Hi folks,

As we're ironing out design issues around how to handle workweek exceptions unique to a user (think vacations or jury duty or even training seminars), we've come across a fork in the road, for which I'd be interested in hearing some perspectives.

If you are a resource manager, responsible for monitoring the capacity and allocations for your resources, would you handle vacations differently from time spent on non-project related work?

To clarify, time spent on non-project work is tracked as a type of allocation. If Joe has 40 hours available in a week, and 8 of it is spent on meetings, his capacity is still 40hrs and allocation to meetings is 8hrs.

On the other hand, what if Joe left the office for a day on PTO? Is his capacity still 40hrs or 32hrs? and if it's 40hrs,  would you want to see 8 hours allocated to a workweek exception called "PTO"? Or, is his capacity 32hrs, and all 32 of his hours were utilized on projects showing 100% utilization for projects. On the other hand, if his capacity stays at 40hrs, and 8 hrs is spent out of the office on PTO, his project utilization would be 80% and his PTO utilization would be 20%.

If his PTO is decremented from his 40 hrs, to result in 32hrs of capacity, then that's where the visibility ends. However, if the 8hrs of his PTO showed up on his timesheet, and he recorded 8 hrs of his time as PTO for that day, then that data would be available for timesheet reports, etc.

In capacity planning, net availability determines how much time a resource has available for new work, not starting capacity. Generally starting capacity is determined by the workweek calendar. Is it better to say starting capacity is determined by the workweek calendar minus workweek exceptions, then compared to project work and non-project related work to determine utilization, or is starting capacity determined by the workweek calendar, then compared to actual time spent on project work, non-project work, AND workweek exceptions to determine resource utilization between those three types of time allocations?

To summarize:

Option 1)
capacity = (workweek calendar) - (workweek exceptions)
utilization(projects)  = ((actual time spent on project/non-project work) / capacity ) x 100
utilization(non-projects) = ((actual time spent on non-projects) / capacity ) x 100
utilization(total) = utilization(projects) + utilization(non-projects)

Option 2)
capacity = (workweek calendar)
utilization(projects) = ((actual time spent on projects) / capacity ) x 100
utilization(non-projects) = ((actual time spent on non-projects) / capacity ) x 100
utilization(workweek exceptions) = ((actual time spent on workweek exceptions) / capacity ) x 100
utilization(total) = utilization(projects) + utilization(non-projects) + utilization(workweek exceptions)


If anyone reading has any strong opinions one way or another, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks.

I've worked with a couple of organizations to implement solutions similar to what you are working on.  The quick answer is that 40 hours per week is the capacity of a regular week.  The 8 hours for PTO should be captured on the timesheet.

This approach provides a couple of benefits:

1. It is easy to create an exception reports to see if someone forgot to enter their time for the week.  Anything less than 40 should be scrutinized.

2. Just as you described, you now have insight / record of PTO time taken by individual.

Hope this helps!

JBlack  www.pmconnection.com

 

Hi JBlack,

I definitely agree with you. This isn't just a question of implementation, but of methodology. Personal workweek exceptions (PTO, vacation, whatever) should not affect the resource's starting capacity. I think once starting capacity is established by the workweek calendar (the basis of a resource's availability), then the utilization of their capacity should be tracked so resource managers can aggregate utilization data and determine how that person's time is being utilized.

The benefit of tracking personal workweek exceptions in our product via timesheets is that although the resource manager may approve the workweek exception, and even allocate that resource to that specific exception (e.g. PTO), it is up to that resource to report that he actually took that PTO on his timesheet, in line with tracking how he spent his time via other activities during that week.

Thanks for your input. I'd love to hear any counter-points if anyone has them.

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