Best Practices for Resource Prediction

[SupriyaPa]

We are planning on using the tool for capacity planning. I wanted to gather some of the best practices which people are using. Do all of your tasks have resources assigned? Do all of your tasks have actual hours entered. etc. Want to know what are the tools limitations and some of the cons/pros.

[EricLu2]

Hi - I gave a presentation at the latest LEAP conference on this very topic. Please consider my presentation (attached). Let me know if you have any specific questions. Thanks! Eric

[SupriyaPa]

Thanks Eric, this helps. We are at very beginning when it comes to assigning tasks to roles and people, so need to clean up the data first.

[EricLu2]

Hi: You are right, you’ll need to clean up data now, and every week thereafter before you run the capacity planner or user utilization. Let me know what other questions you might have! Thanks, Eric

[AnthonyIm]

I saw Eric's presentation at LEAP. It was really good. Like Eric says, the big thing is to make sure the data is current before you make any decisions. We created a 'Double Check' dashboard that has different report widgets that the offices have to go through first before they run their capacity planning report. At first there was a lot of resistance, but we have gotten to the point where they are into it. They see know not only are things good for capacity planning but other reports in the system are much better because the correct settings are entered on a project. Just keep tell them about the benefits and they will eventually be won over. (It also helps to have a great Executive Sponsor who will tell them "You have to do this" too. ;) )

[KarenRu]

Hi Anthony, Any chance you can share the double check dashboard? curious what you look for to ensure the capacity planner is accurate? tks! Karen

[AnthonyIm]

I was going to attach a cool screenshot of all of them but my screenshot tool isn’t working correctly. :( Anyways, first, I should tell you we technically have three Double Check Dashboards: My Projects, This Portfolio’s Projects, and the Agency’s Project (which is the Group in Workfront). Hopefully between the PMs, Brand Managers, and Local Agency Super Users, someone is updating messed up projects. The reports/widgets on the dashboard: My Projects That Are Behind or Late {Time lines might need to be adjusted so that capacity planning is correct} My Projects Without A Portfolio My Projects Without the [Local Office] Schedule My Projects Without the [Local Office] Custom Form My Projects Missing A Job Number {We have an integration with our financial system} My Projects Without A Resource Pool Tasks Without Assignments {Job Role or User} On Projects I Own That Aren’t Milestones {We have a custom form to dictate a Milestone} Tasks Without Planned Hours On Projects I Own That Aren’t Milestones Are These Projects Still In Planning or On Hold? Should These Projects Be Completed? {For projects that are still Current but are 100% complete} We have the same type of reports for Portfolios and Group just with little tweaks in the filter and in Groupings (we group by Project Owner for those Dashboards)

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Anthony, that sounds like an awesome dashboard. Once your screen capture is working again, please do provide the picture to go with your 1000 words (1107, to be precise)! Regards, Doug

[KarenRu]

Awesome Anthony - this is superhelpful! Would love to see the fancy screen grab when your tool is up and running! thanks :) Karen

[EricLu2]

Like Anthony, we have a "Project Quality" dashboard. It has the following reports: Missed Promises - if the planned completion date is greater than a custom attribute called "Promise Date", it is highlighted in this report; Past Due Tasks; Planned Completion Date not equal to the Commit Date; Actual Hours charged to a task but the task percent complete is zero; Task percent complete is non-zero, but there are no actual hours charged to the task; The actual hours charged to a task are greater than the planned hours; Tasks that are assigned to users with an IS ACTIVE status of NO (they are deactivated); Actual hours charged to a task whose number of children is greater than zero (we don't allow time to be charged to parent tasks); We have some roles that we don't plan hours for - like third party consultants, who are forecast as an expense and don't complete a timesheet. We look for planned hours assigned to those roles that should not have planned hours; Those tasks where the planned start date is less than today, and there is no user assigned to the task. We require that all tasks have a user assigned to them before they start; Tasks missing our GL charge-back string; I add to this dashboard as I discover other issues. If you'd like more information about any individual report, let me know. Eric

[BrianFe1]

I'm looking for a way to plan out or "reserve" time for the PM role past the planning phase so it is represented in the capacity planner. How does everyone set aside time for the PM role througout the other phases of a project?

[AnthonyIm]

Hi Brian, It depends on the client. Some don't really want a PM on the project. For those, we just add the PM to tasks where they actually do something (i.e. Kick-off Meetings, Internal Reviews, etc.) If the client wants a PM on the project, we normally have a task at the bottom of the proejct schedule that spans the whole length of the project with their lump of hours. We are really looking forward to resource contouring so that we can adjust hours for those "tasks" so they are a little more realistic with what the PM is doing for that proejct.