Portfolio resource planning is an integral part of the portfolio management process (PPM). Resource planning is known by different names such as demand planning and capacity planning. Resource Planning is a process to forecast, plan and allocate resources work within the organization. 



The portfolio resource planning process

The main activities involved in resources planning are:


  • Create an inventory of the skills and resources you have available (also known as supply).


  • Hold a repository of approved projects and those seeking approval (also known as demand).


  • Forecast the resource needs for the projects. Forecasts are normally based on role requirements as opposed to the requirements for individual resources and are typically high level (i.e. not decomposed to task level).


  • Balance the demand for resources vs the supply of resources. Strategies for balancing supply vs demand include:
    • Adjusting the priority of projects.
    • Deferring or cancelling lower priority projects.
    • Increasing or decreasing headcount.
    • Adjusting when work is scheduled for.



Portfolio resource planning in Kelloo


Define your resource supply

First start by creating an inventory of your resources - in Kelloo we call this the resource pool. Resources can be defined as either individual resources (i.e. Sarah and Bob) or as resource groups. If you have a lot of resources it can be quicker to define a group as all you need to tell Kelloo is how many people are in the group as opposed to having to list each individually. For each resource you assign a role. The role is what the resource does for your organization (i.e. engineer or project manager). 


This article explains how to create resources in Kelloo.



#1 Add your projects to the plan

Now add work to the resource plan and organize them by priority. Organizing projects by priority means you can allocate resources to the highest value projects to your organization. Any projects that you must do (for example regulatory projects) would normally be placed with a high priority also.


Projects can be scheduled as agile work in which case sprints and story points can be assigned.


#2 Enter the resource requirements for your work

For each project assign the type of resources required and how much work is required. 


#3 Use the cut off line

Not all projects in your plan will be approved. So use the cut off line and drag unapproved projects below the cut off line. They will still remain in your plan but will not be included in resource calculations.


#4 Schedule your work

Schedule each piece of work based on when you would like it to happen. 


#5 Identify projects you do not have sufficient resource to do

It is unlikely you will have sufficient resource to do all the projects you want to do, so Kelloo displays over-allocation warnings for projects that have over allocated resources. 


If a project or resource assignment shows an allocation warning you do not have sufficient resources to do the work. You should consider adding additional resource, re-scheduling higher priority work or re-prioritizing work. 


#6 Identify over allocated resources

Understanding which projects have over allocated resources is only part of the resource planning puzzle. You also need to understand which resources (or roles) are over allocated. Use the resource status window, to identify which resources are causing the over allocation problems.


#7 Capacity planning and scenario planning

Use capacity planning and scenario planning to model how changes to your resources and your plan will impact your schedule.