mail, Huffington Post, Chicago Sun Times, and

others.

Founder/President, The Marengo Group

Twitter: @jerrymanas


The Resource Dilemma

Demand


You’re gonnaneed a bigger

boat.



How Do You Maximize Your Resources to Achieve

Your Organizational Goals?


“Vision without Execution

is Hallucination.”~ Thomas Edison


Introducing: A New Book and A New Comprehensive Study

Study sponsored by Planview and conducted by Appleseed Partners


Benchmark Data & Maturity Paths

Case studies

Tools for overcoming common barriers and

making decisions involving: Time capture

Resource assignments

Competing priorities

Recommendations on ownership of the RM &

CP functions

Considerations for addressing the human side of

resource management

A powerful framework for success


2014 Resource Management and Capacity Planning Study

Research Background

2014 State of Resource Management and

Capacity Planning

480 Global Participants from Professional

Services, Product Development, IT, Enterprise

PMOs etc.

Ranked RM and CP on a maturity model from low

to high maturity

Top pain points, risks and several factors

More info and reports at: rmcp.planview.com


First, Some Definitions


Assignment

Tactical

Execution/Operations

The ongoing assignment and maintenance of organizational

resources as part of project operations and execution

Resource Management

Strategic

Planning

Assessment

The assessment of available capacity during the demand prioritization and selection

processes

Capacity Planning


New Investment

Classify, Scope and Size the Investment

Submit Investment for Investment Approval

Receive Investment into Portfolio

Rank and Prioritize Investment in Portfolio

Accept/Reject/Hold

Deliver the Investment

Wait

Investment Planning & Governance

Intake

ExecutionCapacity Planning

(Project) Execution Lifecycle Resource

Assignments

Resource Management & Capacity Planning in Context


The Relevant Questions

• Capacity Planning asks: Do we have the

capacity to achieve our organizational

goals, and if not, are we rationally adding

capacity?

• Resource Management asks: How can

we ensure the right people are assigned to

the right projects at the right time?

?


Distinct, but Interrelated and Interdependent

Resource Management & Capacity Planning are the nucleus for balancing demand and capacity.

DEMAND

CAPACITY


Driving Maturity: From Chaos to Control

Chapter 2: From Chaos to Control

Resource Executors

Aspiring Planners

Capacity Masters


Top Resource Management Pain Points by Maturity

What are YOUR pain points?


Top Capacity Planning Pain Points by Maturity

What are YOUR pain points?


Business Risks of NOT Addressing Resource

Management and Capacity Planning


What Maturity Looks Like“We’ve made a 100% improvement… We now have a holistic view of all of our IT resources and visibility into our pipeline, allocations and overallocations.

This is the first time our COO actually cut projects due to early visibility on capacity issues. Two years ago we knew we had too much work, our spreadsheets were always out of date, and our data existed in silos.

The quality of data has made the difference. Quantitative numbers are hard to argue, and we’re using the data to make decisions.”

– Manager of IT Project Delivery and Quality Assurance, National Health Insurance Provider


Top 5 Practices of the Top Performers

1. Holistic view into

BOTH pipeline demand and

resource capacity

2. Put resource management

function in place

3. Stop relying on spreadsheets and use the

right software

4. Conduct

continuous, iterative capacity

planning

5. Granular and

multi-dimensional for

planning and assignments


1. Have a Holistic View into both Pipeline Demand and

Resource Capacity


A Holistic View Provides Visibility

PIPELINE DEMAND• Priorities• Costs• Rank• Etc.

RESOURCE CAPACITY• Roles• Resource

Type/Skills• Outsource/FTE

To make demand decisions with capacity in mind

Chapter 8: The Capacity Quadrant

Into BOTH pipeline demand and resource capacity


Broadening Your View

Demand Capacity


Demand Capacity



Demand Capacity



Do you feel lucky?


2. Put Resource Management Functions in Place

• 30% more likely to put a key role in place for resource

management and to have that role be a champion for the

processes and tools used for the function.

“Exec leadership direction is key. We’ve been at PMO creation and administration for years and we have had starts and stops for years, but until we got executive support from the top down, we didn’t see any movement and activity. Now we are able to move the business units that once operated as separate ‘kingdoms’ all in the same direction, and they are excited about it.”

- Project Manager, PMO, Global Manufacturer


Ownership of the Resource Management and

Capacity Planning Process

Define Process & Maturity Path

Facilitate Data Building

Gain Management

Buy-In

Recommend Sourcing

Strategies

Report on Capacity &

Demand

Monitor Adoption

Chapter 5: Who’s in Charge Here? Ownership of the Process


3. Stop Relying on Spreadsheets and Use the Right

Software


Common Barriers a PPM Tool Can Help

Address

Time Tracking (Actuals)

Resource Assignments (Forecast)

Competing Silos (Integrated Data for Tradeoff Decisions Regarding Shared Resources)


Enabling Time Tracking & Resource Assignments

Phase level RESERVES? Role-based REQUIREMENTS? Task level ALLOCATIONS?

Decisions to Make:

Chapter 2: From Chaos to Control

What are we trying to accomplish in terms of REPORTING? What DECISIONS do we hope to enable? Do we need ACTUALS or is Forecast enough?

FIRST… Ask:


The Power of Integrated Software

Prioritized Demand

True Capacity & Planned Demand

Scenarios


4. Conduct Continuous, Iterative Capacity Planning


New Investment

Classify, Scope and Size the Investment

Submit Investment for Investment Approval

Receive Investment into Portfolio

Rank and Prioritize Investment in Portfolio

Accept/Reject/Hold

Deliver the Investment

Wait

Investment Planning & Governance

Intake

ExecutionCapacity Planning

(Project) Execution Lifecycle Resource

Assignments

Resource Management & Capacity Planning in Context


Top Down Capacity Planning

Chapter 8: The Capacity Quadrant


Bottom-Up Capacity Planning


Layers of Governance

Level 1: Executive Council

Level 2: Governance Council

Level 3: Steering Teams & Program Boards

Level 4: Advisory Councils & SIGs

Are we leveraging our valuable resources toward the most important work?


5. Get Granular and Multi-Dimensional in Planning

Role Skill Proficiency level In-house vs. contractor Cost center Etc.


Case Study*: Granular visibility into capacity enables creative staffing from within to take on an important new project

At a planning meeting, all PMs were booked, so an important new project couldn’t be initiated.

The availability information was backed up by reliable data from allocations.

Data showed that several Business Analysts with the right skills were available for several months out.

After interviewing them, one was selected for a project management career path and was given this project.

“You couldn’t do that

on the fly without a

good system and

good data.”

- Larry Stanton, PMO

Manager

Top Business Risks:

• Inability to staff important projects

• Lost opportunities

• Project delays

Top Pain Points:

• Poor visibility into resource

availability

• Low granularity of information


Key Takeaways – 5 Insights

1. Holistic view into BOTH pipeline demand and

resource capacity

2. Resource management function to drive the

process

3. Avoid spreadsheets. You need integrated data.

4. Iterative and continuous capacity planning – at

least monthly

5. Granular and multi-dimensional in capacity

planning


“Intelligence is the ability

to adapt to change.”~ Stephen Hawking


For More Information

rmcp.planview.com [email protected]

Twitter: @jerrymanas

Leadership & Management

5 Essential Insights for Maximizing Resource Capacity