Resource planning

There are two aspects to scheduling time, namely duration and capacity. As a service provider you often have several projects running simultaneously. You also have resources (employees) from different departments, positions and skill sets. That is a lot to take into account. That is why good resource planning is essential.

Scheduling time?

The duration is the length of an activity, but alone it says nothing about the required capacity in working hours to carry out the activity. An activity can only last five days, while you need 160 hours of capacity.

Scheduling the duration is useful for projects that last longer than four weeks, with multiple activities and involved employees. However, for smaller assignments you can skip this and immediately make a capacity planning.

Scheduling duration

You will first unravel your project into activities. Then you schedule the duration. You also determine the start and end date for each activity and any dependencies with other activities.

You schedule the duration in Timewax with the Gantt Chart. This feature creates a visual representation of your project, making it perfect as a communication tool for your client and the project team.

Capacity planning

Subsequently, during the capacity planning, the employees are scheduled to carry out the activity. Based on a possible Gantt Chart and the required working hours, one or more resources are scheduled.

You make the capacity planning in Timewax with the Planning Board. With this feature you keep a good overview of the availability, so you can easily drag employees to projects.

And now the Achilles heel

And what if you now have ten projects, each with fifteen activities and interdependencies? In addition, you deploy multiple resources with different skills. And they also work on several projects at the same time.

That’s where it goes wrong. The Gantt Chart method does not provide an overarching resource overview, because it only looks at the planning of one project at a time. You miss a total overview of resources. This is the Achilles heel.

Fully automatic

"Transferring the schedule to the employees' calendars is now fully automatic and that saves a lot of time”

Olaf van der Sanden | Xibis

PROJECT TEAM MANAGER

Resource planning is key

The total workable hours are determined by setting contract hours per employee and the general holidays. In addition to projects, periodic activities and absences (e.g. holidays) are also scheduled.

This gives you a total overview of the availability. In Timewax this is done with the Utilization feature. Here you analyze the productivity of your organization by department, position and skills.

To measure is to know

It is important that your organization continues to improve. So it is key that you analyze the actual performance of your projects. In Timewax, you do this with our Analytics feature that let’s you focus on key metrics to gain insight.

Looking only at the past is usually not enough, looking into the future is also important. Because what about the utilization? Is there still enough work or do additional projects need to be acquired, so that the pipeline remains full?